Israel has the right to defend itself against Hamas terrorism

Boston Globe echo editorial opinion:

Indiscriminately massacring civilians — including young adults dancing at a rave — is a war crime. Kidnapping civilians — including elderly adults and young children — is a war crime.

The horrors perpetrated in Israel on Saturday — when Hamas launched a surprise attack from Gaza on the Jewish state on Simhat Torah, one of Judaism’s most joyous religious holidays — must be wholeheartedly condemned.

Hamas is a terrorist organization that has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, and the United States should be unequivocal in supporting Israel in its war against the group. Israeli officials said they would avenge the attacks and cripple Hamas’s capabilities. Meanwhile, all nations should join the United States in demanding the return of all hostages.

“This was an act of sheer evil,” President Biden said Tuesday. If such an attack happened against the United States, he said, “our response would be swift, decisive, and overwhelming.”

Indeed, the human tragedies shock the conscience. The Boston Globe reported that the daughter and son-in-law of Brandeis University professor Ilan Troen were shot dead by Hamas while shielding their teenage son with their bodies. The son was shot but survived after hiding under his parents’ bodies. An all-night rave filled with dancing young adults was turned into a killing field where at least 260 bodies were found, The Washington Post reported. There were grandmothers, children, babies, and whole families kidnapped from their homes and taken hostage. Hamas also rained rockets down on Israel, low-accuracy projectiles with no purpose but to terrorize.

There can be no excuse for Hamas’s actions. On Saturday, more civilian Jews were killed than in any single day since the end of the Holocaust. As of Tuesday, more than 900 Israelis — and some foreign nationals — had been killed and 2,800 people in Israel wounded, with approximately 150 people taken hostage, according to Israeli officials. At least 14 American citizens have been killed in Israel and others are missing, according to President Biden.

One of those presumed missing is Adrienne Neta, 66, a dual US-Israeli citizen who grew up in California and moved to Israel in 1981, after marrying an Israeli man. Neta retired last year from a decades-long career in nursing and was relishing her role as grandmother of seven. She lived in kibbutz Be’eri, a community near Gaza that was one of the first infiltrated by militants. 

According to her son Nahar Neta, a California resident who works with agricultural technology startups, Nahar and two of his siblings got on a conference call with their mother when the bombardment started.

“She started telling us she’s hearing gunfire outside the house, shouting in Arabic,” Nahar Neta told the Globe via Zoom from Israel. She went into a secure room in her house and shut the door. When things seemed to calm down, Nahar Neta got off the call to put his children to sleep. Minutes later, his brother called. The siblings had heard terrorists barge into the room, then screaming. That was the last communication they had with their mother. Adrienne Neta is not on the kibbutz’s list of those confirmed dead, so her family assumes she has been taken hostage.

Her family is trying to hold up and is speaking publicly to encourage the Biden administration to play a role in bringing their mother home. “We want her to have the feeling that we’re holding on and we’re strong for her,” Nahar Neta said.

Hamas’s attacks have caused innocent suffering on both sides. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, 770 Palestinians have been killed and 4,000 wounded by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, as Israel retaliates and seeks to topple Hamas.

The Israeli military has also said it killed 1,500 Hamas militants who crossed into Israel.

The Biden administration is doing the right thing in sending military aid to Israel. If congressional authorization is needed for additional aid, Congress needs to find a way to pass that legislation, regardless of its internal disarray. The US Senate should quickly confirm a US ambassador to Israel.

The United States should support Israel in taking actions needed to secure its borders and free those kidnapped. While civilian casualties are inevitable in the densely populated Gaza Strip, Israel should do its best to minimize them and avoid unnecessary casualties or indiscriminate targeting of civilians.

The United States and world communities should also pressure Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia based in Lebanon, to refrain from getting involved to avoid expanding the conflagration to Israel’s northern border.

There will be time to discuss the future of Gaza, the resumption of Saudi-Israeli peace negotiations, and other important questions raised by the war’s outbreak. There may be a time for the United States to call for a cease-fire or a de-escalation of violence. There will be time for discussions of Israeli policies toward the Palestinian people. That time is not now.

For now, we must show solidarity with Israel and with all those who are mourning their dead and praying for their loved ones’ safe return.