Winning the war, losing support

The fact that 70% of the Israeli population spend their nights and days running for shelter and that more than 1000 missiles were fired at Israel from Gaza does not matter to the world, as long as the death toll stands at zero.

In the past week, more than 1000 missiles were fired at Israel by Hamas, a terror organization operating from the Gaza strip. About 70% of the Israeli population are under fire. Every day, people find themselves running for shelter in fear as the tseva adom “code red” rocket alert goes off. Every day, more and more children are being traumatized, scared for life. Thankfully, we have a cutting edge technology that keeps us relatively safe and shelters to run to, so our number of casualties, so far, stands at zero. At the same time, in the Gaza strip, the death toll stands on more than one hundred civilians, according to foreign sources. The Israel Defense forces managed to weaken Hamas, but while Israel is on the winning side of this war, it is losing in the battle for public opinion.

One of the most basic differences between the two sides of Operation Protective Edge, is the fact that while Hamas aims at civilians with the purpose of “destroying the Jews,” the IDF aims at terror cells with the purpose of putting an end to the constant attacks on Israel. This means that while striking Gaza, Israel is taking serious measures in order to avoid civilian casualties. For instance, the IDF is dropping leaflets above northern Gaza and sending cellphone messages to Palestinians, warning civilians to move away from Hamas terrorists and command centers, which pose a grave risk to their safety. Moreover, Israel keeps its border crossings to Gaza open for medical supplies, humanitarian aid and other goods to be transferred to Palestinian civilians in Gaza. On Monday, after operating in northern Gaza, the IDF escorted wounded Palestinians to Israeli hospitals, where they received medical treatment.