Friday 9 January 2009

Israel is (always) wrong, stupid !, by Claude Moniquet

"No one is asking how Hamas was able to bring into Gaza "under absolute blockade" some tens of thousands of rockets and missiles or the components serving to manufacture them, arms, munitions, mines, rocket propelled grenades, anti-aircraft cannons, but… no food or medicine for the population."

"If you put aside the United States, the Czech Presidency of the European Union - which expressed the view on Saturday, January 3 that the Israeli operation was "defensive" and not "offensive" – as well as several politicians and media who are isolated and not in tune with the rest, Israel has been again, for the past dozen days or so, subjected to rapid fire criticisms, each more virulent than the others.

"Aggression", "a disproportionate response" leading (obviously) to a humanitarian crisis, and "massacre", are the words and the ideas that come up most often in print and in the mouths of commentators. Some will even go further and categorise as "cynical" or proofs of "mental cruelty" the warnings sent out (via flyers, the radio and even by telephone) to the inhabitants of buildings targeted for bombardment and enjoining their evacuation. It is perfectly clear that no one will make the effort to note that the Israeli Army is, without doubt, the only one in the world to operate in this manner. Just as no one will dwell too long on the fact that dozens of Palestinians from Gaza - including women and children who were victims of the bombardments - are presently being cared for in the hospital of Ashkelon, in … Israel.

No, it is easier to condemn Israel. Surely, it is customary, almost a Pavlovian reflex. Is Israel building a wall to defend itself against a wave of attacks that have caused hundreds of deaths since the start of this century ? It’s a crime. Is Israel practicing the "targeted elimination" of terrorists ? That’s assassination. Has Israel launched a massive offensive to force reason upon an organisation devoted to its destruction which has launched from its territory thousands of rockets and missiles since the evacuation of the Gaza Strip in 2005 ? That’s still worse !

This cheap sentimentalism would have it that Israel, a strong State, is always wrong and the Palestinians, a small and oppressed people, is right about everything. Such a position is very practical, since it avoids asking a lot of questions and having to deal with unpleasant realities. The good souls who have been marching in Europe for several days now under the flags of Hamas don't make an effort to read, for example, a document in which that organisation sets down in black and white that "Jihad [is] its path and death on God’s route is the most distinguished of their hopes" (article 8). The European diplomats who hasten to the bedside of this same terrorist organisation will certainly not read this passionate document in which the following is also stipulated: "The initiatives, the supposed peace solutions and the international conferences urged to settle the Palestinian question go against the profession of faith of the Islamic Resistance Movement" (article 13).

No one is asking how Hamas was able to bring into Gaza "under absolute blockade" some tens of thousands of rockets and missiles or the components serving to manufacture them, arms, munitions, mines, rocket propelled grenades, anti-aircraft cannons, but… no food or medicine for the population.

No one is asking what other State would have waited two and a half years and thousands of rockets before responding? France? Great Britain? Algeria? Russia?

No one is asking what has become of the 2,000 to 3,000 Palestinian Christians of the Gaza Strip. They are not interesting, since they have been trying to flee from the terror for months now - not the terror of Israel, alas, but that of the green fascists. They even dynamited the only Christian bookstore of the city before assassinating its owner (how about that? no demonstration on that occasion…).

No one is asking why the entourage of Mahmud Abbas put the blame for the conflict on Hamas and not on "the Zionist entity." It would be annoying in fact to recall, for example, that the terrorists of Hamas assassinated more than a hundred supporters of the elected President and members of Fatah when they took power in Gaza (how about that : there was no petition. When dozens of Palestinians were "executed" by their "brothers", that did not interest anyone. Strange, isn’t it ?)

No one is asking how a movement that spreads reports on women ready "to blow themselves up among the swine and monkeys" (broadcast on al-Aqsa, on December 30) and which encourages children to become martyrs can have the nerve to express indignation over their deaths. And no one makes us say what what we do not say: the death of a Palestinian child from Israeli bombs is a cause for suffering, but the real guilty party is Hamas, not Israel …

But all these questions (and plenty more) are in vain, uninteresting and rather stupid in the end. They in fact risk leading us to think that Hamas is a totalitarian and terrorist organisation which should be fought. And that is something we would absolutely not want to consider, right ? That is not the essential point. The essential fact is that Israel is wrong. When will you finally understand that ? Sleep on, you brave folk. The world is simple and the media create your dreams for you."

Source: ESISC (in pdf)

No comments: