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Cenk's analysis is fallacious. That individual rocket we saw in this video laying on the ground, was a manpad or man-portable rocket, the type you might use to try to shoot down a helicopter, or as an unguided long range equivalent of a mortar. This is not the only model the Palestinians are firing indiscriminately and unguided, into civilian areas of Israel. The difference is obvious, if you just go up to MSNBC and look at footage of the damage on both sides. Entire Israeli homes are destroyed, this morning I saw a photo of an Israeli elementary school with a hole blown in the side that you could drive a truck through.
Yes, the Quassam rockets are small. Made on-site in Gaza. The Iranian Grad-Katyusha rockets are not. They are smuggled in unassembled (Imagine the food and water shipments displaced by this weaponry), and then fired into Israel, with little guidance. They essentially target an entire city. Russia used these same weapons to bombard Berlin in WWII. Hamas has other weapons at it's disposal as well. This is not 'throwing rocks'. 70lbs of high explosives lobbed about 20 miles into a civilian city is a bit more than 'throwing rocks'. Hezbollah fired between 3 and 5 thousand of these rockets in 2006. They are prolific, they are deadly, and they are totally indiscriminate.
And how does Israel respond? They target the sites where these rockets are launched from. They target buildings suspected to house Hamas leaders. Sometimes they miss. Sometimes the Hamas targets intentionally surround themselves with civilians.
Israel is attacking military targets in and around civilian areas in Gaza. Hamas is attacking Israeli civilians, period. There is no moral equivalence between the two.
There is a basic disparity between the victims on both sides as well. In Israel, they can afford advanced early warning technology, they can spend time and resources building numerous, large civil defense air raid shelters. The Palestinians can afford none of the former, and little of the latter. To say nothing of adequate food, water, and medical services.
It is pointless to discuss proportionate response. This sine wave of violence will continue. Hamas will not be shamed into ceasing it's attacks on civilian populations, and Israel will continue to attempt to use force to eradicate Hamas, and use interdiction to stem the flow of weapons into Gaza, which will also stifle food, water, and other economic relief. Since both sides appear unwilling to resolve the territorial dispute underlying everything, international monitoring, and likely, international peacekeeping forces on both sides will be required to force any sort of cease-fire, so Diplomacy can work it's magic. And that process is going to take a very long time.
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