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Thursday, June 15, 2006

The BBC discovers the rocket threat - to a point

The BBC has an unusually sympathetic article about the threat to Israel from rockets. One of the illustrations shows the range of Palestinian Arab rockets from Gaza (older Kassams, newer Kassams and Katyushas):


Even with this article, the BBC falls short of telling the whole story:

What would happen if Israel would go back to the Green Line in the West Bank?

Let's look at a map I made based on this BBC map:

That's right - essentially all of the populated areas of Israel are in range of Katyushas from the West Bank, Gaza and Lebanon.

So while the BBC at least began to inform its readers of the threat that their "Goliath" is under, it just couldn't quite take the next step and describe how life would be if Israel did what the BBC and most of the world has been pushing it to do.

It is easy to sit in the UK or in the US where you are thousands of miles from any real threat to your citizens and say that Israel should give back its only slight strategic advantage in its war with the combined Arab nations, but Israel doesn't have two oceans or an entire continent as a buffer. Defending against an enemy that is within walking distance from you is a little different from one that is far away.