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I Said Israel Should Be Ashamed about Gaza - I Was Wrong

(Jewish Chronicle-UK) Daniel Sugarman - A few days ago I wrote a column about the latest round of violence on the border with Gaza. Seeing happy faces in Jerusalem on the television side-by-side with tear gas, smoke and bullets, I wrote, "You cannot tell me that Israel, a land of technological miracles...is incapable of coming up with a way of incapacitating protestors that does not include gunning dozens of them down." People pointed out that it was absurd to deal in hypotheticals. Saying that surely there must be another way the protestors could be stopped was a cry of anguish, but it was not an argument. If no such technology currently exists, then it was absurd of me to blame the IDF for not magically willing it into existence. I had fallen into the trap I had always been convinced I would not fall into. I had condemned Israel for defending itself. Shoot at those charging at you and Hamas would have its martyrs. Fail to shoot and Hamas would break through the barrier and bring suffering and death - its stated aim - to Israelis living only a few hundred meters away. The choice was, quite literally, shoot at people running at you with the stated aim of killing you and your families, or fail to shoot and let them do it.
2018-05-18 00:00:00
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