Gaza Watch

Here's a sampling of editorials from around the world concerning what's going on in Gaza right now:

Melanie Phillips reports on the despicable "moral inversion" of the MSM here and here. Here's a sampling:

Untold numbers of [Israeli] soldiers will lose their lives as the result not merely of the genocidal aims of Hamas (and its Iranian puppet-master) but also the indifference and pusillanimity towards Palestinian terror displayed by world governments over the past six decades of Israel’s fight for survival, along with the active encouragement of genocidal Islamists by leftists, Jew-haters, Muslims and useful idiots who were on such thuggish display yesterday in the co-ordinated demonstrations in British and other western cities.

David Berner, a Vancouver based commenter and someone who would normally describe himself on the left-side of the political spectrum, shares a similar view to Phillips here. Here's a little bit of his take on things:

Where have these two young know-it-alls been the past year while Hamas rockets have maintained a steady rain on Israeli towns?

When did these "journalists" ask Hamas leaders when they plan to stop hiding under women's skirts?

When will they ask Hamas and other Arab leaders when they plan to accept the right of 7 million people to live in a sovereign state called Israel? Or when will they stop teaching their children that Jews are rats and vermin, that must be exterminated from the earth?

Israel is under siege. It has been for a long time. It will continue to be as long as the hundred million people who surround it hate everything about it and everyone in it.

The Gaza attacks from Israel show, if anything, amazing restraint.

I have not spoken for a few days with my Jewish friends in Chicago - Democrats all - but do wonder if they now finally understand the extreme bias that conservatives and Christians have felt against them from the media for years.

Speaking of Democrats, Barack Obama's silence on this issue is absolutely deafening. Sorry to say "I told you so", but this is of zero surprise to me. His whole raison d'etre during the campaign was to say as little meaningful as possible and to try to take every side on every issue whenever possible.

In a strange turn of events for the Huffington Post, they've published an hilarious but telling satire by Martin Lewis. He juxtaposes Israel with Britain and Palestine with Germany and then provides a World War 2 like account of what reporting would be like back then. Hmmm, look who laid out exactly the same scenario back on December 30th! Here's a brilliant part of Lewis' piece:

Of course England has a right to exist. Of course England has a right to defend itself. But it should ensure that its responses are PROPORTIONATE.Since many more Germans are dying than English - the English should either tone down the success and accuracy of their bombing - or allow the Germans to catch up on the death count.

To be honest - if more English women and children were dying - we wouldn't feel quite so bad about the number of Germans dying. But it's just so UNFAIR that more Germans are dying...

Perhaps some English people could arrange to kill themselves to match the number of Germans dying as a result of the English retaliation bombing? It would be so considerate - and it might help England's critics feel less miserable about the number of Nazis dying. Something that is causing them so much concern.

Finally, Mark Steyn illustrates the insanity of the hypocrisy of those criticizing Israel. Here's a portion:

In Gaza, they don't vote for Hamas because they want access to university education. Or, if they do, it's to get Junior into the Saudi-funded, Hamas-run Islamic University of Gaza, where majoring in rocket science involves making one and firing it at the Zionist Entity. In 2007, as part of their attempt to recover Gaza from Hamas, Fatah seized 1,000 Qassam rockets at the university, as well as seven Iranian military trainers.

At a certain unspoken level, we understand that the Huntington thesis is right, and the Rice view is wishful thinking. After all, when French President Sarkozy and other European critics bemoan Israel's "disproportionate" response, what really are they saying? That they expect better from the despised Jews than from Hamas. That they regard Israel as a Western society bound by civilized norms, whereas any old barbarism issuing forth from Gaza is to be excused on grounds of "desperation."

Hence, this slightly surreal headline from The New York Times: "Israel Rejects Cease-Fire, But Offers Gaza Aid." For whatever that's worth. Wafa Samir Ibrahim al-Biss, a young Palestinian woman who received considerate and exemplary treatment at an Israeli hospital in Beersheba, returned to that same hospital packed with explosives in order to blow herself up and kill the doctors and nurses who restored her to health. Well, what do you expect? It's "desperation" born of "poverty" and "occupation."