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Dr. Aaron Lerner is co-founder of , Independent Media Review and Analysis, an Israel-based news organization which provides an extensive digest of media, polls and significant interviews and events relating to the Israeli-Arab conflict.
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By Dr. Aaron Lerner
January 11, 2008
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"How Israel deals with the rocket attacks I would hope is done in a way that not only protects herself, but worries about innocent life. And I'm convinced the Prime Minister does. He understands he has an obligation to protect Israel. He also understands that he's got to be circumspect and reasonable about how he does it, so that innocent people don't suffer."
President Bush at press conference - Jerusalem 9 January 2008
Disturbing words.
Especially when you take into account that when the president of the United States of America answers questions at a press conference, his remarks are anything but off the cuff.
Contrast this with what Mr. Bush said about the Israeli checkpoints in response to a reporter's question in Ramallah today:
"... the whole object is to create a state that is capable of defending itself internally, and giving confidence to its neighbor that checkpoints won't be needed.... The security of a state is essential, particularly in a day and age when people simply disregard the value of human life, and kill. And so these checkpoints reflect the reality."
Where does this leave Israel?
President Bush accepts the necessity of Israeli checkpoints given the current situation without conditioning them on the impact of the checkpoints on "innocent" Palestinians. But when it comes to protecting innocent Israeli civilians being attacked by Palestinians terrorists who are shielded by "innocent" Palestinians that's a different story.
Commander in Chief Bush surely would never dare impose such a constraint on American forces fighting in Iraq, and that is a case of weighing the lives of American soldiers -- not American civilians -- against the lives of Iraqi human shields.
Again. Mr. Bush's remarks are anything but off the cuff.
It is best to address them rather than ignore them.
The point must be driven home that just as "checkpoints reflect the reality", given the "reality" of the heavy Palestinian use of human shields, the kind of large scale Israeli operation now required to put an end to the rocket attack nightmare from the Gaza Strip could very well entail considerable suffering on the part of Palestinian human shields.
This won't be Israel's fault just as the checkpoints aren't Israel's fault.
The loss of life among Palestinian human shields will be the combined fault of the terrorists who exploit them and the Palestinians who put themselves in that position.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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