International condemnation of Israel is beginning to mount for its supposed “disproportionate response” to Hamas’ latest and escalated missile and rocket war on Israel, but Western leaders do not state what exactly is a “proportionate” response.

The United States, United Nations and the European Union constantly take the lead in pleading for Israel to show “restraint” and not to “escalate” violence after Palestinian Authority attacks, whether from Judea and Samaria, controlled by Mahmoud Abbas, or from Gaza.

What really ruffles the feathers of the Western bleeding hearts is that Israel kills more terrorists and civilian shields in Gaza than the number of Israeli citizens and soldiers who are killed by rocket and missile fire from Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other “unity government” allies.

“The rising death toll has sparked international concern over the proportionality of Israel’s response to rocket fire from Gaza,” The LA Times reported Sunday. “The rockets have struck deeper into Israel than in past conflicts, but have caused only one serious civilian injury. There have been no Israeli deaths as a direct result of a rocket strike.”

It simply is not a fair fight, according to the media establishment and the bleeding heart lefties. Hamas fires inaccurate missiles while Israel uses pinpoint aerial bombing raids to eliminate terrorists.

According to that logic, when Hamas fires rockets that land in open areas in Israel, Israel should fire at open areas in Gaza.

Hamas got “lucky” on Sunday when shrapnel from a rocket seriously injured a 16-year-old boy in Ashkelon. Presumably, Israel should have responded by seriously injuring an innocent 16-year-old Arab.

When Hamas terrorists kidnapped three Israeli yeshiva teenagers a month ago in the Hebron area, Israel promptly clamped a curfew on dozens of Palestinian Authority villages in a search for the boys, who more than two weeks later were found murdered.

Before their bodies were discovered. Israel was vilified for inflicting supposed  “collective punishment” on the Palestinian Authority by looking for the murderers. Days after the bodies were found, Jewish hoodlums barbarically kidnapped and burned to death a 16-year-old Arab from Jerusalem.

The depraved crime was a wrenching punch in Israel’s collective gut, but according to Western logic, the Israeli government itself should have carried out the unthinkable act of kidnapping three Arabs and killing them.

No one would suggest such a horrid thought.

And no one should anyone suggest that Israel react to every missile and rocket attack on its citizens by responding with the same number of rockets and the same results.

A proportionate response to the intention to kill is to kill before the intention is fulfilled.

Why don’t police in American cities, or in any other civilized place in the world, shoot and kill someone trying to kill them? Shouldn’t they wait until the killer “succeeds” before responding?

Of course, then it is too late, but that is a small detail that would ruin the principle of a “proportionate response.”

The real reason that “proportionate response” applies primarily to Israel is the world cannot stand seeing Jews have the upper hand.

Some of the worst condemnations come from American Jews, for whom Israel is supposed to be a nice doggie that woofs when his master, not God but the American liberal Jewish community, says, “Sit.”

They can’t stand Israel being anything that is not an expression of their own attempt at being good Americans by encouraging a State of Israel that doesn’t upset the apple cart of the “loyal American Jew” who needs to be trusted by his non-Jewish government. Israel must not do anything that jeopardizes American Jews’ standing as good loyal Americans. Israel is supposed to be nothing but a safe haven for other Jews who suffer from anti-Semitism in Russia and France, among other countries.

Israel must not be too religious, lest it make it difficult for the top-heavy non-Orthodox American Jewish community to identify with it and according to the American Constitution.

Israel as a nice doggie makes the liberal Jewish American establishment feel safe from anti-Semitism.

A disproportionate response by Israel would make Israel too strong for any American administration, whether headed by Obama , Reagan, Clinton, Bush or whoever is next, to call the shots in the Middle East.

And what would happen if Israel played nice doggie and refrained from killing those who try to kill Israelis?

The Israeli Air Force has eliminated thousands of rockets in Gaza. If they were still in the terrorists’ stockpile, it is more probable, and still is possible, that one or two would kill Israelis. Lots of us.

And you know what the international response would be?

Gee, you see what happens when you don’t sit down and make peace with Hamas.

Arf, arf.

(In the CNN clip below from 2009, during Operation Cast Lead, then-New York Mayor Bloomberg said at 1:00 in the video, “There is no such thing as a proportionate response to terrorism.”)

