Israel Protects Palestinian Civilians

-- On Nov. 14, I was touring Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon, Israel, with Ellen Chernack, the executive director of the Jewish Community Federation of Richmond, when we came under attack from Grad rockets sent from Gaza.

I was there in my role as a vice president of the federation and because of my professional interests. As an emergency room doctor who now teaches health care policy at VCU, I had helped organize conferences in Israel and Richmond on disaster-planning -- and Barzilai hospital, unfortunately, offered a unique perspective.

As the sirens wailed, we repeatedly ran for shelter, counted to 30, and then heard the boom of the rockets' impact. This occurred four times in about 15 minutes and was, of course, both frightening and enlightening.

Barzilai hospital is about 10 miles from Gaza and serves a large region of southern Israel. Among the hospital's patients are many Palestinians from Gaza -- who we saw in beds alongside Israeli citizens in several of its wards, including pediatrics and labor and delivery. Everyone together sought shelter from these attacks.

There have been many days at Barzilai hospital when the sirens wailed and the impacts boomed dozens of times, and as I write this, its patients have been moved to a bunker beneath the hospital.

I have been following the current situation in Gaza with great interest. I, along with the great majority of Israelis, sympathize with and regret the suffering of the innocents in Gaza. Israelis take no pleasure in this conflict and did everything they could to avoid it. They do not delight in sending their children into battle to be injured or killed or to injure and kill.

But as difficult as the current situation is, simply describing the suffering -- but not its root cause -- does not accurately or fairly explain the current crisis. In particular, the question of disproportionate response and collective punishment needs to be addressed, as does the occasional comparison to the Holocaust by those condemning Israel's actions.

Israel left Gaza unconditionally in September 2005, hoping that a responsible civil society that would work toward a two-state solution might emerge. Instead, the Hamas leadership that assumed power (by election and then by violence, killing many of its Fatah rivals) has concentrated much of its energy and resources on lobbing mortars and rockets into Israel -- more than 6,000 in the past three years, more than 10,000 since 2001.

These rockets -- though thus far unguided -- are lethal and terrorize the civilian population within their radius (which is steadily increasing).

The strictures that the population of Gaza endures are the result of Hamas' refusal to cease these attacks, as well as its use of homes, schools, mosques, and hospitals to stage attacks and store weapons -- inevitably and deliberately leading to the civilian casualties that are then used for public-relations purposes, in direct violation of the Geneva Convention's prohibition against use of civilian areas as human shields or to hide military installations.

Israel has the right and responsibility to protect its population from Hamas' overtly stated goal of killing Israeli civilians and destroying Israel itself. Ehud Olmert, the outgoing prime minister, appealed to the Gazans prior to the current operation, stating, "We want to live as good neighbors with Gaza. We don't want to harm you . . . We don't want to fight with the Palestinian people, but we will not allow Hamas to strike our children."

Indeed, Israel has adopted a policy of calling and warning civilians in Gaza prior to bombings, and is also allowing needed supplies of medicine and food into Gaza daily. More than 6,500 tons of supplies have entered Gaza since Israel's operation began, warehouses in Gaza are now reported to be full, and the World Food Program is accepting no further supplies for at least two weeks.

As for the frequently used terms "disproportionate response" and "collective punishment," it is unlikely that those condemning Israel's current operation would prefer instead that Israel lob 10,000 unguided missiles and mortars into Gaza -- in return for the 10,000 that it has absorbed over the past eight years. That would truly be proportionate. It would also be random, ineffective, and cruel, killing many more innocent civilians.

Israel's goal and obligation is not to duplicate Hamas' tactics but to respond effectively by changing the status quo and providing the citizens of both Gaza and Israel with the fundamental human right to live without fear of sudden violent death and destruction. Israel plans to accomplish that aim with the least possible civilian casualties, as difficult as that may be when the enemy is shooting from a dense urban environment.

Finally, any references to the Holocaust with regard to this operation or any other Israeli operation or policy are logically and morally perverse. Israel does not want to kill civilians or make their lives miserable. On the contrary, it does everything it can to avoid civilian casualties, even at the expense of compromising operational goals and putting its own soldiers at increased risk -- and this principle is a fundamental part of its military's ethical code.

The only party to this dispute whose goal is to kill or put at risk both Israeli and Palestinian civilians is Hamas, and it is important to acknowledge that fact when accurately assessing the cause of this conflict.
Robert Weisberger, M.D., practiced emergency medicine for 27 years and was the president of Central Virginia Emergency Associates. He is vice president of the Richmond Jewish Federation and currently teaches in VCU's Department of Health Administration. Contact him at .