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Maurice Ross

Chambers of Death

The war continues. More rockets have been fired at Israel, UNWRA has discovered another school that was used for storing Hamas rockets and the IDF still searches out the tunnels that go under Gaza, proceed beneath the ground under the border into Israel and rise in Israeli kibbutzim.
Through intelligence sources it is now known that these tunnels were planned to be used for a major insurgency into Israel over the Jewish New Year (end of September) for the purpose of a massacre as well as taking hostage a number of Israeli civilians. The probable purpose of the hostage taking would have been to pressure Israel to release terrorists held in Israeli prisons in exchange for their return.
Let me give you a profile of just two terrorists previously exchanged for Gilad Shalit:
Walid Abd al-Aziz Abd al-Hadi Anajas (36 life sentences) – took part in the execution of the Café Moment bombing (2002), the Hebrew University bombing (2002) and the Rishon LeZion bombing (2002);
Nasir Sami Abd al-Razzaq Ali al-Nasser Yataima (29 life sentences) – convicted of planning the Passover massacre (2002) in which 30 civilians were killed and 140 were wounded.
Now let me tell you about the tunnels:
• an estimated 600,000 tons of cement and other materials went into the ground at a cost of around $30 million to build the three dozen underground passages found so far.
What resources could have been built with such provision?
Where did the money come from?
How did the cement get into Gaza?
Working backwards, the cement came across the border from Israel on the understanding it was for housing and facilities such as hospitals and clinics; the money came in international aid, the international community having been duped by Hamas; and only experts in the construction industry can tell you what could have been built, but suffice to say it would have been an awful lot.
Now I want you to imagine if hundreds of terrorists like the ones I named had been able to use those tunnels to perpetrate evil.
Do you really need a description?
Instead let me put before you an image.
Those tunnels would have been for Israeli (Jewish) citizens, chambers of death. We Jews know all about chambers of death.

That is why we are resilient to their reestablishment. That is why our Defence Forces are destroying them. That is why we have lost over 50 of our soldiers – all young men. That is why we call them heroes, because they have saved us from a massacre. And we grieve for those heroes, as if each and every one of them belongs to us and indeed they do.
Yes, that’s right, we are as One Body, One mind, One heart, One soul.

About the Author
Maurice Ross was born in Ireland in 1955. Made Aliyah in 2007, having lived in London, UK since 1965. Former Jewish community Professional and Educator.