Why should one lie flat on the ground if caught outside in a missile attack? It is never explained on Israel’s Home Front Command website – at least, not in English – and few people ever have time to discuss it.

But a military official took time to answer the question on an Israeli radion program Sunday afternoon after a 16 year old boy was badly hurt in a Grad missile attack in Ashkelon.

The boy was one of at least two people who didn’t make it in time to a safe space, and didn’t know what to do; he took cover as best he could – but he did not lie flat on the ground.

The boy suffered serious shrapnel wounds when a missile exploded in the area, shooting the shards of hot metal right into him. A nearby adult suffered lighter wounds.

“If you lie down flat on the ground, you stand a much better chance of survival,” explained the official.

“Most of the time the shrapnel flies in a horizontal direction, or at an angle. If for some reason the 30 seconds has passed – in Ashkelon, for instance they have only a 30 second window before a missile lands – whatever you do, don’t remaining standing! Get down on the ground and remain as flat as you can. If a missile lands in your area, there is a much better chance that most of the shrapnel will pass right over you, if you lie flat and do not move.”

by Aryeh Savir and Yaniv Hassidoff

The Palestinian envoy to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Ibrahim Khreisheh, admitted in an interview translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) that the Palestinian Authority unity government (PUG) — which includes Hamas — does not abide by international law and commits war crimes.

Kreisheh made the statement while responding to a question presented to him on PA TV last week about the PUG demand to appear to the International Criminal Court at The Hague (ICC) against Israel.

“The missiles that are now being launched against Israel, each and every missiles constitutes a crime against humanity, whether it hits or missed, because it is directed at civilian targets… Therefore, targeting civilians, be it one civilian or a thousand, is considered a crime against humanity,” he said.

With regard to the current IDF effort to protect Gaza civilians in Operation Protective Edge, the PLO envoy acknowledged Israel is doing its best to avoid harming innocents.

“Please note that many of our people in Gaza appeared on TV and said that the Israeli army warned them to evacuate their homes before bombardment. In such a case, if someone is killed, the law considers it a mistake rather than intentional killing, because (the Israelis) followed the legal procedures.”

Khreisheh further stated that while firing from PLO-controlled areas, Hamas does not warn civilians before firing on them. By doing so, he said, the terrorist organization is committing a war crime.

“As for the missiles launched from our side, we never warn anyone about where these missiles are about to land, or about the operations we carry out.”

He concluded by saying that the Palestinian Authority unity government has no hope of pressing charges against Israel in the international court.

“Therefore people should know more before they talk emotionally about appealing to the ICC,” he commented.

Gaza terrorists fired more than 800 rockets and missiles at Israeli civilians by the sixth day of Operation Protective Shield on Sunday, July 13, 2014.

The Israeli Air Force has escalated an all-out war against the Hamas terrorist regime in Gaza while making mincemeat of Hamas attempts to kill civilians in Tel Aviv.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and IDF officers made it clear Friday and Saturday that the days of repetitive “cease fires” with Hamas and that years of agreeing to allow Hamas to attack, and then stop to re-arm, are history.

Hamas put on a fabulous propaganda show for Gaza residents Saturday night, boldly announcing more than an hour ahead of time that it would pulverize metropolitan Tel Aviv with rockets at 9 p.m. Israeli time.

Sure enough, it carried out its promise, but the results were pitiful as the Iron Dome system intercepted most of the missiles, leaving only minimal damage. Shrapnel from one rocket in the city of Rehovot, south of Tel Aviv, caused light injuries to one man.

Hamas celebrated as if it had won the war and even told its residents that at least one of those nasty Zionists was killed, leaving only 6,999,999 Jews to finish off before it could declare peace.

Two deaths due to heart attacks after sirens blared were reported in Haifa on Friday and Jerusalem on Shabbat, where an elderly American tourist in Jerusalem succumbed to heart failure while sirens wailed in the capital.

Shortly after the missile barrage on Tel Aviv, the Israeli Air Force bombed dozens of terrorist targets in Gaza, including the home of the chief of Hamas police.

Up to 15 people were killed in the attack, and even if the Arab figures are exaggerated, the strike undoubtedly leveled a significant hole in the Hamas terrorist regime.

