Are Gaza Palestinian Rockets Really “Random” and “Indiscriminate”?

The conventional “wisdom” is that the armed Palestinian resistance in Gaza (usually called “Hamas” even though it is many groups and tendencies) shoots off all its rockets at random to spread “terror”.  Bob Dreyfuss in The Nation says Hamas is “suicidal”.  He says Hamas shoots “useless missiles against unseen Israeli targets.”

However, it may be that the fighters in Gaza are actually doing the logical thing, using their crude missiles at the things that hurt Palestinians the most, Israeli military forces.  It’s not me who is saying this but the right wing Israeli site “Debka File”.  On July 23 they ended a piece with these sentences,  “Hamas was focusing on strategic targets, such Israeli Air Force bases and facilities in the south and center. When IDF communiqués report that rockets land in open areas, this does not necessarily rule out their explosion in or near military bases.”  The whole article is here.

It may well be that the rocket fire is indeed foolish and counterproductive even criminal, if you like, but on the question of “Hamas’ intentions” the jury is out.

August 8.  Whatever the “intent”, these rockets seem to have had no military effect (other than shutting down Tel Aviv airport for a couple of days).  The political effect seems entirely negative, to give Netanyahu a half-way reasonable argument  for his supposed retaliation.  It may seem wrong  for someone who pays his U.S. taxes and therefore helps finance the slaughter of Gaza Palestinians to think he has the right to make criticism of people under fire, but there it is.

A Month’s Worth of My Comments in U.S. Newspapers

 I’m a big believer in using the comment section in (some serious) online media.  I’ve been neglecting this blog, but I have been writing furiously, mostly about Palestine.  Here’s a bunch, newest to oldest.  They were all published unless noted.

Aug 3 – Comment to the “Mike” in the New York Times who defended the IDF mission to eliminate tunnels and who thought the idea of proportionality and limits in war was bogus.

 

No Mike, Israel is not trying to eliminate rockets, tunnels or whatever flavor of the day Zionist propaganda serves up for you.  They want to eliminate Palestinians from the land.  Witness blogger Jochanan Gordon piece “When Genocide is Permissible” that he thought was a reasonable item for discussion and posted it on the sites “The Times of Israel” and the greater Long Island site “5 Towns Jewish Times”.  “Death to the Arabs” has long been a chant at Israeli soccer games and it’s now mainstream for Jewish mobs in Israel.   Fascism, Israeli style,  rules aided by the every loving U.S. empire which loves/fears its client state run amok.  See this article.