Palestine, Texas op-ed: 'Israel should be able to fight back.' Croatian soccer player living in Israel: 'Time for Israel to hit back, hard.'
Excerpts from an op-ed in the Palestine Herald community newspaper in Palestine, Texas, by Wayne Stewart, entitled: Israel Should Be Able to Fight Back:
"If I throw a rock at a neighbor and hit them, I should have every right to expect them to come back and try and hit me with a stick. So I guess my question is, why do the Palestinians fire countless rockets at Israeli cities and then complain when Israel retaliates?... This current disaster being wrought on the Palestinian people is definitely one they brought upon themselves, yet they continue to rail against Israel because they dare to defend their homeland. Protests over Israel’s action are reaching a fever pitch in the West Bank, controlled by the so-called moderate faction of the Palestinian government and the moderate Abbas. Here, for example, is an example of Abbas being moderate. 'At present, I am against an armed struggle against Israel because we can’t do it, but in the coming stages, things may change. I do not rule out a return to the way of armed struggle against Israel,' Abbas said in the Jordanian newspaper A-Doustour. This is Israel’s peace partner. He wants a truce until he can get up enough weapons and power to fight Israel — that’s a far cry from peace."
Tvrtko Kale, a Croatian currently living in Israel as he plays goalie for the Beitar Jerusalem soccer team, says he has a solution for the Kassams that may not be pleasant, but is necessary. Speaking with Israeli TV Sport5 channel, he said [with minor corrections]:
"I get lots of SMS messages from my friends who ask, how is this [the constant Kassam rockets on Sderot and Ashkelon] being allowed? How can the citizens stand this? And I remember how we solved it when we had these problems: Shoot, kill, destroy, and then you have no more problems."
The Israeli interviewer interjected, "We cannot do that here," and Kale said, "You can." The incredulous interviewer said, "We can?! You think this is what we should do?! We cannot just go in to Gaza and just go bam-bam-bam!" Kale responded calmly, "Who says you can't? If the Israeli people have been looking to make peace for 50-60 years with these people, trying to find a nice way for both sides... 50-60 years, to try to make peace and it doesn’t work? Something must be wrong, and I think that 50-60 years is long enough - I think it's time for Israel to go like this [[smashes his hand down hard]] and say, 'It's enough! After 50-60 years, I will show you who I am.'"