KARLEE LICHTENSTEIN

Israel has right to protect its citizens

By:

Posted: 1/13/09

I am the president of Dawgs for Israel, the University's pro-Israel group.

After reading the biased articles concerning Israel printed in Monday's paper, I feel it is important to share some relevant facts with the campus.

In 2005, in an effort for peace, Israel voluntarily withdrew from the Gaza Strip, disrupting the lives of many Israeli civilians who lived there, so that Gaza would be completely free of any Israeli presence.

Instead of using this opportunity to cultivate the land and build a prosperous society, Hamas has used the land to create violence.

Since 2005, more than 6,300 rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israel, aimed completely at Israeli civilians, forcing citizens of Southern Israel to live in constant fear.

When Hamas fires rockets, Israeli citizens hear an alarm and have only 15 seconds to get into a bomb shelter.

Even more, the rockets are becoming more high-tech and can reach longer ranges. Beersheba, one of Southern Israel's biggest cities, is now in rocket range, and has been fired on in recent days, and with the increasing technology, more and more cities and innocent people will be in range.

When Hamas refused to renew or honor a cease-fire agreement, with which Israel had complied, and continued to fire rockets at the civilian population, Israel had no choice but to retaliate and protect its citizens. Israel's military goal is simple: to stop Hamas from constantly attacking innocent Israeli civilians.

While the Israeli military targets Hamas officials, Hamas aims for civilian deaths, both Israeli and Palestinian.

Israel sends warnings via leaflets, text messages and radio messages to alert Palestinians where and when attacks will take place to give civilians time to leave these areas.

Hamas not only aims to kill innocent Israeli citizens, but also uses its own citizens as human shields.

Hamas officials hide out under Shifa hospital, Gaza's largest hospital, as well as in schools and UN centers and fire rockets from these locations, because they know Israel does not want civilian casualties.

Israel puts its own soldiers at risks trying to prevent Palestinian civilian casualties while Hamas purposefully puts their citizens in harm's way, such as putting children on the front lines.

Israel stops attacks for hours daily to send humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians, while Hamas has not once stopped their relentless rocket attacks in the past seven years.

Israel is trying to treat this difficult situation with as much respect for human life as is possible, while Hamas purposefully stations its officials amidst innocent people, yet The Red & Black editorial board said Israel is committing "genocide-like attacks in Palestine."

This could not be further from the truth.

Israel needs to defend itself and has the right to do so.

It has the responsibility to its citizens to put an end to the rockets.

If rockets were constantly being fired into America, the U.S. government would rightfully protect its citizens and do everything to stop the rockets, as would any other country.

Israel has the responsibility to its citizens to put an end to the rockets.

President Bush, President-elect Obama, along with almost 400 other U.S. government officials have given their support to Israel's right to defend itself because every country's first priority is to ensure its citizens' safety, which is what Israel is trying to do.

There is a solution to ending this - Hamas must stop firing rockets and killing innocent civilians. Israelis know just as well as Palestinians that humans cannot live freely in fear.

Although the unintentional deaths of Palestinian civilians are unfortunate and regrettable, Israel cannot continue to tolerate Hamas' disregard for innocent human life, be it Israeli or Palestinian, and its incessant attempts to kill innocent Israeli civilians.

- Karlee Lichtenstein is a sophomore from Bethesda, Md. majoring in international affairs. She is the president of Dawgs for Israel.