Another dead terrorist was a man who launched rockets and also was a nephew of Ismail Haniyeh, who was de facto prime minister of Gaza until the new Palestinian Authority unity government disguised his power with the creation of a puppet ”technocratic” government to satisfy naïve international experts, not the least of which is  the Obama administration, that there suddenly is a terror-free regime in Ramallah.

Around midnight Saturday, the IDF warned residents in northern Gaza to leave their homes. The area is a magnet for terrorists because of its proximity to Israel. The Air Force apparently is trying to push rocket-launcher terrorists as far south as possible, possibly allowing for ground forces to move in and keep the area clean of terrorists.

“In the next few hours, in light of the fact Hamas is hiding behind civilians, we will change patterns of action and start evacuating Palestinian civilians in the northern Gaza Strip, where long-range rockets are fired from,” a senior IDF official told Ynet. “Following the evacuation, there will be a significant attack there. The objectives for this operation are to deal a significant blow to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, decrease the fire on civilians and strengthen the deterrence.”

Hamas fired approximately 50 rockets and missiles on Israel Saturday, setting off sirens in almost every section of the country south of Haifa, even in the Dead Sea area. The Iron Dome continued to prove effective and knocked out one missile that threatened the Modi’in-Ben Gurion Airport area.

Northern Israel heard sirens because of a volley of missiles from Lebanon, causing damage to an agriculture building. Pro-Palestinian Authority elements, and not Hezbollah,  were behind the attacks. The Lebanese army, which is barely distinguishable from Hezbollah, arrested at least one of those who fired the rockets, indicating that it does not want a confrontation with Israel at this time.

Sirens also sounded in the southern Hebron Hills, and at least two of Hamas’ missiles exploded in Arab areas in Hebron and Bethlehem, causing minor injuries and damage.

Thousands of Israeli combat soldiers are waiting for a green light from the Netanyahu government to cross into the Hamas hornet’s nest in Gaza nest to deliver a follow-up wallop to the aerial strikes to defend Israel from what could rightly be called Hamas’ “Operation Death Wish.”

Israel’s “Protective Edge” counter-terrorist campaign has followed the Pillar of Cloud and Operation Cast Lead battles five and two years ago, respectively.

As usual, Hamas is begging for international pressure and has been caught by the BBC posting pictures of dead children, victims of terror – except that many of the pictures are of victims of wars in Iraq and Syria or from Israeli maneuvers several years ago.

The Israel Air Force’s pinpoint bombings have destroyed hundreds if not thousands of rockets, and Hamas has wasted hundreds of missiles and rockets in its stockpile that is estimated at approximately 10,000.

“Gaza is slowly sinking to its doom,” IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz said Friday, Hamas leaders “in Gaza are understanding that they’ve made a big mistake. In four days we’ve been intelligently using our offensive means while remembering that there are civilians there that Hamas has turned into hostages.”

Hamas insistence on wildly continuing to attack Israel, as far north as Haifa, with more than 100 rockets and missiles a day, in the hopes of striking “luck” with an explosion in a crowded mall, school or residential area shows how desperate it is for a “success.’

The terrorist organization announced on Friday that a missile intercepted in central Israel was aimed at Ben Gurion Airport, where at least one incoming plane from Poland turned back after air controllers told the pilot to remain in the air for an undetermined amount of time because of the danger of flying missiles.

The international condemnation of Israel for defending its citizens, Arab and Israeli, by killing terrorists and civilians who intentionally shield them, is beginning to mount just when Hamas need it most. The United Nations on Friday suggested that the IDF’s bombings homes of senior Hamas terrorist commanders might even be a war crime since “civilians” also are hit, even though the Israeli military gave them plenty of warning to evacuate.

“In case of doubt, buildings that are ordinarily used for civilian purposes, such as homes, are presumed not to be legitimate military targets,” said U.N. Ravina Shamdasani. “Even when a home is identified as being used for military purposes, any attack must be proportionate, offer a definite military advantage in the prevailing circumstances at the time, and precautions must be taken to protect civilians.”

It is not clear what she meant by “proportionate.” Does Israel have to make sure its aerial attacks land in open area when Hamas missiles explode in non-populated areas? Does the IDF have to bomb a gas station and make sure that only one person is seriously wounded to be “proportionate” to the Hamas missile that exploded at a gas station in Ashdod on Friday?

