Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: What would be proportionate, oh, so so proportionate

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_spine/archive/2008/12/27/very-disproportionate-indeed.aspx
Very Disproportionate, Indeed
From January 1 until December 21, Hamas and its allies had launched
exactly 1,250 rockets across the border between Gaza and Israel. Then
the escalation really started: on Wednesday 70 projectile missiles
landed in the Negev and its populated areas. On Thursday, more of the
same. On Friday, two Palestinian girls, cousins of 5 and 12 years,
were killed by a rocket that was launched in the Strip and landed in
the Strip. But these unfortunates were not the targets of fire. It was
just another day of blast offs into the Jewish state.
The government in Jerusalem had made it unmistakably clear that it
would no longer tolerate this fire power aimed at innocent civilian
life. It had been saying this for months to an increasingly skeptical
and apprehensive, not to say, restive public. And to Hamas which
didn't seem to care. Instead, it threatened Israel by word and follow-
up deeds that confirmed the recklessness - as if confirmation was
needed- of also this Palestinian "liberation" movement, the last in
the long line of terrorist revolutionaries acting in the name of
pathetic and blood-thirsty Palestine.
So at 11:30 on Saturday morning, according to both the Jerusalem Post
and Ha'aretz, as well as the New York Times, 50 fighter jets and
attack helicopters demolished some 40 to 50 sites in just about three
minutes, maybe five. Message: do not fuck with the Jews. At roughly
noon, another 60 air-attack vehicles went after other Hamas strategic
positions. Israeli intelligence reported 225 people dead, mostly Hamas
military leaders with some functionaries, besides, and perhaps 400
wounded.  The Palestinians announced 300 dead, probably as a reflex in
order to begin their whining about disproportionate Israeli acts of
war. And 600 wounded.
Frankly, I am up to my gullet with this reflex criticism of Israel as
going beyond proportionality in its responses to war waged against its
population with the undisguised intention of putting an end to the
political expression of the Jewish nation.  Within hours, Nicolas
Sarkozy was already taking up the cudgel of French righteousness and
pronouncing the actually quite sober Israeli response to the
continuous war on its borders "disproportionate."  Enough. What would
be proportionate, oh, so so proportionate apparently, are those tried-
and-true half measures to contain Hamas that have never worked.
Remember that in 2005 Israel ceded Gaza to the Palestinians waiting
and hoping that they would make something of a civil society of their
territory, civil for their own and civil to their neighbors. It was
not to be.
There is only small likelihood that Hamas has learned its lesson.
These Sunni fanatics are still supported by the Shi'a fanatics in
Iran. And they are also backed by the House of Saud which cannot be
seen to be turning its back on Sunni piety. Gaza is the only place in
the Middle East where Tehran and Riyadh are allied. In both Lebanon
and Iraq, they are the bankrollers (and more than bankrollers) of
hostile sectarian forces engaged in killing each other. Thus, Hamas
has still some rope with which to play. Cash, after all, is a great
deluder.
The current warfare will go on a bit longer. If there is a pause and
if I were giving advice to the Israelis, this is what I would say to
Hamas and to the people of Gaza: "If a rocket or missile is launched
against us, if you take captive one of our soldiers (as you have held
one for two and a half years), if you raise a new Intifada against us,
there will be an immediate response. And it will be very
disproportionate. Proportion does not work."
No sooner had I written these last words that Khaled Meshal, the Hamas
leader exiled in Damascus (which also apparently pines to make peace
with Israel), announced the beginning of the Third Intifada.
Marty Peretz
---
"non ricordo il testo esatto" (Luca Logi / rodewalder)
cfr 
http://raionim.blogspot.com/2008/12/luca-logi-e-i-piselli.html

 exactly 1,250 rockets across the border between Gaza and Israel.
0 morti. 500 missioni aeree 400 morti di cui almeno un quarto civili.
La proporzione si fa sugli effetti, non sulle armi