The Bizarre Concept of Disproportionate Response by Jerrold L. Sobel
Posted By Ruth King on December 10th, 2012
NO URL: JERROLD SOBEL IS AN E-PAL
As a young Jewish boy growing up in the Bronx I heard my mother utter the following expression countless times, “there is no anti-Semite like a Jewish anti-Semite. I used to laugh with her all the time and ask her, “Ma is there anyone out there who isn’t an anti-Semite?” I wish she were around for me to tell her she was right more times than not.
Take last month’s dust up in Gaza. A Jewish reader of the Advocate, always disparaging of Israel, and fitting my mother’s description to a tee, proudly emailed me an article written by another Jew of similar mindset.
The article was recently published in the Israeli weekly,
Haaretz. Replete with anti-Israel invective and outright condemnation, the author, Gideon Levy would have made Joseph Goebbels drip with envy having read:
“Gaza Accounting.” Discounting years of unprovoked daily attacks; conveniently forgetting the psychological and physical stress suffered by young Jewish children, this guy, in the vanguard of Israeli bashing kooks, epitomizes the self flagellating Jew both within and outside Israel.
What’s his beef? Not only is Israel responsible for the recent war but is doubly so for suffering disproportionately fewer casualties in ending it.
He states, “Since the first Qassam rocket fell on Israel in April 2001, 59 Israelis have been killed – and 4,717 Palestinians.” Somehow lost in his thinking is why the first Qassam fell on Israel to begin with. By this preposterous logic, to make the terrorists whole Israel must owe them, 4658 Jewish fatalities.
Notwithstanding, that during this brief but bitter exchange Israel has continued, inexplicably in my view, to maintain electric and basic services to Gaza. Doesn’t matter, to this author, the disparity in fatalities places the onus for the war squarely upon Israel’s shoulders.
Proving there is an antithesis to the cliche, “great minds think alike,” syndicated columnist Amy Goodman, like Gideon Levy, also faults the Jewish state for disproportionately lower fatalities: “
In Gaza, It’s the Occupation Stupid“If this absurd notion were just the gabble of two far left writers it could be laughed off. But it’s not. Out of the propagandist, mindset of fellow Jews Noam Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein, this latest inane condemnation is echoing, unsurprisingly from that bastion of Jewish love, Europe.
The Scottish Government’s Minister for External Affairs described Israel’s bombardment of Gaza as “heavily disproportionate.”
The Russian government, led by humanitarian extraordinaire, Vladimir Putin, also faulted Israel for it’s “disproportionate response.”
If the invective hurled at Israel for defending herself isn’t preposterous enough, the fact that Mohamed Morsi, head of the Muslim Brotherhood and recently, self appointed strongman of Egypt “brokered the peace” between Israel and the terrorists. Before doing so he displayed his prowess for impartiality by deeming the war an example of “Israeli criminal aggression.”
What’s happened in Europe has now become all to common in journalism. Neither Levy or Goodman even feign objectivity in their propagandist diatribes.
Goodman claims to have asked a Gazan woman what it’s like to endure an air raid? But nowhere in the article does she interview a mother in the Israeli city of Sderot or any other city adjacent to Gaza. For years, Jewish mothers have lived in fear knowing their children have had only 16 seconds to find cover from daily, unprovoked, and indiscriminate rocket attacks.
Nor in her screed is there any mention of Ariel Sharon’s misconceived plan for peace, uprooting hundreds of thousands Jews from Gaza, granting the strip De-facto autonomy, receiving constant terrorism in return. She also seems totally oblivious to the fact that it’s these same incessant, indiscriminate rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza which precipitated these wars to begin with.
Within her agitprop there is ample mention of Israeli F-16’s in action but the author fails to mention their targets, namely tunnels dug for smuggling sophisticated weaponry from Iran and Egypt into Gaza. Also conveniently omitted are these same planes dropping leaflets on the population forewarning them of an imminent Israeli response in their area. A courtesy no other nation in the history of warfare ever bestowed upon an enemy.
Not to be outdone, further into his article, Gideon Levy sticks to his mantra by stating: “between the start of the year and the outbreak of Operation Pillar of Defense, only one Israeli was killed by rocket and mortar-shell fire from Gaza….During that same period, Israel killed no fewer than 78 Palestinians in Gaza.
This is a patently absurd argument. Collateral damage has been an offshoot of warfare since the beginning of time. Unfortunately the author fails to point out, the difference between Israel and the terrorists is collateral damage caused by Israel is regrettable that of the terrorists is intentional. Speaking of which:
According to an article:
Civilian Casualties during Operation Allied Force, as few as 489 and as many as 528 Yugoslav civilians were killed due to NATO airstrikes during the Kosovo war. Civilian death in war is an ugly byproduct of an ugly event. But the difference between the aforementioned and Israel is allied bombings during WW II and Kosovo was indiscriminate. Israel’s responses to indiscriminate rocket attacks by Hamas, arguably to a fault are discriminate.
Forgoing a scintilla of objectivity, Levy fails to mention the saving in life and property if Hamas discontinued storing munitions and conducting offensive operations in residential neighborhoods. Instead he is stuck in this mode of incongruity and continues to drone on about the statistical disparity between casualties on both sides. He mentions that over this period of time the Palestinians fired 7,361 rockets at Israel but then adds Israel’s response in numbers was “immeasurably higher.” Bringing incredulity to a new level, you have to wonder, what could this guy be thinking? Should Israel be ashamed of winning this round and finally buying some peace, however tenuous, for her beleaguered citizens?
By the last five paragraphs of this dribble, there’s no longer any doubt, Levy is a Jewish propagandist for Hamas. Here are a couple of Goebbelesque snippets:
“The answer to the no less important question of who is the victim and who is the aggressor is also complex and far from the unequivocal answer provided in Israel’s public diplomacy efforts. Israel has always killed more people.” He goes on to say:
“Yet what does Israeli propaganda try to do? To paint the south as the sole and only victim. In the manner of all cheap propaganda, this distorts reality a trifle.”….
“But the primary victim, the one who is bleeding most, is Gaza; Israel is only in second place.”….
“The battle is against a continued occupation – a partial occupation since the disengagement, but an occupation nonetheless.”
“Just two days ago, the very day after a cease-fire was achieved, Israel had already killed another Palestinian demonstrator near the border fence with Gaza. But what the heck; who’s counting?”
If this man was not delusional or an anti-Semite, he might question: with a ceasefire supposedly in effect, if not for a photo-op of violence why would Hamas allow “civilians” approach the Israeli border?
“Occupation?” The only occupation is by Hamas, a U.S. recognized terrorist organization, now in control of the Gaza strip.
“Gaza is bleeding more than Israel.” It doesn’t have to be that way. If Hamas with overwhelming support from their populace would stop firing rockets at Israel, they would have immediate peace; simple as that.
But with the exception of the willfully blind we all recognize this can never be. Hamas is sworn to their Charter of 1988 which calls for Israel’s total annihilation. This manifesto was written years before they had control of Gaza, yet never have they wavered from their creed. When they speak of occupation, they’re talking about all of Israel not just Gaza or the disputed “territories” in Judea and Samaria. By endemic decree, they call for jihad, a perpetual war with Israel. To them and the people they represent, there can be no lasting placation or compromise short of total victory.
Inured with their demeanor and that of their apologists over the years, their actions are not surprising. But admittedly, it’s still inexplicable to read Jewish journalists unwaveringly support those seeking the total eradication of Israel. It leads me to think. Mom you may have been onto something.
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