Here’s a good comeback the next time some left-wing “human rights” type argues that Israel’s response to the more than 4,000 rockets and mortars lobbed into Israeli territory from Gaza since Israel withdrew in 2005 has been “disproportionate”: agree. And then recite the following from a column by Jonathan Mark in the latest issue of the New York Jewish Week:

On June 21, 2007, to pick a random day when hundreds of children in Sderot were being medically treated for trauma from the rockets, Israel responded not by sending tanks but by sending trucks. The trucks gave Hamas five tons of tea, 34 tons of macaroni, 15 tons of hummus, and 33 tons of lentils.

That didn’t stop the rockets, so on June 27, a summer day when hundreds of Sderot children were too scared to play outside, Israel sent Gaza five tons of semolina and 27 tons of seedlings.

That didn’t stop the rockets, so the next day Israel sent into the land of Hamas 143 tons of bananas. One may wonder if that was proportionate to the number of rockets.

On July 1, a day when the Jews of Sderot were afraid to go shopping without looking into the sky, Israel sent into Hamas territory 20 tons of coffee and 20 tons of cocoa. The next day, Israel sent Gaza 54 tons of jam. The day after that, as rockets fell, Israel sent Hamas 28 tons of pasta.

All of this was announced by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Cocoa and jam are hardly necessities. Even as Gaza was smoking from Israel’s retaliatory raids this past week, Israel sent in (on March 2), 62 trucks carrying sugar, milk and fruit, along with meat and fish, among other things.

If that was done for good will, or whether it was proportionate, has gone unreported. Chances are this is the first time you’re hearing about Israel sending tea and jam behind Hamas lines.

We’re not faulting Israel for making sure that Gaza doesn’t starve. But it does underscore that if there is something disproportionate about the Israeli response to the attacks on its civilians, it isn’t the military retaliation.