"That two young children have been shot and killed, sitting at their desks in U.N.R.W.A. schools in the last month is horrific by anyone's standards." - UNRWA chief Peter Hansen.
So who is to blame for their deaths? Presumably Israel. In Hansen's world, those poor Palestinians never do anything wrong.
Hansen was referring to two of three incidents in which three Palestinian girls were killed in the midst of the Israeli attacks in northern Gaza.
Hansen, who heads the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, is right about one thing. Those deaths were "horrific." In fact, what happened was sickening. Two of the girls were 10 years old - my niece's age - and the third was 13 years old.
Their deaths should leave any humane person with a grim feeling, no matter what their religion or nationality. I am Jewish and empathize with the painful struggle of the Israelis, and I nonetheless wonder why these three children had to die.
This question must be asked: why are Israeli troops in northern Gaza in the first place?
Let's assume the worst: Iman Al-Hams, 13, approached an Israeli outpost in the southern town of Rafah purely by accident when she was shot; the military told the New York Times that soldiers suspected she had a bomb in her bag, and her family said she was only carrying books.
The platoon commander had indeed walked up to the wounded girl and finished her by firing from automatic rifle until the magazine was empty. At last, a chance to show the Arabs how he and his fellow Israelis felt. Sweet revenge against these savages.
It is in dispute as to what actually transpired, but would that commander be in Rafah at all if not for Arab aggression? Israeli troops were sent to Rafah to end arms smuggling from Egypt into Gaza. They were deployed to northern Gaza to curtail rocket attacks on Israel proper.
It's clear what Israel is trying to do: eliminate as many terrorists as possible to reduce aggression against Israel. In the process, the troops cannot always avoid killing civilians. The Arabs placed Israel in the position of choosing between the deaths of innocent Israelis and innocent Arabs.
I wonder how anyone can ever justify the death - and I'm struggling hard against doing just that - of Iman Al-Hams, the 13-year-old, or the deaths of Ghadeer Jaber Mokheimer, 10. She died last Wednesday, October 13, from an Israeli gunshot wound, hit while at her desk in a school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, according to what agency representatives told the Times.
On September 7, another 10-year-old Palestinian girl was struck by a bullet in the head at another UNRWA school in Khan Yunis.
This touched off Peter Hansen's comment as to how "horrific by anyone's standards" these killings were. I don't recall Hansen ever saying that about the genocide bombings in Netanya, Haifa and elsewhere in Israel that originated in the Jenin refugee camp operated by his very agency. Of course, UNRWA employees had no idea that a sophisticated military stronghold had been built up by Arab terrorists directly under their noses.
Arab civilians died in Jenin, too. Likewise, Israeli troops were placed in the position of endangering innocent Arabs to prevent future deaths of innocent Israelis.
Advocates for the West Bank and Gaza Arabs have accused the Sharon administration of numerous transgressions. Whatever arguments can be made for or against Ariel Sharon, how did he become prime minister in the first place? It took a war initiated by the Arabs to convince the vast majority of the Israeli voting public that Sharon's predecessor was ineffective in his response to that war.
Whatever Sharon did, and no transgressions can be justified, he could not possibly do it without the belligerence of Arab terrorists in the first place.
The Arabs have also claimed the Israelis drove out their brethren in 1948 to create the refugee problem. Israel bears some responsibility for it, though it appears that the Arabs were far worse in this regard.
Let's again assume that Israel was completely responsible for the Arabs' departure. Could they have gotten away with it had not the Arabs tried to destroy Israel at its birth?
The Arabs wanted a war so badly and Israel gave them a war. Their war-mongering against Israel is "horrific by anyone's standards." I would love to hear how Peter Hansen would possibly dispute that.
So who is to blame for their deaths? Presumably Israel. In Hansen's world, those poor Palestinians never do anything wrong.
Hansen was referring to two of three incidents in which three Palestinian girls were killed in the midst of the Israeli attacks in northern Gaza.
Hansen, who heads the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, is right about one thing. Those deaths were "horrific." In fact, what happened was sickening. Two of the girls were 10 years old - my niece's age - and the third was 13 years old.
Their deaths should leave any humane person with a grim feeling, no matter what their religion or nationality. I am Jewish and empathize with the painful struggle of the Israelis, and I nonetheless wonder why these three children had to die.
This question must be asked: why are Israeli troops in northern Gaza in the first place?
Let's assume the worst: Iman Al-Hams, 13, approached an Israeli outpost in the southern town of Rafah purely by accident when she was shot; the military told the New York Times that soldiers suspected she had a bomb in her bag, and her family said she was only carrying books.
The platoon commander had indeed walked up to the wounded girl and finished her by firing from automatic rifle until the magazine was empty. At last, a chance to show the Arabs how he and his fellow Israelis felt. Sweet revenge against these savages.
It is in dispute as to what actually transpired, but would that commander be in Rafah at all if not for Arab aggression? Israeli troops were sent to Rafah to end arms smuggling from Egypt into Gaza. They were deployed to northern Gaza to curtail rocket attacks on Israel proper.
It's clear what Israel is trying to do: eliminate as many terrorists as possible to reduce aggression against Israel. In the process, the troops cannot always avoid killing civilians. The Arabs placed Israel in the position of choosing between the deaths of innocent Israelis and innocent Arabs.
I wonder how anyone can ever justify the death - and I'm struggling hard against doing just that - of Iman Al-Hams, the 13-year-old, or the deaths of Ghadeer Jaber Mokheimer, 10. She died last Wednesday, October 13, from an Israeli gunshot wound, hit while at her desk in a school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, according to what agency representatives told the Times.
On September 7, another 10-year-old Palestinian girl was struck by a bullet in the head at another UNRWA school in Khan Yunis.
This touched off Peter Hansen's comment as to how "horrific by anyone's standards" these killings were. I don't recall Hansen ever saying that about the genocide bombings in Netanya, Haifa and elsewhere in Israel that originated in the Jenin refugee camp operated by his very agency. Of course, UNRWA employees had no idea that a sophisticated military stronghold had been built up by Arab terrorists directly under their noses.
Arab civilians died in Jenin, too. Likewise, Israeli troops were placed in the position of endangering innocent Arabs to prevent future deaths of innocent Israelis.
Advocates for the West Bank and Gaza Arabs have accused the Sharon administration of numerous transgressions. Whatever arguments can be made for or against Ariel Sharon, how did he become prime minister in the first place? It took a war initiated by the Arabs to convince the vast majority of the Israeli voting public that Sharon's predecessor was ineffective in his response to that war.
Whatever Sharon did, and no transgressions can be justified, he could not possibly do it without the belligerence of Arab terrorists in the first place.
The Arabs have also claimed the Israelis drove out their brethren in 1948 to create the refugee problem. Israel bears some responsibility for it, though it appears that the Arabs were far worse in this regard.
Let's again assume that Israel was completely responsible for the Arabs' departure. Could they have gotten away with it had not the Arabs tried to destroy Israel at its birth?
The Arabs wanted a war so badly and Israel gave them a war. Their war-mongering against Israel is "horrific by anyone's standards." I would love to hear how Peter Hansen would possibly dispute that.