AVIGDOR LIEBERMAN MAKES CLEAR RAIDS ON HAMAS TARGETS ARE SELF-DEFENSE

The South China Morning Post, of all news sources, published an op-ed by Israel's foreign minister where he makes clear that Israel is fighting back against Hamas aggression:

Israel this week began a military operation in Gaza, in response to ongoing Hamas rocket fire.

The latest round of rocket fire began on June 12, the day that three Israeli teenagers were abducted and murdered. The Hamas shooting escalated significantly on June 30, even before the bodies of the teens were found and before the murder of a Palestinian youth, which was condemned sharply by the entire Israeli leadership, and whose murderers are already held in custody.

Over the past three weeks, the Hamas terrorist organisation has escalated its attack on Israeli civilians, launching nearly 300 rockets at our cities - including Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and other major metropolitan areas - putting millions of Israeli lives at risk.

Families have been forced into shelters, summer camps for children closed, and all normal daily activities have been impacted. This is unacceptable.

Israel had shown great restraint prior to this operation. Our intention was to restore the calm without a major military operation.

However, Israel's repeated efforts to achieve calm were met with increased rocket fire by what is becoming a Hamas terrorist state.

Therefore, Israel launched an operation of self-defence on Monday, to counter these attacks, to defend our citizens and secure for them a life without constant threat.

Attacking and endangering unarmed civilians is unacceptable, and the Hamas - not to mention the PLO - have to go.