Transcript for the Piece Audio version of GAZA ASSAULT Special - Day Ten Inside Israel Interview

[FOCUS ON THE MIDDLE EAST]

This is Stephen Lloyd for today's FOCUS ON THE MIDDLE EAST and with me today at Day Ten of Israel's ''Gaza Intervention'' or ''Gaza Assault'' as most of the news media is coining or terming what is going on now in Gaza, is Israeli-resident correspondent and journalist David Dolan -- who has worked in Israel since 1980 -- welcome again, David.

Thank you Stephen, and I want to say greetings to those listeners who have contacted me via your radio network's website in the U. S. regarding these reports on Isreal's expanding military operation against Hamas which, as you know Israeli leaders say is designed to end Hamas' rocket assaults upon Israeli civilian centers from Gaza. Many who have contacted me have close friends or relatives now in harm's way in Israel or in the Gaza strip and my thoughts and prayers go out to them.

I have said publicly since Hamas violenty seized control of the Gaza Strip in mid June 2007 -- and by the way, Stephen, I was in Tel Aviv that day -- I could actually hear the intense clashes raging from Gaza, which is only some thirty miles south of Israel's largest urban area. Anyway, I had been telling audiences in the States and elsewhere that the IDF would inevitably have to return to the crowded Palestinian coastal zone once again to deal with this radical Islamic group since it lives and it breathes for Israel's ultimate destruction. And so sadly they are doing even now as I speak.

YES, YES, DAVID, I BELIEVE THAT PEOPLE WOULD LIKE TO KNOW THIS FROM YOU -- WHO, AS I SAID IN THE OPENING, YOU'VE WORKED IN ISRAEL SINCE 1980 -- ALMOST THIRTY YEARS, SOME TWENTY-NINE YEARS -- AND SOME OF THAT WORK HAS BEEN AS A CORRESPONDENT FOR SEVERAL MAJOR NETWORKS INCLUDING THE MANY LONG-DISTANCE FROM ISRAEL REPORTS YOU HAVE GIVEN FOR YEARS OVER THE CBS RADIO NETWORK IN THE UNITED STATES -- AND WE ARE VERY GRATEFUL TO HAVE YOU WITH US HERE ON THIS STATION VIA THIS NETWORK NOW -- AND, DAVID, SOME OF OUR STATIONS, YESTERDAY AIRED A CONVERSATION WITH A PALESTINIAN SPOKESWOMAN WHO SAID, IN HER OPINION, ISRAEL WAS USING HAMAS'S LONG SPELL OF ROCKET ATTACKS INTO ISRAELI CITIES, TOWNS AND VILLAGES AS AN ''EXCUSE'' FOR THE RECENT INTERVENTION INTO GAZA. FOR ABOUT FIVE MINUTES THE PALESTINIAN SPOKESWOMAN SPOKE FROM COAST-TO-COAST ON AMERICAN AIRWAVES SAYING IN ESSENCE 'WE CAN HIT YOU AND YOUR PEOPLE IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS OF ISRAEL AND INFLICT MURDER AND PAIN UPON YOU, DAY IN AND DAY OUT, IN RANDOM ATTACKS' -- SMALL SO THAT THEY SEEM KIND OF INSIGNIFICANT IF YOU ONLY LOOK AT EACH ATTACK SEPARATELY BUT THE DAY-BY-DAY REPETITION THE AGGRAVATE BEGINS TO ACCUMULATE TO GRAVE TOTAL -- BUT THE ATTITUDE -- SEEMED TO SAY IN LOW SWEET TONES OF HATE, WE CAN HATE AND MURDER YOU EVEN IN THE MIDST OF A CEASEFIRE, BUT IT'S NOT FAIR FOR YOU TO HIT US BACK -- OR TO SERIOUSLY TRY AND STOP US FROM OUR DESIRE TO ANNIHILATE YOU -- WE BELIEVE YOU HAVE A RIGHT NOT TO EXIST -- BUT TO EXIT -- AND NOT ONLY THE LAND HERE BUT THE EARTH -- THE WHOLE EARTH -- AND WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH SOME OF US ARE WILLING, FOR SOME KIND OF IMAGINED REWARD IN A SPIRITUAL REALM, TO BLOW UP OUR OWN SELVES IN SUICIDE BOMBINGS TO HELP YOU DISSAPPEAR. THE RATIONALE OF THAT IS, OF COURSE, BEYOND ANY SANE LOGIC -- BUT, DAVID, THE PALESTINIAN SPOKESWOMAN YESTERDAY ADDED IN HER TALK AIRED FROM COAST-TO-COAST HERE IN THE UNITED STATES -- SHE ADDED A CLAIM AS IF SHE SPOKE OF A PEOPLE WITH CLEAN HANDS, NOT, THAT ISRAEL OPENLY VIOLATES PEACE-PROCESS ACCORDS.

