I recently posted a seed on Newsvine (Palestinians form human shield to protect home from Israeli air strike) which detailed the following events:

1. Israel located Mohammedweil Baroud, a commander in the Popular Resistance Committees in charge of firing Kassam rockets at Israel (a number of these hare fired every day, and have been over the past year+, aimed at cities, with the intention of killing, injuring, maiming and disrupting the lives of Israeli civilians).
2. The IDF gave warning that in half an hour they would destroy this terrorist’s house. As the house was a suspected weapons storage facility, the warning was given to allow civilians to leave before the weapons were destroyed. The intention was to avoid unnecessary casualties (something that is not reciprocal in this case).
3. A call was put out in the surrounding neighborhood, and a crowd of “civilians” gathered around the house, chanting things like “Yes to martyrdom. No to surrender”.
4. Israel called off the air strike. The crowd claimed victory and the weapons stored in the house survived another day.

In the referenced seed, I wrote that Anyone who is there is accessory to acts of terrorism, is freely and willingly helping those who would like to massacre Jews, and is therefore as much of a threat to Israel as those who are pulling the triggers. If they want to be martyrs, who are we to get in their way?. Almost all of the comments in response to this were either in support of the Palestinians, angry at my comments, or against the Palestinian actions but appreciative of Israel’s restraint.

I would like to illustrate a scenario that I believe to be very realistic given the new Palestinian strategy of civilians willingly acting as human shields to protect the terrorists who shoot missiles at Israeli civilians. Imagine that Hamas and their associates enact the following policy:

• Any commander or fighter affiliated with their organization will always be located among no less than 5 women, who will be at his side at all times.
• They will be in close enough proximity that if Israel tried to get at him, at least some of them would die.
• All of the women would be there willingly, believing that their actions in protecting the Hamas people is there way of fighting against Israel
• Israel has very good intelligence as to the whereabouts of these terrorists, and is able to strike them with precision. If they do so, some or all of the women “bodyguards” will die

What should Israel do?

If Israel does nothing, then 5-10 missiles will be shot at Israeli cities every day. They will hit kindergartens, day care facilities, hospitals, shopping malls and busy intersections. Israeli civilians will die or be maimed for life (as happened a few days ago, when a woman was killed and a man lost both legs from a kassam missile that hit Sederot. They were walking on the street at the time). Hamas, etc, will not hold back from firing these missiles. The opposite will happen. The fact that Israel holds back from responding to these attacks will only encourage them that their course of actions is the right strategy to weaken Israeli resolve (and kill more Jews). The UN may condemn them, they may not get their funding, the Quarter may praise Israel for their restraint, but Israeli civilians will die with increasing frequency, and Israel will have failed in her role of defending Israeli citizens.

If Israel shoots back at the kassam missile squads, their commanders, their weapons silos and factories, their moneymen and their associates, for every terrorist killed, 3-5 women “bodyguards” will be killed as well. After a week of constantly targeting these terrorists, the main organizers will move underground (since they can no longer count on their women bodyguards to protect them from Israeli fire), kassam rocket production will slow down, and an opening will be given to those in power to try to reverse the violent trend and put an end to the missiles. (For as long as they are firing these missiles at Israel every day, they are viewed as heroes, and although it is extremely detrimental to the chances at reaching any kind of theoretical peaceful resolution, any moderate political elements in Gaza are powerless to stop them).

I am personally of the opinion that if a civilian actively and willingly goes to defend a terrorist (who I am defining in this case as someone who actively takes part in planning or executing violent operations aimed at killing Israeli civilians), they lose the status of “civilian” and are to be considered as much of a legitimate target as the people that they are defending. Although Israel should still try to avoid injuring or killing these people, their presence should in no way prevent Israel from trying to kill the people who are directly responsible for targeting Israeli cities and civilians. They made the choice to step onto the “field of battle”. They must accept the consequences, if it comes to that. Otherwise, Israeli civilians will pay with their own lives.

(Disagree? Then please explain why these people can still claim protection as “civilians” when they are designating themselves as soldiers. Also, for those who say that Israel has no right to shoot at terrorists when these so-called “civilians” are present, imagine that your own city was being targeted by these “home-made rockets” and this scenario had nothing to do with Israelis and Arabs. Would you still have the same opinion?)

Although this scenario may be restricted to Israel right now, if it proves successful against the IDF, then there is no reason to think that it, as suicide bombing and airplane hijacking have already done, will not spread to other areas of the world where terrorism is prevalent today (or will be tomorrow). The ethics of the situation are complex, but it behooves us to define exactly where the line between civilian ends, and combatant begins. In this case though, I think that the answer is fairly obvious.

(Cross-Posted on Newsvine. Check out the polls over there as well)