JACK ENGELHARD: NUTS TO MORAL EQUIVALENCY ON GAZA
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/15321#.U8OgwJtX_za
As the IDF continues to send the message back to Hamas, now as expected, we hear that “both sides” ought to reflect and stand down.
How bogus to imagine that the Jewish State and Hamas even share the same universe.
For The New York Times it’s already Springtime against Israel because the Jewish State got fed up with swallowing 200 rockets a day – on and off for 10 years. “Israel Hits Mosque and Clinic in Gaza,” runs the latest headline in the Times in an effort to rouse more Israel bashing as it forgets to mention that mosques and clinics and kindergartens are the places from where these ruthless terrorists fire their weapons.
Just yesterday a British journalist collared me and, with that British smile, asked me if I ever paused to consider “the point of view of the other side.” I explained that while German bombs were falling on London, I do not recall Winston Churchill taking a moment to reflect upon the point of view of Adolph Hitler.
Does that answer the question, and if not, Jake Tapper did a marvelous job crushing a PLO mouthpiece when she began giving it the “both sides” song and dance. He nullified her point to point and yes, Jake Tapper works for CNN, so you can never be too sure about anything.
Although you can be sure about the rest of CNN, especially its man on the scene Ben Wedeman, reporting from Gaza, or maybe from inside Israel. In any case, good ol’ Ben was unhappy. This is not a direct quote, but close: “Hamas keeps firing rockets into Israel but they are not hitting anybody. They’re landing in open spaces. So what’s the use?”
We hear you, Ben. Jews are not being killed enough. So what’s the use?
Turn now to CNN’s Anchorman Ron Burgundy – I mean Wolf Blitzer.
He began interviewing the mayor of Jerusalem, as six rockets just landed on Jerusalem, but never mind. Wolf switched the conversation to “extreme elements” within Israel, referring to a single alleged revenge murder. Mayor Nir Barkat proved that such “extremist” crimes happen maybe once every 10 years from less than one percent of the Jewish population.
No matter. Wolf persisted and he had his moral equivalency.
Same deal over at the BBC, where they are trying to put it over fair and square but always sure to highlight the “disproportionate response.”
“Both sides” are given a chance to speak up, as if Israel asked for this war.
No, that is not the story.
Here is the story: Israel is not fighting Hamas. Israel is fighting the lot — Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hizbollah, Fatah, al-Qaeda, the Taliban, ISIS and all the rest of them who are waging wars in the name of Jihad elsewhere throughout the region where it’s tribe against tribe.
Syria, where more than 160,000 have been killed back and forth, is proof enough on how these people can’t get along – and so is Iraq.
So this is not a Jewish-Arab war. Never was.
The Jewish State only finds itself caught in the same neighborhood between rival gangs brawling for turf.
Israel is doing the dirty work for an entire world that fears the encroachment of Islamic caliphates. Hamas is simply another pestilence.
Let’s be clear. This is Arab versus Arab. This is Islam versus Islam.
But the geniuses refuse to make the connection. Even among Jewish philanthropists like young Adam Bronfman “the settlements” justify Arab rage – and yet, Dear Adam, there were no Jewish settlements before 1967 and still the Arabs were enraged and still they gathered their armies and attacked.
For whatever reason Israel gets no benefit of the doubt that proves her to be in the same line of fire as everybody else. She gets no credit and no thanks for holding the front line against the same barbarians that threaten all of civilization. In Israel that begins but does not end with Hamas, which goes crying home to Mommy – the UN – because Johnny hit him back.
Bibi got it right on how Israel differs: “We use rockets to protect our children. They use children to protect their rockets.”
Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. Engelhard wrote the int’l bestseller Indecent Proposal that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. New from the novelist, the anti-BDS thriller Compulsive. Website: www.jackengelhard.com
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