Rockets daily reality for Israelis: diplomat

OTTAWA —Israel’s ambassador to Canada, Rafael Barak, discusses the recent fighting between Israel and the Palestinians. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Q: In Israel and Gaza now, missiles are flying back and forth, and it began with Hamas. Tell me what it’s like for Israelis. A : We are living in a double reality. On one hand, we try to be a normal people. Taking care of the education of our kids and the economy and sports. But we are facing a daily reality, particularly in the southern part of the country. For 14 years, we have been having these rockets fired by Hamas. Since 2006, they control Gaza Strip and they have been shooting at my civilians. So we have been in a back and forth, defending our citizens, trying not to harm and create havoc and loss to the other side, civilians particularly. We are taking a lot of precautions. I think we are the only army in the world that is knocking on the door and announcing that “Listen, there will be a missile so please get out from this part because it can be dangerous.” Q: Tell me how that works. A: We have good intelligence. We know the houses. We know their cellphone numbers. So we can send them a notice through the cellphone to inform them. We are sending flyers if there are larger areas. And from time to time we are sending missiles without explosives. You know, knocking at the door. Saying ... please, it would be better to leave. Q: Our prime minister said Hamas is using its own people as human shields. The UN criticizes Israel on potential human rights violations. A: This is part of this reality of people that are refusing to look to the facts on the ground. I read this statement given by the UN in Geneva with the human rights committee. And the word “Hamas” and the words “terrorism condemnation” do not exist. So it is a well of hypocrisy, unfortunately. Q: Have the recent rocket strikes from Hamas increased significantly? A: Definitely. I think Hamas is ... using the same ways that Hezbollah is using — hiding all the missiles underground. And this is giving them more capabilities. And their range is also larger, definitely, when they are reaching Tel Aviv. Q: You spoke of the need of Israel to exercise its right to selfdefence. If you show weakness or doubt, what happens? A: Doubt in the Middle East is translated immediately as a sense of weakness ... First of all, we have to defend our citizens. Second, we have to calibrate the response in a way that civilians on the other side will not be affected. Thirdly ... I think the name of the game today is to ... finalize an equation in this conflict in which this will deter the Hamas people from starting again in the near future to attack us. This is what we want. We don’t want to destroy Hamas. There is no military operation. We are very cautious.