The "Terror" Tunnels

As we know, Israel's initial call for revenge against Palestinians in the current crisis was prompted by the kidnapping and killing of three teens in June, but soon there were doubts raised (even by some Israelis) that Hamas directed that. Then they highlighted Hamas firing rockets over and into Israel, but they've stressed that less often since flights started getting cancelled and tourism suffered. They criticized what the U.S. media calls the "terror tunnels" built by Hamas over the years, but this has become the primary, oft-cited cause for the ground and air attacks in the past two weeks. U.S. media have dutifully taken tours of exposed tunnels and filed scare reports.

No doubt Israel is right to be concerned about these tunnels. Several of its soldiers were killed just this week by militants emerging from one of them. No one would object to them destroying them along their border. Egypt has somehow destroyed as many as 1000 of them at its border used for smuggling goods (but without killing many Gazans). The reason I raise this is: The tunnels are being used as a pretext for mass slaughter--and accepted or promoted as much by U.S. media.

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Yet the IDF and the media never seem to get around to listing what (you'd think) must be a large number of "terror" incidents and Israelis killed or kidnapped in recent years.

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[A]n article this week in the Times of Israel quotes a senior Israeli intelligence officer asserting that the tunnels did not really threaten civilians--Hamas aims for another spectacular soldier kidnapping or killing. (The Shalit snatching led to freedom for 1000 Palestinians in the prisoner exchange.) This intel source points out that in the major tunnel incursion last week the militants could have easily invaded a nearby kibbutz but set off to kill soldiers instead. They did it again this week. But using tunnels for military attacks in war has long been an accepted battlefield tactic. It's not "terrorism."

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Not a single Israeli civilian ever killed because of one of the tunnels.

  Greg Mitchell