The Jewish Federation of St. Joseph Valley
Backgrounder on the Developing Situation in Israel

 

July 8, 2014

For ongoing updates for Israeli sources on this developing situation, please refer to the following websites.
Quick Links

  

Join Our Mailing List

On Monday night, July 7th, the government of Israel and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced the beginning of an extensive military operation called "Operation Protective Edge" in response to the continuing and now escalating rocket fire from Gaza. It is important to understand the background of the decision of the Israeli government.

 

Here are the Facts: 

Since January 2014, terrorists in Gaza have launched more than 450 rockets at cities and towns in southern Israel. 

 

Indeed, since Israel withdrew unilaterally from Gaza in 2005, more than 8,000 rockets have been launched at Israel. The terrorist organization Hamas, which controls Gaza, has taken responsibility for the more recent round of attacks which included the launching of more than 80 rockets on Monday.

 

Today, the IDF's Iron Dome unit intercepted a rocket over Tel Aviv. With rocket fire on Tel Aviv, the lives of more than 3.5 million Israelis are being impacted.

 

As you can see in this IDF Video Blog, the terrorist organizations operating in Gaza, including both Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have invested tremendous effort into developing the infrastructure for the launching of rockets into Israel.  Many of these rockets, and the technology for making them, are supplied by Iran.


In his excellent op-ed piece in today's Times of Israel titled Why are we fighting with Gaza, again? David Horovitz wrote, "... for Hamas, hostility to the very fact of Israel's existence still far outweighs any and all other interests".

For more information please contact our CRC Director Bob Feferman at rfeferman@thejewishfed.org