Naomi Ragen:
I’m sitting here in Jerusalem after a week of heartbreak over three murdered teens, followed by almost three weeks of sirens, bomb blasts, and finally, the funerals of young IDF soldiers, of whom one-third are students who should be taking their final exams instead of risking their lives. I’m reading on the internet about what a horrible person I am as an Israeli and as a Jew, and what a terrible, immoral country I live in.
All this criticism comes mainly from the European press: The Guardian, the BBC, papers in Italy, Norway, France, and don’t forget America: The New York Times, CNN. And I’m thinking: Gee, the British should understand. After all, they lived through the blitz, Nazis raining bombs indiscriminately down on them, the way Hamas is raining bombs down on us. And when the brave pilots of the RAF aimed their bombs at Dresden and killed 300,000 men, women and children, they didn’t throw down leaflets telling people to politely evacuate; didn’t send their soldiers to knock on doors to see if they’d followed the leaflets instructions (as CNN complained Israel failed to do at an UNRWA school, which was probably hit by a Hamas bomb anyway).
And I think of the rest of Europe, who rounded up our grandparents and great-grandparents, and relatives — men, women and children — and sent them off to be gassed, no questions asked. And I think: They are now the moral arbiters of the free world? They are telling the descendants of the people they murdered how to behave when other anti-Semites want to kill them?
As for Americans, represented by the New York Times, that bastion of high-minded hypocrisy and mediocre journalism parading as the “newspaper of record,” one has only to read the article by Professor Auerbach in the New York Observer (“Two Weeks of Shallow, Facile Moral Equivalency From the New York Times“) to see how Jodi Rudoren and other Times apparatchiks have learned to close their minds and love Hamas. After all, there are CHILDREN DYING. It doesn’t matter that the Palestinians have educated an entire generation to be little Nazi-wannabes, who worship death and hate Jews, murdering their souls, and are now callously putting their bodies in harm’s way to use for touching photo ops. We shouldn’t be shocked by this omission by the Times. After all, The New York Times was one of the last news outlets to bring to the attention of the reading public the Nazi atrocities in Europe. Read the Times during the nightmare years, and see if you can’t find a pattern here.
And so, as an Israeli, brought up with Jewish values, and an American, taught to love freedom, justice, democracy and fair play, I have to tell all of you – Europeans, Americans, and last of all Muslim terrorist sympathizers and barbarians, that what you are saying no longer moves anyone of good moral judgment and intelligence. The current crisis in Gaza is so morally clear-cut, so absolutely a case of self-defense, that I must say to you, as someone finally said to Senator McCarthy: “Sir, have you no shame?”
Israel accepted a US-brokered 72-hour ceasefire starting at 8:00 AM. At 9:30, Hamas started a seemingly pre-planned operation in Rafah, killing 2 Israeli soldiers and kidnapping one during a suicide bombing.
Clearly the ceasefire provided the opportunity Hamas wanted to perform this operation. Their acceptance of the cease-fire – including the terms that IDF soldiers can keep their positions, which Hamas knew were near a hidden tunnel entrance – can only be described as a well-planned ruse for this attack, Hamas’ most sought-after prize. These were not conditions that Hamas would normally accept.
I think this Israeli writer is noting how poorly Israel runs its PR side of the conflict, as well as how brilliantly Hamas runs its side.
After all, where are photos and videos of all the rockets out of Gaza and into Israel during the last month?
I have only seen one or two scenes of that all month!
But …….
July 15: Israel accepted the ceasefire initiated by Egypt and stopped all fire at 09:00. However, Hamas fired more than 50 rockets at Israeli communities. Only after six hours of continuous rocket attacks did the IDF respond.
July 17: Israel agreed to a five-hour humanitarian ceasefire. Hamas rejected it and fired rockets, including at the city of Be’er-Sheva.
July 20: Israel approved a two-hour medical/humanitarian window in the area of Shejaiya, following an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) request. Forty minutes after the ceasefire began, Hamas violated it. Nevertheless, Israel implemented the ceasefire, even extending it for two more hours.
July 26-27: Israel respected an UN-requested humanitarian ceasefire from 08:00-20:00 on Saturday, 26 July. Israel announced its readiness to prolong the ceasefire until midnight, but a few minutes after 20:00, Hamas renewed firing rockets at Israeli civilians.
On the same day (26 July), Hamas announced a 24-hour humanitarian ceasefire, at 14:00. Hamas violated its own ceasefire a short time later.
Despite Hamas’ continuous fire, Israel decided to extend the humanitarian ceasefire a second time, from midnight Saturday to midnight Sunday.
July 28: Israel accepted Hamas’ request for a ceasefire in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr. The IDF was instructed to cease military attacks, but Hamas continued to launch rockets at Israel.
July 30: Israel announced a temporary humanitarian ceasefire between 15:00-19:00. A few minutes after the ceasefire began Hamas fired rockets at the southern cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon, as well as other Israeli communities.
How much of all those rocket attacks into Israel have YOU seen in media coverage?
Probably very little.
And Alan Dershowitz made a great point this morning on CNN:
Hamas has PLENTY of wide open spaces inside Gaza IF they want to fight a war against Israel with little to no ”accidental” civilian casualties.
Hamas chooses to fight behind civilians at schools, media centers, hospitals, houses and marketplaces.
Oh, and here’s one of those dead civilians for you to mourn:
PCHR described Amjad Zaher Hamdan as a “civilian.”
He was really a member of Islamic Jihad’s Al Quds Brigades.
I know people who post things on Facebook to make Israel look bad and that there is genocide afoot. My problem with all of this is why, if Israel is determined to wipe out the Palistinians, are there no forays, air attacks or atillery fire into the West Bank? Oh, thats right. No missles are being fired from there into Israel. The post pictures of children, some of them rather gross, who have been killed in the fighting. They condemn Israel for murdering children yet Hama gets to hide behind this children getting them killed and that is not mentioned. I wish for the Palistinians that which they wish for Israel. If I were the PM of Israel, I would drive them into the sea. There would be peace because they would be utterly defeated. If you disagree, tell me where you live so I can fire gunshots into your house. Let us see how long it takes you to respond.
I have to agree with Naomi 100% . This is a excellent piece. There is such a dysfunction of actions and thoughts around the world.
People need to look at the history. They need to look at the history of Israel all the way back to the 40’s. The [Arab] ‘Palestinians’ that no Arab country actually ‘wants’. They are being ‘used’ by barbarian terrorists
I cannot wrap my mind around people (and Governments – U.S.) who support Palestine and the dictators or terrorists (Hamas/Muslim brotherhood etc..). They are telling me they actually support ‘evil’ yet they cry they want ‘peace’.
I am not understanding how they see Israel or the Jews of Israel as so evil.
Such hypocrites they all are.
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I have to also agree with NanG#1.
Israel does have a poor rating when it comes to the PR regarding this ‘war’. And…of course Hamas/Palestine does a great job of it!…they have the ‘victim’ mentality. And they use it to every advantage.
It is the same ‘victim mentality’ as people use in the U.S. of A. !!
This is also the biggest problem facing conservatives. Unfortunately these entities fail to understand that you can’t win much of anything these days without a strong and effective PR campaign.
Yet, you have no problems with begging for, and getting, huge sums of American tax dollars and various military weapons and other aid…