Friday, March 07, 2008

Appalling Violence

It is interesting to read the coverage of the BBC about the murder of eight students in a yeshiva in Jerusalem. There is a lot of coverage of the attack and the site allows comments. The comments are for the most part anti-Israel, which should not be surprising. But what is interesting is the nature of many of the complaints. In essence, people say that there is too much brouhaha over eight students killed in Jerusalem while nobody pays any attention to what is going on in Gaza; in some cases of course because the Jews own the media, etc.
If that is the case, how do you know what goes on in Gaza? I've been reading about it every day in none other but the New York Times. Also on the BBC.
People who hate Israel think that the response to the murder of eight teenage students inside a school is disproportionate. I think that if one looks at it as objectively as possible, if someone comes inside a school to kill students who are young, unarmed and learning, it is big news, it doesn't matter if its Columbine in Colorado or a yeshiva in Israel. There is something (brutal, cowardly, appalling) about killing unarmed innocent civilians that merits coverage, wouldn't you think? But for those who hate Israel, and in many cases this correlates to hating Jews, this is offensive and over the top. They think that nobody cares about the Palestinians. To judge from the popular response in the BBC, I think a lot more people care about the Palestinians than they do about the Israelis. But the sense of unfairness is strong and deep.
That a terrorist organization like Hamas hides behind their own citizens to launch rockets and provoke Israel does not seem to resonate. That Hamas does everything in its power to derail peace talks and to continue the violence does not merit debate. It is just Israel that is an evil oppressor.
Israel, may I remind you, withdrew from Gaza and gave it autonomy. What happened? Hamas and Fatah started killing each other for power. What happened? Hamas continues attacking Israel and has shown absolutely no interest in recognizing it or negotiating with it. Israel is supposed to make all the concessions to people who don't want it even to exist? I don't think so.

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