Civilian Casualties in Gaza

According to the mainstream media, international outcry is growing in response to Israel's actions in Gaza. I'm confident that I am being conservative when I say that statement should probably be qualified as "Liberal" outcry.

If one takes an honest look at what has transpired, Israel’s reaction is measured and reasonable. Consider that Gaza’s elected leadership has been overthrown and taken over by Hamas, a known terrorist organization. Since that time, Israeli soldiers have been kidnapped, taken into Gaza by way of secret cross-border tunnels, tortured and killed and/or imprisoned. Hamas has a history of firing rockets across the border into Israeli civilian targets and has done so steadily in the past few weeks. Israel has been under attack by an aggressor who's stated purpose is the utter decimation of Israel itself.

In response, Israel has flattened every known Hamas hideout and every Hamas weapons cache it can find. The problem is that what Hamas lacks in military might, they make up for in public relations savvy. Hamas, you see, has hidden their weapons and their leaders in mosques, private homes and schools. Israel, if they want to eliminate the threat against their citizens, is faced with targeting locations the destruction of which makes them look heartless, cruel or incompetent in the eyes of the international public (or, at least, the press).

In the past Israel has backed off of similar campaigns in response to this “outcry”. The result has been to embolden Hamas and allow continued terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens. Clearly Israel has reached the more than logical end of their diplomatic patience. What Israel seems to recognize that the media does not is that Hamas’ placement of civilians around strategic targets is a weapon in itself. As horrible as it is to see women and children injured and killed, it is not a result of recklessness or disregard on the part of Israel. It is, in fact, evidence of the heartlessness of the Hamas leadership who have, by design, placed the citizens of Gaza in that position. Human pawns in a game of terrorist, Muslim extremist chicken.