Israel continues to be criticized for its \"collective punishment\" defensive policy. Some responses to the criticism:
Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum, Director of the Torah Communications Network in New York, wonders why the world cries out over Israel\'s attempts to prevent terrorist infiltration into its cities, yet was not bothered by the American bombing and UN sanctions against Iraq, which surely caused death and suffering to innocent Iraqis. He notes that the Ten Plagues visited upon Egypt were meant to cause suffering also to those who were merely \"happy\" when the Jews suffered.
Ha\'aretz commentator Yisrael Harel wrote,
\"[Anti-Sharon critics] hurl accusations against the IDF, blaming it for inhumane collective punishment, and demanding that the army act selectively, only against guilty parties. But only yesterday when the IDF operated in this way, carrying out pinpoint strikes against \'those who shoot and attack,\' the same critics berated the IDF for deploying \'assassination squads.\' These accusations, fraught with disturbing connotations, were adopted by international organizations that haven\'t a clue about what\'s really going on in the country. Officers and soldiers who took part in this warfare have been branded \'war criminals…\'\"
Jewish Press columnist Dov Gilor writes,
\"This type of blockade [as used in Ramallah] is legal and should be used whenever necessary... When U.S. President Harry Truman dropped the atom bomb on Japan, all of Japan was collectively punished in order to stop the killing of American troops. Israel has the same obligation to stop the killing of innocent Jews by Arab murderers.\"