Gaza - this is who we are.

“War is chaos and full of mistakes. But mistakes are not war crimes” 

[Col. Richard Kemp, Geneva 2009. UN debate on Goldstone findings]

If we were Britain which bombed the German city of Dresden killing 25,000 people in two days, we could have silenced the Hamas rockets in the same two days without loss on our side.

If we were NATO which bombed Serbia and its capital Belgrade, killing 2,000 civilians and destroying 300 schools libraries and 20 hospitals, we could have been finished in Gaza within a week without committing ground troops.

If we were Russia which bombed Chechnya and its capital Grozny, with civilian deaths never officially revealed, we could have stopped the rockets within a few days without loss of a single soldier.

If we were the USA which nuked two Japanese cities vaporizing nearly 250,000 people, we could have ended the Hamas rocket fire within an hour, without burying a single one of our boys.

But we are not any of the above.

We are the people of the book.

It is not in our nature or our DNA to indiscriminately bomb any city, even when our own families are under fire.

The only moral option against an enemy hiding behind and under civilians was to send in our boys to closely check targets and risk their lives to enter booby-trapped buildings and tunnel entrances.

By dropping warning leaflets as well as phoning and texting thousands of warnings, our army gave up its most valuable tactical weapon: the element of surprise.

For this morality in war – truly unmatched by ANY army in the history of military conflict – we are now burying our 56th soldier.

May the Almighty grant comfort to their grieving and yet immensely proud families.

עם ישראל חי – לנצח