Colonel Richard Kemp Defends Israel’s Military Response
Former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, Colonel Richard Kemp, explains the concept of proportionality in war and how the term is being misused to criticize Israel.Colonel Richard Kemp debunks "Disproportional Response"
A common criticism made against Israel is that during last year’s war against Hamas in a battle known as Operation Protective Edge, the Israeli military used “disproportionate response.”. During the war, Hamas fired thousands of rockets at civilian targets mainly in Israel. Despite their best efforts to kill and maim innocent civilians, Israeli casualties were minimal. In response, and in accordance with international law, Israel fired at military targets in Gaza, killing a large number of terrorists. It is important to note that Israel took extraordinary measures to protect innocent lives in Gaza by dropping leaflets, phoning residents and sending warnings to civilians before attacking a Hamas target.
Hamas committed a double war crime: they fired from behind innocent Palestinian civilians while firing indiscriminately at innocent Israeli civilians. By doing so, they were directly responsible for the deaths of innocent Gazan and Israeli civilians. Because of Hamas’ war crimes, numerous innocent Palestinians were killed. Many human rights activists and governments pointed to the number of killed on each side and came to the mistaken and wrongful conclusion that the higher number of deaths on the Palestinian side meant Israel was using disproportionate force in Gaza. In fact, this is not true at all. And according to Colonel Kemp, this is not how one measures disproportionate response.
Caroline Glick: Annex Judea and Samaria Now
Journalist and writer Caroline Glick, author of the book "The Israeli Solution: A One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East", says Israel should annex Judea and Samaria now, in response to President Barack Obama’s statements that the United States will “re-evaluate” its support for Israel at the United Nations.Caroline Glick: Annex Judea and Samaria Now - in Wake of US Policy
Seeing as Obama is planning to change American policy and “force Israel into completely indefensible borders”, Glick told Arutz Sheva, “the time has come for Israel to come out with an alternative policy, and the alternative policy that we have to put out is applying Israeli law and sovereignty to Judea and Samaria”.
“The question couldn’t be more urgent,” said Glick, whose book deals with this very issue and of which a Hebrew edition was recently published.
“The government has got to put forward a new policy regarding the Palestinians,” she continued. “The two states failed, we all know it, [and] we can’t resurrect it because it wasn’t we that made it fail.”
“The world doesn’t like us now,” Glick pointed out when asked about the world’s reaction if Israel does indeed annex Judea and Samaria. “We’re in a situation now where all the things they said will happen to us if we do X, Y, or Z are happening to us now when we’re saying, ‘No, no, no, we’ll support the establishment of a Palestinian state in Israel’s heartland.”
An-Najah Poll: 73.5%:18.4% Palestinians support armed intifada, 46.2% of Gazans want to emigrate
Submit a petition to the UN to recognize a Palestinian state on the 1967
borders.
Yes 72.2 No 22.1 DK 5.2
Start nonviolent and unarmed popular resistance
Yes 38.8 No 54.3 DK 6.9
Call for a one-state solution – a state for both Israelis and Palestinians
Yes 56.6 No 35.8 DK 7.6
Dissolve the PA.
Yes 22.7 No 71.0 DK 6.3
Recourse to the International Criminal Court
Yes 32.2 No 59.3 DK 8.5
Start a new armed intifada (uprising) and confrontations with the Israelis.
Yes 73.5 No 18.4 DK 8.2 (h/t Bob Knot)