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[quote=jsteele][quote=Anonymous]So when Hamas fires missiles from schools and hospitals, what should Israel do? What is the proper defense in your view?[/quote]

Israel should not have allowed itself to be in this situation given that such a scenario was easily predictable. But, my response would depend on more specific details. In many cases, the rockets are primitive and very portable The fighter runs up with it, places and aims it, launches and runs away. In such circumstances, an Israeli response on the position will only harm innocents. Looking at the photographs that the IDF released to show rockets being fired from schools and hospitals, those actually showed the rockets were outside the grounds of those buildings. If Israel attacked the buildings -- and I don't know if they did in those cases -- they attacked the wrong targets. If the buildings were significantly damaged in an attack on the rocket site, the Israelis chose the wrong weapon. I don't see any justification for knocking down and entire apartment building because a rocket was fired from the ally behind it.

I have no idea what happened with the UN school today. The UN has found rockets stored in two empty schools. This school was not empty and UN officials were on site. Since the UN has shown its willingness to reveal rockets hidden in schools, the Israelis should have trusted the UN to alert it to rockets. If the Israelis believed there were rockets or fighters there, UN officials should have been asked to investigate and report on it. There is no justification for attacking a school full of children, particularly in this case in which a party with a track record of opposing weapons in schools was on the ground.

I know that some will find it hard to accept, but the Israeli actions point to their using tactics from the "Dahiya Doctrine" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahiya_doctrine . As Wikipedia says, this is when the army "deliberately targets civilian infrastructure, as a means of inducing suffering for the civilian population, thereby establishing deterrence". I would go further and suggest that the Israeli army is also maximizing collateral casualties among the civilian population to further pressure Hamas. The Israeli strategy is to put so much pressure on the civilian population that the civilians turn against Hamas. The Israeli intention may well be to have more cooperative Palestinians such as Fatah replace Hamas and is hoping that Gazans will welcome Fatah as a way of ending their suffering. Regardless, if you look at Israel's action in the context of the "Dahiya Doctrine", the targeting of power plants, hospitals, schools, and populated buildings starts to make sense. But, just to be clear, this strategy violates the rules of war and those who are responsible are committing war crimes.

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