Or perhaps the Air Force should attack a parking lot that is smack in between apartment building such as in Ashdod, where mass casualties would have resulted had a Hamas Grad missile landed a few feet farther in either direction.

International pressure against Israel is far from what it was several days after Cast Lead and Pillar of Cloud, but it is slowly on the way although Hamas is suffering from the long belated understanding by most of the Western world at large that it does not have moral leg to stand on.

Hamas has suffered serious losses – a depleted missile stockpile, bombed terrorist infrastructure and the elimination of dozens of senior terrorist commanders. It also has cost Mahmoud Abbas’ some legitimacy as Palestinian Authority chairman because of his initial inability to stop Hamas attacks and his subsequent enthusiasm for terror, having stated this week, “One God, one homeland, one enemy, one goal” and that Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terrorists are “brothers in arms.”

He predicted on Friday that an Israeli ground incursion is only hours away.

So long as the IAF can do the job, Israel has found no reason to endanger the lives of soldiers be sending them into Gaza, where Hamas has copied Hezbollah tactics and has prepared hundreds of tunnel, many of them underneath homes, to kidnap Israeli soldiers.

Chief of Staff Gantz said Friday, “Nothing is stopping us from moving forward. The IDF is not waiting for the last straw to go on a ground offensive; it’s waiting on political instruction.” That means he thinks Israel has enough intelligence, and has bombed out enough of the terrorist infrastructure, to keep casualties to a minimum it enters Gaza,

If combat troops enter, they will not leave unless Hamas raises the white flag or is decimated.

Hamas attacked Israel out of weakness. Elliott Abrams, Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, wrote on the Council on Foreign Relations website that lack of Iranian support for Hamas and the new Egyptian government’s disdain for the terrorist regime have left Gaza residents victims on a corrupt regime that has brought them nothing but misery.

Before the latest attacks in Operation Death Wish, Hamas faced challenges from other terrorists who did not like the idea of standing by with weapons and not including them, Abrams noted.

The missile strikes have brought Hamas a bit more attention from the Arab world but far less than it expected.

“Hamas may have reached the conclusion that it must soon…agree to a truce, but be unwilling to stop until it can point to some ‘achievement’ like hitting a major tower in downtown Tel Aviv or killing a large group of Israelis,” Abrams wrote.

So far, Hamas’s rekindling of the war with Israel can clearly be called “Operation Death Wish.”

Public Security Minister Yitzchak Aharonovitch told journalists at a briefing in Ashdod Friday morning the IDF is preparing plans for the option of a ground invasion into Gaza after further military escalations by Hamas.

The statement came following a missile attack that scored a direct hit on a gas station in the Mediterranean port city earlier on, striking a fuel truck. The resulting explosion left one man critically wounded and two others moderately to lightly injured.

“This is a complex conflict and we are hitting them hard,” Aharonovitch said. “We are preparing for the option of a ground incursion,” he warned. “Everyone should follow the instructions of the Home Front Command.”

Late Thursday Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu ended a marathon security cabinet meeting with the announcement that Operation Protective Edge is proceeding as planned. “More stages are coming,” he promised, without revealing what those might be, or when they would be carried out.

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz likewise were mum on the subject, backing the prime minister in reassuring Israelis that everything was going according to plan — but revealing little else.

In Tel Aviv, three M75 missiles were shot down directly over the metropolitan area by the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system, the shrapnel from the interception dropping directly on to the city from the skies.

Israeli police patrolled the streets of Tel Aviv in an effort to keep curious residents from touching the sharp metal, some of which may have had chemical agents sprayed on to it.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said officers remained on site to prevent residents from hurting themselves.

No injuries were reported in the attack itself.

In Jerusalem, police blocked entry for Friday prayers at the Temple Mount in the Old City for all Muslims other than women of any age, and males age 50 and older who were carrying Israeli identity cards.

Security forces remained on alert at the site and prepared to deal with any outbreaks of violence, which often take place due to incitement during sermons in the mosque at Friday prayers. Friday is the Islamic Sabbath.

Nearly a million Israelis were sent scrambling mid-morning Friday as Gaza terrorists fired three M75 missiles at central Israel.

All three missiles were intercepted over the metropolitan Tel Aviv area by the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system — at a cost of $50,000 per interceptor missile.