EMET States That the War in Gaza with Hamas Ended in a Clear and Decisive Military Victory for Israel

(August 7th, 2014, Washington, DC) – Today, the Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET), stated that Israel’s “Operation Protective Edge” was a clear and decisive military victory for the State of Israel. The military wing of Gaza had clearly taken a huge blow, which led them to over-rule the directives of Khaled Mashal, head of Hamas’ political wing, who was against the cease-fire. Obviously, Hamas terrorists would not have agreed to the cease-fire if they did not feel defeated.

 

All of the objectives of “Operation Protective Edge” have been successfully achieved. The objectives were to destroy the 32 tunnels that Israel discovered and that were dug to burrow under Israeli communities and homes for terrorist attacks, to inflict maximal damage on Hamas’ ability to launch rockets into Israeli cities and communities, and to eliminate as many Hamas terrorists, whose sole aim is to eradicate the State of Israel, and Jews and Christians everywhere, possible.

The term “disproportionate force” has been entirely misused during the conflict. It is a military term which is defined as having the least amount of collateral damage necessary in order to achieve the military objective. In that regard, Israel’s response to the launching of more than 3,000 rockets into their communities was not at all disproportionate.

The cost of each Palestinian life, particularly that of the children, is very painful to the State of Israel, and that is why the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) had gone to great lengths to warn residents to evacuate areas when they had to target specific locations to destroy a tunnel or a missile launching site, which were embedded in residential homes, schools, hospitals and mosques. The cost to each Israeli citizen was very painful as well. Israel is an entire citizen army, and each of the fallen 64 members of the IDF could have been anyone’s son or father or brother.

The cost was well outweighed by the benefits of this war. Israel did not start this war. It started when more than 200 rockets were lobbed into Israeli communities by Hamas over the period of a few days. Israel had no choice and reluctantly but capably went into Gaza and did what any other nation would do: protect its civilian population. This, according to article 41 of the United Nations charter, is not only a right, but an obligation.

Says Sarah Stern, EMET founder and president, “Israel was brought reluctantly into this war, and had no choice but to fight it. The IDF did a superb job of executing the war and decisively won by any measurable objective. One look at a map reveals that Israel sits on the seam lines between Western civilization and the world of radical Islam. And one look at a newspaper reveals that radical Islam is the scourge that threatens all of Western civilization. So everyone in the free, Western world should be grateful to the young men and women of the IDF.”