RICHARD BAEHR: HAMAS DEATH CULT CELEBRATES ITS FIRST SUCCESS
http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=9151
The death cult known as Hamas is celebrating its first great success of the current campaign to murder Jews indiscriminately across the length and width of Israel. Today it struck gold as Israel suffered its first death from rocket or mortar fire from Gaza. This required The New York Times, America’s paper of record for those who would vote for President Barack Obama for a third term if they only could, to point out that this one Israeli casualty has to be placed in context with the approximately 200 dead Palestinians in Gaza from Israeli bombing attacks. This disproportionality of Israeli versus Arab deaths has been a constant concern for Israel’s enemies on the Left in every engagement the nation has had with terror groups starting with the war withHezbollah in 2006.
For pretty much every other nation in the history of the world, the goal in any war has been to win quickly and decisively, with the lowest casualty cost to your own side, and if morality is a part of your culture (which of course eliminates many war participants, including all of those who have fought Israel in its modern history), with no needless suffering caused to the other side’s civilian population. William Saletan, hardly a down-the-line supporter of Israel (he is a fierce critic of home demolitions of the families of terrorists) has applauded Israel for its enormous efforts to accomplish its military goals in the current air campaign, while avoiding civilian casualties.
As in the previous mini-wars with Hezbollah and in Gaza, the ratio of male to female deaths among adult casualties has been 3 to 1 or 4 to 1. If Israel were indiscriminately targeting civilians, or committing grave human rights violations, the ratio would be much closer to 1 to 1. But for the major newspapers and television stations in America, it is as if Israel had done something wrong for having experienced so few deaths of its own (so far). The war would be “fairer” if there were only more dead Jews. Since many on the Left and in the media have trouble choosing between Hamas and Israel on the merits (or even prefer Hamas), the pox on both your parties belief system leads to a longing for comparable death tolls.
Israel’s critics won’t be moved by Saletan’s argument or any statistical analysis that suggests Israel is behaving honorably. They want Israel to disappear, and they are not at all uncomfortable with dead Jews. For years, the major nations of Europe have argued that they are critics of Israel, but won’t tolerate anti-Semitism. It would be hard to tell the difference these days, with police chiefs in Frankfurt turning their bullhorns over to a violent mob attempting to attack Jewish institutions in the city, and France descending into a full fledged state of nature if you happen to be Jewish — with congregants locked into synagogues in Paris for their safety as masses of Arabs call for a new Holocaust and attempt to storm the doors, while others firebomb synagogues in communities outside Paris.
And then there is the prominent Green Party member, Pierre Minnaert, who justified the attacks on the synagogues since pro-Israel messages were being delivered there: ”When synagogues behave like embassies it is not surprising that they face the same attacks that embassies do.” Minnaert would be happier if the rabbis kept their messages to fighting the war that counts — against carbon fuels.
Dennis Prager has provided a nice summary of the character and record of the two sides in the current conflict that he has labeled Entity A and Entity B.
Entity A has this track record:
Declares that its raison d’etre is to annihilate Entity B.
Sends missiles to explode in the most populated parts of Entity B in order to kill as many civilians as possible.
Uses families and individual civilians as human shields to protect its own leaders from attack.
Tortures and kills domestic political opponents.
Has no political or religious freedom and has no freedom of speech, press, or assembly, and no independent judiciary.
Is a theocracy.
Violently oppresses gays.
Saturates its education and airwaves with a demonic hatred of Entity B.
Rated a 6 by Freedom House in its 2013 report on freedom in the world. Seven is the worst possible rating. Entity A ranks 6 in freedom, 6 in civil liberties and 6 political rights.
And then there is Entity B:
Recognizes the right of Entity A to an independent existence.
Has never begun a war with Entity A.
Has never targeted civilians in Entity A. In fact, it has sacrificed soldiers in order to avoid killing Entity A civilians.
Domestic political opponents — including even supporters of Entity A — not only have freedom of assembly, press and expression; they have political parties with representatives in Entity B’s parliament.
Has freedom of the press, assembly, religion, and a completely independent judiciary.
Allows gays full civil rights.
Has innumerable human rights groups dedicated to the welfare of people belonging to Entity A.
Has no education or broadcasts comparable to the daily hate in Entity A.
Freedom House rating for 2014 is 1.5 in freedom (1 is best possible); 2 in civil liberties; 1 in political liberties.
When asked which side they support in the current conflict, just 39 percent of self-identified American liberals support Israel, otherwise known as Entity B. Seventy-seven percent of self-identified conservatives back Israel, with 4 percent backing the Palestinians (Entity A). The gap between Left and Right, and between Republicans and Democrats in terms of support for Israel has never been wider in American history.
One might think that with support for Israel fading on the Left and demonstrations against Israel getting more raucous and violent even in American cities, that the major lobbying group for Jewish Democrats would be cheerleading for Israel as more than a 1,000 rockets hit the country. But you would be wrong. Today’s National Jewish Democratic Council press release is concerned with a more important war for Jewish Democrats, the so-called war on women conducted by the Supreme Court. The NJDC makes a call to arms to its members on this top issue for the group, backing a piece of legislation introduced with no chance of becoming law, but important nonetheless for setting the fall campaign agenda:
”Last month, the Supreme Court ruled in the Hobby Lobby case that corporations have more right to religious liberty than the women who work for them. In response, Democrats have introduced the Protect Women’s Health from Corporate Interference Act of 2014 (H.R. 5051/ S. 2578) — known as the Not My Bosses’ Business bills — which requires any for-profit employers that provide health care plans to cover contraception and any other vital health services required by federal law. This week the Senate will take up the bill, but the House Republican leadership has not yet agreed to take up this legislation before the August recess. This bill is too important to women and families’ well-being to be ignored.”
This political posturing for the November midterms is par for the course for Jewish Democrats. It takes too much work for the NJDC or the few remaining liberal Democrats who support Israel, to defend the Jewish state among polite company on the Left, so why try. On the other hand, left-wing Jews, members of groups like Jewish Voices for Peace, or Students for Justice in Palestine, are among the most vocal of those cheerleading for Hamas and the Palestinians, marching with their “Arab brothers and sisters” who are calling for death to the Jews, and showing the way by assaulting them when they can. For the liberal Jewish establishment, defending the Obama administration and advancing its political agenda by pandering to women voters, is no trouble at all. Israel is a country a long way away, and there are no votes to be won for Democrats by backing Israel. And somehow, those disproportionate casualty numbers are a real tough one to explain or defend. If they don’t sound fair to The New York Times, maybe that means there really is a problem.
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