Right:: We Hear You...

International agencies, along with Arab and European governments have continued to shrilly denounce Israel for victimizing the Palestinian population of Gaza, in their attempts to force Hamas to halt lobbing rockets and mortars across the border - victimizing Israeli residents. A humanitarian crisis in the offing, with energy and food and medicines and access cut off to one and a half million people, already sufficiently deprived.

So Israel responded, as its detractors knew it would, and opened crossings to allow emergency supplies through to ensure no such crisis would develop. Knowing full well that nothing it could say would convince those who denounce her actions in defence of her Kassam-weary population would serve to convince the international community that the "crisis" was one designed by Hamas to enlist sympathy for their cause.

And so Israel delivered diesel fuel sufficient to operate the main Gaza power plant for a week. While Israel and Egypt continue to provide Gaza with the balance of their power needs from their own grids; provisions which were never halted, despite accusations to the contrary. "Even without the new fuel supply they have enough electricity for more than half of Gaza, since Israel regularly supplies [the region] with 70% of its electricity needs", commented a senior defence official.

A shipment of fuel, food and medicine was seen through into Gaza through the very crossing where Hamas terrorists kidnapped IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit, whose condition and location remain a closely-guarded trump card. And at the same time that diesel fuel and cooking gas supplies were being pumped into Gaza, Islamic Jihad and Hamas-lobbed missiles were entering Israel.

Humanitarian supplies balanced by destructive weapons seeking soft human flesh. The very same day supplies were being infused into Gaza, 6 Kassam rockets had exploded at the very time that Israeli children walk to school with their parents, themselves on their way to work.
Two of the rockets hit beleaguered Sderot, another a Negev kibbutz, while three landed in the Ashkol Region Council.

And while international organizations keep pressuring Israel to lift its closure on the region, warning of an impending humanitarian crisis, it's interesting that no collective will has been demonstrated to ensure that Israel's border towns and kibbutzim be free from ongoing attacks through an offer to install an internationally-represented military force to create a multinational defence zone between Israel and Gaza.

If the international community and human-rights groups are so concerned about what they term "collective punishment" being visited upon a civilian population, they have options. Such a neutrally-engaged universal force dedicated to keeping the peace could effectively halt terror attacks across the Gaza-Israel border, enabling the return of normalcy.

And at the same time removing gross irritants to the ongoing peace talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. Actions most certainly are more effective than words; commitment to ensuring justice on both sides should take the place of outraged denunciations.