The reaction on Arab street was swift and predictable. On the West Bank protestors called for the ouster of PA president, Mahmoud Abbas. (I actually agree with them but for entirely opposite reasons.) They want him out because they blame him for what they see as constant Israeli aggression against fellow Palestinians in Gaza culminating with a deadly attack against a hospital in Gaza.
That might seem to be a legitimate perception since Israel has been indeed bombing targets in Gaza in their attempt to destroy the terrorist infrastructure imbedded in various highly populated areas of Gaza. Who can blame them for seeing Israeli culpability in this attack? It is an obvious conclusion based on these circumstances.
Except that this conclusion is very like wrong. Israel has strongly denied having bombed that hospital, based on their examination of the circumstances. They have concluded that Islamic Jihad was responsible for hitting that hospital with one of their own rockets which was aimed at Israel but fell short hitting that hospital. This may sound like a ‘He said. She said’ But apparently the evidence was strong enough to convince the President that ‘the other team’ was responsible.
But even if it had been an Israeli bomb that did that, it would have been an accidental casualty of war. Israel does not target civilians. Innocent civilians being killed happen all the time in war. However when it happen in in Gaza it is not that accidental. Not because of Israel. But because of the sinister use by Hamas of their onw people as human shields. This way when any of those human shields gets killed by an Israeli defensive military action, Hamas and their sympathizers accuse Israel . of being baby killers. That is in essence what they are saying now about that hospital attack. And Arab nations bought it.
Thing is - Israel goes out of its way to warn civilians in Gaza about an impending attack – giving them enough time leave the premises. All while Hamas discourages them from doing this - so that they can have more casualties to blame on Israel
That is the difference between this tragic loss of 500 innocent civilians in a Gaza hospital and the intentional mass murder of 1400 innocent Israeli and American citizens less than two weeks ago. Hamas deliberately sought to kill, torture, and rape innocent Jews and in the process took 200 hostages. The death of innocents at the hand of the Israeli militarily is never intentional
I could therefore never fully understand why in the past - the only people making this distinction were Israelis themselves. The world was very quick to condemn Israel as war criminals when they had to know that Israel was merely defending themselves after their own civilians were attacked.
World leaders and the mainstream media reserve their sympathy for Gaza residents - giving little more than lip service to the reason they are suffering. There are always casualties of war. In this case, those casualties are increased precisely because of Hamas, not because of anything Israel did. Israel’s defensive actions have always included minimizing the collateral damage to innocents citizens.
Thus proving to me (not that I ever needed any proof) the latent antisemitic bias of Europe. And the misguided sympathy of the liberal/left mainstream media that only sees the ‘here and now’ and rarely recognizes context.
It’s true that the US has always supported Israel’s right to defend itself in the past. But they have always added comments like the following: Israel has to be more careful to avoid civilian casualties .
I had always resented those ‘warnings’ since I know that Israel goes out of its way to avoid civilian casualties when they are involved in a defensive actions in Gaza. Sometimes at the cost of their own soldiers’ lives!
Well the US did not say that this time. In response to media questions about so many Palestinian casualties - he has consistently been responding that Israel has a right to defend itself. e come up in past Gaza wars.
On that score the President has not wavered. On the contrary. His strong verbal heartfelt support for Israel upon being made aware of the vicious attack by Hamas was followed by immediate action. He has sent two of the US's most powerful aircraft carriers and their accompanying destroyer ships to the region - as a warning to enemy nations like Iran and entities like Hezbollah to not take advantage of the situation and attack Israel. He has sent additional military aircraft to Israel and will ask congress to approve billions of dollars of additional military aid to Israel. He has also sent 2000 American combat troops as advisory personnel to Israel. Although they are not there as ‘boots on the ground’ they are there to show the world that when America says it has Israel’s back, they mean it.
Perhaps the most important thing he did was to show his support was by going to Israel in the middle of a war exposing himself to its dangers. It was nice to see the leader of the free world embracing the Prime Minister of Israel; standing side by side expressing the same sentiments, despite their disagreements.
The US will never allow Israel to be destroyed. Israel is one of the US’s most important allies. It is right up their with the UK and France. Israel is probably more important to the US than even those two countries. This is what I heard an analyst on CBS say this morning when asked why the President is so quick to take Israel’s side on the hospital attack.
Considering how biased the mainstream media has been in its coverage of Israel - it’s amazing that he actually said this. I have always thought this was the case. Now it has been corroborated y a political analyst not always that sympathetic to Israel.
Yesterday on my flight back to Israel I was able to access live reports on the war from CNN and the BBC. Yes they were outraged by what Hamas did to Israel. They actually expressed deep sympathy for Israel this time.
But as is so common by the left, they expressed moral equivalency between what Israel is dong and what Hamas did. They spent a lot more time interviewing Gaza residents on the hardships they are enduring because of Israel. As if Israel is more to blame for the carnage against Palestinians than is Hamas for the carnage against Israelis!.
I wish I could say that it is only leftist media like CNN and the BBC doing it. But it appears the that Ivy League schools like Harvard are doing it too - blaming everything on Israel. According to a tenured and highly respected Jewish professor I know, it is not just BDS students but the schools themselves!
I a however happy to see that the US president and the vast majority of congress is not buying any of that. God bless them.
It is with that in mind that Israel does whatever it takes to get hostages out of Hamas’s grip. and then proceed to do whatever it takes to obliterate that evil entity and lesser ones like Islamic Jihad. I am 100% certain that Israel will take every precaution to minimize civilian casualties. I am also sure that that those precautions will add casualties to the IDF. (May God protect them). But Israel must keep their eyes on the prize. Which is to destroy Hamas and Islamic Jihad in order to protect the Jewish people of Israel.