My new op-ed in the National Post on the much ignored Stabbing Intifada and how it demonstrates the absurdity of using death toll ratios to condemn Israel.
Nut sentence:
When a society worships death, honours suicide attackers and forces civilians to serve as human shields, they are going to have a high death count.
A couple of things I left out of the article for space considerations included referencing two excellent sources for information on the ‘dialogue’ that actually goes on in the Palestinian Territories.
These are www.palwatch.org, and www.memri.org, invaluable sources for understanding the horrific death-cult nature of Hamas in particular. Hamas is not shy about what they believe, we just need to listen to them. When you hear public figures talking about how Jews drink the blood of Palestinian children, when you see little children on kids shows talking to stuffed animals about killing Jews, it will forever change the way you view this conflict.
I think many Westerners are trying very hard not to look behind the curtain at the Palestinian society and leadership. I urge people to check out these sites to learn what Israel is facing, and keep that in mind when judging Israel’s actions- or better yet, take a moment to judge the Palestinians by the same standards.
Another short ‘graf I left out is the truly disgusting, anti-Semitic news reporting on the Stabbing Intifada:
Israel is now actually being portrayed as bloodthirsty for shooting these knife attackers. One CBS headline read, “2 Palestinians killed after stabbing attack in Jerusalem”. Not mentioned is that these two Palestinians were the attackers, nor that they had stabbed to death two Israelis before being shot.
CNN, AP, NY Times, all managed similarly dishonest headlines multiple times over the last several months. I believe that the demonization of Israel among university students, other civil rights movements, and the Left in general, is largely flourishing because these headlines are completely misleading the general public. No one reading the NY Times or watching CNN will come away with any idea that there might be something nasty going on behind that Green Curtain. When facts are presented COMPLETELY IN REVERSE as in the above headline, Israel has an insurmountable obstacle to overcome.
In particular, I referred to Foreign Minister Dion’s statement, which is itself quite mild, because I believe we need to stop meekly accepting the rhetoric that everyone is to blame (or just Israel, when they’re winning a battle). Jews are harassed on campuses across North America, and attacks on Jews are shrugged off, because of a portrayal of Israel as uniquely evil*. No, Dion’s statement did not do so, but it shied away from the responsibility to destroy that charade. If we are to change the Bizzaro-world up-is-down understanding on this subject, we need to demand better from public figures and news sources.
(*In part. Of course, this is a complex subject and involves the multi-faceted nature of anti-Semitism.)
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