Debat

Ambassadør: Israels sikkerhed kommer i første række

Barukh Binah
Barukh Binah Israels ambassadør i Danmark

DEBAT: Israel vil gerne genoptage forhandlingerne med Palæstina om en to-statsløsning. Men først må Israel forsvare sig og sørge for, at den tragiske sommer ikke bliver gentaget, skriver Barukh Binah, Israels ambassadør i Danmark. Artiklen er på engelsk.

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Af Barukh Binah
Israels ambassadør i Danmark

When President Abbas established his government of National Unity, Israel cautioned that Hamas had not accepted the three Quartet conditions.

The equation of the perpetrators with their targets is morally wrong. It is Israel that is threatened with annihilation and not anybody else in the region.

Barukh Binah
Israels ambassadør i Danmark

We were reassured that, by entering the government Hamas in fact accepted those terms. But within three months Hamas launched a deadly campaign, provoking Israel to use its right of self-defense.

On 12 June three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped and gleefully murdered by two Hamas operatives. A few days later an Arab teenager was also kidnapped and brutally murdered, apparently in a despicable act of revenge.

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Justice was done when the Hamas murderers were killed, when they opened fire on an IDF unit, that was about to arrest them. Justice will be done when the suspected murderers of the Arab teenager will be judged soon by a court of law.

Civilians pay a high price

Events began to roll: Hamas rained Israel with over 4,500 missiles and rockets. Israel responded. Ceasefires introduced by Egypt were accepted by Israel but rejected by Hamas.

In the end of the campaign Israel counted 67 casualties (mostly soldiers). Hamas claimed over 2,200 casualties, which they maintained were mostly civilians, though an independent Israeli think-tank identified about 1,000 of them as known Hamas militants.

Gazans paid a high price as they were forced by Hamas to serve as its protective buffer. Indeed, while Israel used its weapons to defend its civilians, Hamas used its civilians to protect its illegal weapons. Thus, Hamas committed a double war crime; by indiscriminately attacking Israeli civilians and by using Palestinian civilians as human shields.

After losing three quarters of its capabilities Hamas requested a break. Their boastful victory-claims will be judged by history and we will not take them to court for telling lies.

Prevent illegal use of materials

We would like to focus on the Cairo talks to finalize the Gaza arrangements. We hope for a resolution that will enable the beginning of rehabilitation. However, careful measures must be taken to prevent illegal use of materials.

Cement must be used only for buildings, not for attack tunnels or fortifications for cowardly Hamas leaders who send their people to stand up to Israeli counter measures while they are tucked away in underground hideouts. Iron should be used only in civilian buildings and not for new rockets.

Hamas should be disarmed and Gaza demilitarized, according to the 1995 Paris Agreement. Gaza should have no more weapons than the West Bank: no missiles, rockets or attack weapons of any sort.

Israel wants peace - not pressure

We sometimes hear that the world is tired of this conflict and that we therefore must give up. We beg to differ as we choose life over alleged international discomfort. Calls for European pressure on Israel, or on both sides, are at least unfair and not helpful.

Israel is a strong country and could withstand difficulties, and in any case it needs no pressure as it really wants peace. The equation of the perpetrators with their targets is morally wrong. It is Israel that is threatened with annihilation and not anybody else in the region.

Regarding the settlements, we recognize that this is a major issue for our counterparts. We consider it an issue for the final negotiations, when we will discuss issues of security, borders and the like. In the meantime, they should never be a pretext to refrain from negotiations.

Blockade was necessary

As for the so-called blockade, since our voluntary evacuation of in 2005, Gaza became an enemy territory. We hoped that it could be a pilot for Palestinian self-government and a launching-pad for peace. Instead, it turned into a launching-pad for over 17,000 missiles.

The closure of Gaza was a necessary defensive measure to stop suicide bombers from blowing up buses and cafés in Tel-Aviv or Jerusalem and to curb the flow of war weapons from Iran or the digging of attack tunnels that could open in the backyard of any kibbutz, spewing death.

Still, throughout the campaign Israel admitted 2,630 Gazans for medical treatment and continued to provide electricity and water. Nearly 5,800 trucks crossed from Israel to Gaza with provisions, including over 20 million liters of petrol, nearly five tons of gas and 1,000 tons of medical needs – even while the rockets shrieked.

Indeed, unique experience in the history of warfare, when the attacked side provides its assailant with supplies.

We cannot ignore the regional threats as well. There are intrinsic similarities between Hamas and its spiritual twins in the extremist Islamist groups who storm Iraq and Syria. While IS rapes Yazidi women, Hamas forces its will on entire neighborhoods.

A US led coalition of Mideast and European partners fights back to restore human values.

Israel’s scope is towards the future and we would like to resume negotiations with the Palestinian Authority over the two states solution. But first, we must secure our country and make sure that this bad summer will not be repeated.

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Omtalte personer

Barukh Binah

Fhv. ambassadør, Israels ambassade i Danmark
cand.polit. (Hebrew Uni.)

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