Well, Stephen, in response to that, as I wrote in a recent news update to my large international list of email subscribers, Israeli troops happily left the Gaza strip in the summer of 2005 under Israeli Government orders. I was there at the time. And, they certainly did not want to return there. Nor did they earlier wish to return to Bethlehem or to Hablus or to Ramallah -- Palestinian cities north and south of Jerusalem that they evacuated in late 1995 as part of the Oslo peace process -- and I covered those withdrawals on the ground. But they were sadly forced to do so several years later when Nobel peace prize winner Yasser Arafat allowed his urban centers to become hotbeds of violent Hamas' activity.
Many say the late Palestianian leader had no choice since Hamas was gaining much street support by vowing to crush the peace process and to fully return to the path of Jihad. But, Stephen, whatever the case, rocket-fire hit Jerusalem from Bethlehem and terrorist attacks were launched from Hablus and Ramallah, and so the IDF went back in.

DAVID, COULD YOU ELUCIDATE THAT OR GIVE SOME PERSONAL FIRST-HAND OBSERVATIONS -- SOME EYE-WITNES REPORT -- THAT YOU HAVE HAD YOURSELF, PERSONALLY, THAT SUPPORTS YOUR STATEMENT HERE THAT ISRAEL WAS FORCED TO RETAKE -- LET'S FOCUS IT ON BETHLEHEM, FOR EXAMPLE.

Well, Stephen, Bethlehem is actually the most-glaring example of what did go on then. Despite it once being a largely Christian town, it's become a center of Hamas' activity over the past decade and I have watched that happen. They fired dozens of Quasam rockets into Southern Jerusalem, Jewish neighborhoods, especiallly Jilo, in a severe violation of the Oslo Peace Accords and Arafat's commitment to halt all such attacks. I lived in an adjacent neighbor and I heard and saw the rockets falling on many ocassions. Hamas even used a Baptist church roof in Bethlehem to launch some of the attacks toward South Jerusalem. And, that was over the protest of its Arab pastor who I have interviewed on several ocassions. The Hamas' firing only ended when Israeli forces recaptured the area.

WITH THAT AS A TRACK RECORD, MAYBE A PEACE PRIZE SHOULD BE AWARED TO HAMAS. I'M KIDDING, OF COURSE AND I'M WONDERING IF OUR PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA AND ENGLAND AND ELSEWHERE AROUND THE WORLD REALLY UNDERSTAND HOW MUCH HAMAS HAS BEEN DOING MONTH AFTER MONTH AGAINST THE CITIES OF ISRAEL. WOULD YOU SHED A LITTLE LIGHT ON THAT FOR US, DAVID.

Yes, Stephen, but I'll start with the 'Hamas' Founding Charter' which clearly calls for Israel's total destruction and not just its evacuation from Gaza and the West Bank. The group is violently opposed to the peace process. And, last Spring it began launching Iranian-produced Grad rockets at Israel's thirteenth largest city, Ashkelon, where I often visit. And, one Grad rocket directly hit the roof of a large shopping mall killing two Israeli women and a girl who were there and wounding scores of others. And after Hamas formally ended the ceasefire on with Israel on December 19th, it began raining down rockets upon Ashdod. Now, that's just some twenty miles north of Gaza. It's Israel's fifth largest city and it's a major seaport. And, I might add it's just ten miles south of Tel Aviv and Israel's main Ben Gurion Airport. Now it's also striking Beersheva, the sixth largest city, with a major university located in it where thousands of local and foreign students study. And, I might add, many of those are Israeli Arabs. And, this is a very important point, not far away from Beersheva is Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor a target that Hizbullah and Iran have vowed to destroy in any future conflict involving them.

David, we have to stop here. Thank you for being with us. We're looking forward to having you back with us tomorrow and I want to let people know that they can contact you via the contact us button on our web site. I'll give the address for that in just a moment. We are now at the ninth day since the Israeli Defense Forces went into Gaza -- yet it's reconned as Day Ten of the fighting -- and tomorrow on Day Eleven if the fighting continues -- and I would bet that David would not recommend that anyone bet any serious money that it's going stop by tomorrow -- so, we invite you to join us again when we will have many more things we to discuss together tomorrow with resident-Israeli Correspondent and Journalist David Dolan here on Public Radio WorldWide's FOCUS ON THE MIDDLE EAST. This is your host Stephen Lloyd. You can find the audio and transcripts free of charge on the web at Public Radio WorldWide or just use the initials P-R-W-W dot O-R-G. Until tomorrow Stephen Lloyd wishing you a great day!

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