Gaza

The Torah Im Derech Eretz Society condemns the shooting of the protestors in Gaza as well as the theme of the protests which is return to pre-state homes when the theme should be end the blockade. We also condemn those Gazans who are engaging in violence by attacking the fence or throwing incendiaries. Though a small group, they are jeopardizing the safety of everyone with their actions. Jews are enjoined not to provoke the gentiles and shooting protestors with a billion Moslems watching can certainly qualify as provocation. Moreover, the shootings weaken Israeli claims of being surrounded by enemies as we basically see here people protesting in a field and rolling tires. We must always be careful with the laws of murder and be careful not to shed blood unnecessarily. We must careful also with chillul Hashem and the government has not demonstrated that these people who are protesting behind a fence in a field pose any danger. So the chillul Hashem of a government that insists on calling its country the "Jewish state" is high indeed. 

"The land of the Divine Torah is there for the people who live in it. Its most valuable product, the purpose and goal of the whole of God's Blessing directed to it, is every human life nourished by it, through its means able to dedicate itself to making God's Torah into a realisation. The land is only given on the condition of every human life respected as being unassailably sacred to the Torah. One drop of innocent blood shed and no notice taken of it drops a stitch in the bond which connects the land with the nation and both with God. (see verses 33 and 34). This holding human life to be so sacred is to be made evident immediately on taking possession of the land in the division of it by instituting the arrangement which the Torah had already referred to in the fundamental laws of Torah social life." (Ex. XXI, 13).  Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, The Pentateuch, Numbers 35:10