The Daily Telegraph suggests that yesterday’s incident where Palestinian human shields forced Israel to abort an air strike on the home of a Popular Resistance Committee commander may be a watershed:
New options are clearly needed, as Palestinian and Israeli tactics in Gaza appear to be bringing neither side any success.
While Israel continues to launch airstrikes and occasional ground incursions into Gaza to stop Palestinians launching missiles, the qassams keep flying.
At the same time, those qassams – launched at random into civilian towns – bring nothing to ordinary Palestinians but the certainty of a powerful Israeli response.
That explains why Palestinians yesterday celebrated their human shield as a rare double victory – the tactic forced an Israeli rethink and no one died either.
This non-violent Palestinian tactic only works because of Israel’s respect for human life. The presence of civilians in Sderot certainly hasn’t deterred the rocket fire. Would the Palestinians have greater respect for human shields protecting Sderot?
UPDATE Nov. 21: Who doesn’t appreciate the irony of this Reuters report? Rockets landed a few hundred yards from UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, who was visiting Sderot. At least one Israeli was critically injured.
