Now there they go again…

On Thursday, our Arab cousins in Aza started firing rockets at us again – in mass. Three hit near an oft-targeted kibbutz in the Shaar HaNegev Regional Council area, others landed near the Kerem Shalom crossing – the very portal through which we (stupidly) continue to ship “humanitarian” supplies to the people who are hell-bent on killing us.

Later in the day, these same peace loving Arabs also fired an anti-tank missile on an IDF tank, then fired off another mortar that landed near Ashkelon. In a speech on Wednesday, OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen. Yoav Galant warned that more is on the way, Trouble is coming, he said, although he stressed that the IDF was training and preparing to face the trouble ahead. “Civilians,” he added, “should prepare themselves for another round of fighting."

So okay, the Arabs do what they do – that hasn’t changed. When a people operate under the banner of “my god says I have to kill you”, it’s not rational to assume they’d quit and go home.

But what really drives me nuts is the media – even those who should know better. Every time one of these rockets or mortars is fired, lands somewhere without killing anyone or demolishing a home, the media report that the missile “caused no damage.”

WHAT? What on earth do they mean, “No damage”??? They should try living in the path of these things for awhile – then they’d understand that “damage” isn’t limited to dead children and destroyed homes. “Damage” occurs with every one -- to our peace of mind, to our sense of well being, to our sense of inner balance. Once again, we’re on edge, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

To be sure, the possibility of rocket attacks every moment of every day isn’t the main thing we’re concentrating on right now, that’s true. But for every one of these alleged “no damage” attacks, we’re primed to subconsciously wait for the next one -- when we may not be so lucky as to escape death or destruction.

For years, every time one of the hapless local media lapsed into this “no damage” nonsense, I’d bombard them with emails, “There’s no such thing as a ‘no damage’ rocket hit”. Most of them responded at least once – in fact, most even admitted I was right. Indeed, they should be saying, “No property damage” if that’s what they mean.

But journalists are lazy – they don’t bother, they lapse into the old jargon. It’s easier to just say, “No damage” – on the theory that (as one reporter told me) “you know what we mean.”

Do I “know what you mean” when you mischaracterize the event? Sure – I know what you mean. The problem is, most of the rest of the world doesn’t.

That’s why Israel finds itself up a tree over allegations of “disproportionate response” over last winter’s Operation Cast Lead. Because Israel’s own media – including everybody’s favorite right-wing internet news outlet, by the say – every time there’s a non-lethal rocket hit, repeats that mantra over and over and over: “no damage.”

What happens? That gives the rest of the world the notion that we’re dealing with the equivalent of pea shooters over here, that all these rockets and missiles that are fired off at us are nothing more than minor annoyances that only the hyper-sensitive would complain about. After all, they cause “no damage”.

That not true – it’s a bold faced lie. Every one of those rockets or missiles causes “damage” even if no one is killed.

If some of these yahoo-reporters actually lived in the path of these things for awhile, maybe they’d start getting it right.