A Summary of The War In Gaza

After about two weeks of the War in Gaza I feel qualified to give a short summary of what is going on in the following outline.
  • Israel initiates Operation Cast Lead to end the rocket attacks from Gaza.
  • There is an outcry about disproportionate force. World angry that more Israelis are not dead. Why should Israel be angry about dead Israelis.
  • Hamas leaders show up on Al Jazeera and in other media outlets where they praise the "resistance" and promise death to Israel.
  • Israel demonstrates it learned from Lebanon war in '06 and makes real progress.
  • Useful idiots around world again cry about disproportionate force. Angry that only a few Israelis have died.
  • Hamas leader show up on television. Praise resistance again and use fiery rhetoric claiming great successes and maintain that the end is near.
  • Israel continues to beat the terrorists. Demonstrable progress is made.
  • More useful idiots cry about disproportionate force. Join together in a march to say that they are all useful idiots.
  • Hamas leader back on television. Swears by Allah that victory is close and that even if it is not, the peace process is done. But it doesn't matter because Allah will bring victory. BTW, did I tell you that God is on our side.
  • More success on the battlefield for Israel.
  • Antiwar protests filled with antisemitic slogans. Blogosphere filled too. Useful idiots say that there is a small problem with antisemitism, but it doesn't matter because Israel should be shunned.
  • In between all of this various newspaper articles and opinion pieces supporting Israel appear. Useful idiots moan and cry that this is indicative of bias. Antisemities claim that this is proof that Jooz run the media.

Rinse, Repeat and continue. You get the picture.

Crossposted on Yourish.

6 comments:

AnechoicRoom said...

Enjoyable lil romp. But "In between all of this various newspaper articles and opinion pieces supporting Israel appear" ... ? (one has to assume snarkasm).

Anyways ... regards the (lying liar's) word of the day/week/month: disproportionate.

Yes, Israel Can Win in Gaza.

Jack Steiner said...

It is what it is.

chosha said...

I'm certainly not going to get into the whole Gaza thing, because I just don't know enough to comment. However, there is one thing you've said that really bothered me. To say that concerns over the use of disproportionate force only come from idiots 'angry that only a few Israelis have died' is just ludicrous. It IS possible to hold the Israelis to a standard of just warfare without being antisemitic. All is NOT fair in love and war.

Jack Steiner said...

It IS possible to hold the Israelis to a standard of just warfare without being antisemitic.

I have no disagreement with that. Every country should be criticized. But I have a number of issues with the way some people have been doing it with Israel.

We can start by asking the people who cry about humanitarian issues where they have been for the past several years. Hamas has been firing rockets into Israel the entire time.

If you review the videos and photos of the protests you see multiple examples of antisemitism. Screaming "Jews to the oven" or holding signs that suggest that Jews run the media etc.

When I read about attacks on Jews in London and Paris, vandals defacing synagogues etc I wonder when the leaders of these protests are going to stand up and condemn these acts.

I wonder when the celebrities who claim to support Hamas are going to condemn them.

I wonder when these so called humanitarians are going to include the devastation in Africa in their fight for justice.

When I don't see those things I am forced to wonder why I do not.

I don't believe that all of Israel's critics are antisemitic but there is too much going on for me to say that it is not a part of this.

chosha said...

I understand your perspective and it's probably an easy one to have when you are following events so closely. But just remember that for a lot of people (including me), Israel is a country, not a 'bunch of Jews'(in terms of war and related events, obviously - I'm not oblivious to what Israel might represent to Jews themselves). Nothing that I read in the news about the actions of the Israeli army has any connection in my mind to Jewish people anywhere else. To be honest I don't get why anyone makes that connection. Your blog is riddled with support for Israel and anti-Hamas posts and I still would never think to blame you for anything Israel did that I thought was unjust.

Jack Steiner said...

Chosha,

It is entirely possible for reasonable people to level criticism without making it into a religious or race based matter.

And I am sure that many do. But we are always forced to deal with the bad apples.

Since I started blogging about the war I have received daily comments from people making antisemitic remarks. It would be easy for me to compile a post of pictures and videos of the antisemitism exhibited at the rallies.

And I have linked to many many stories that are anti-Hamas. There is video footage of them using children as human shields. There is footage of them using mosques and schools and more stories of plenty of war crimes.

There are Israeli Human rights organizations who are investigating Israel's actions. There are no such groups on the other side and it is not because they are free of blame.

I have a problem with the people who cry about this but do not bother to delve into why it is happening.

I have a problem with people who cry about disproportionate response but do not understand what is legal and what isn't.

I have a problem with people who fail to cry out about all of the other problems in the world as well. Situations that have been going on much longer.

Not saying that they can't complain about Israel, just that the most vocal seem to be the most ignorant and most hypocritical.

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