The debate over Israel’s actions in Gaza is heating up worldwide. As I write this, the media, from the New York Times to Al-Jazeera are discussing whether the war is moral, defensive, and “proportional.” This article, ”Israelis United on War as Censure Rises Abroad” from the Times’ Ethan Bronner, “gets” the conflict from the Israeli perspective and pointedly quotes the Hartman Institute’s Most Senior Fellow, Moshe Halbertal, one of the authors of the IDF’s Code of Ethics:
Mr. Halbertal takes quite seriously the threat that Hamas poses to Israel’s existence, and that issue affects him in his judgments of the war.
“Rockets from Hamas could eventually reach all of Israel,” he said. “This is not a fantasy. It is a real problem. So there is a gap between actual images on the screen and the geopolitical situation.
“You have Al Jazeera standing at Shifa Hospital and the wounded are coming in,” he continued, referring to an Arab news outlet. “So you have this great Goliath crushing these poor people, and they are perceived as victims. But from the Israeli perspective, Hamas and Hezbollah are really the spearhead of a whole larger threat that is invisible. Israelis feel like the tiny David faced with an immense Muslim Goliath. The question is: who is the David here?”
There’s more from Hartman Institute on this, including an essay and additional video from Donniel Hartman. Stay tuned.
SHI Inside Out 
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