The political situation in Israel has been less than encouraging ever since the accession of Ehud Olmert as prime minister and the end of the 1986 war with Hizbullah. Despite the fact that the majority of Israeli citizens see clearly the danger of Hamas and the PA, the government of Israel seems to be infected by the same dhimmi virus that afflicts the rest of the West.The current state of affairs in “Palestine” serves to highlight the convergence of several pathological trends that have become more and more common within Western culture:
| 1. | The classification of terrorist violence solely as a law enforcement issue; | |
| 2. | The refusal to hold governments responsible for terrorism committed from within their borders and/or by their citizens; | |
| 3. | Portraying as victims passive members of the cultures which raise up and celebrate terrorists; | |
| 4. | A refusal to look realistically at the nature of fourth-generation warfare; | |
| 5. | A racist and paternalistic attitude towards non-Western cultures; | |
| 6. | White guilt; and | |
| 7. | That old standard: Jew-hatred. |
The advanced stages of this cultural syndrome are exemplified by the recent events in Gaza. The daily rocket attacks launched by Hamas against Sderot and other areas adjacent to the Gaza strip would not have been borne by any other Western nation without severe reprisal.But any mild response by Israel is always considered cruel overkill, and invariably condemned by the UN:
Collective punishment for Gaza is wrong — U.N.
Israel has a right to respond to security threats but should not collectively punish the Gaza population for rocket attacks from the Palestinian territory, the U.N. humanitarian affairs chief said on Friday.
The United Nations also criticized Israel’s decision to close all border crossings with Gaza, preventing delivery of a U.N. aid shipment to the territory’s 1.5 million people, most of whom depend on foreign aid.
“We all understand the security problems and the need to respond to that but collective punishment of the people of Gaza is not, we believe, the appropriate way to do that,” said John Holmes, undersecretary-general for Humanitarian Affairs.
The deputy head of Israel’s mission to the United Nations, Daniel Carmon, told Reuters Israel’s actions were “what any responsible government would do when it is confronted as we are with this surge of violence and terrorism.”
[…]
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called “for an immediate cessation of Palestinian sniper and rocket attacks into Israel, and for maximum restraint on the part of the Israel Defence Forces,” spokeswoman Michel Montas said in a statement.
[…]
Holmes also urged the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which seized control of Gaza last June, to use its authority to put an end to the attacks against Israel.
“I’m calling on the Hamas leaders … to do whatever they can to stop these attacks because they claim to be in control of Gaza there,” Holmes said. “Therefore they have a responsibility to stop the attacks.”
It’s not just the inevitable moral equivalence — “both sides”, “the peace process”, etc. — at work here. Israel’s response, mild by any standards except those of the UN and the EU, is viewed as “collective punishment”.
Was the bombing of Hamburg by the Allies in WW2 a collective punishment? Or the firebombing of Tokyo? Obviously, by today’s criteria, they were. But to those who actually fought the war, mass reprisal was a necessary and appropriate strategic decision.
Times have changed, and so has the nature of warfare. Now even non-violent responses to violent aggression are considered inhumane and unfair. The first thing our Western media discover is the harm done to the wee bairns of Palestine:
- - - - - - - - -
Electricity Plant Shut Down, Gaza City Plunged Into Darkness After Israeli Fuel Cutoff
Gaza’s only electrical plant shut down Sunday after Israel blocked the shipment of fuel that powers them, plunging Gaza City into darkness and sending already beleaguered Gazans to stock up on food and batteries in anticipation of long, dark, cold days ahead.
Israel blockaded Gaza Thursday as a pressure tactic against militants who have been firing rockets at Israel every day. The stricken power plant generates about one third of Gaza’s electricity. The rest, which comes from Israel, was not affected by the blockade, Israeli officials said.
A U.N. agency and human rights groups condemned Israel, but Israel said they should direct their criticism at Palestinian militant groups that fire rockets at southern Israel every day.
Notice that Israel is magnanimous, and shows great restraint in its “collective punishment”:
In addition to the fuel it receives from Israel to power its electrical plant, Gaza gets about two-thirds of its electricity directly from Israel. Israeli officials said that supply would not be affected.
But the media-savvy guys at Hamas know how to exploit these events for their full propaganda value:
Hamas officials shut down the plant and plunged Gaza City into total darkness, Gaza Energy Authority head Kanan Obeid said. TV crews and reporters were invited to witness the shutdown just before 8 p.m. (1800 GMT). A candlelight protest march was planned for later Sunday.
Hamas leaders, of course, are only concerned about the welfare of the children:Health Ministry official Dr. Moaiya Hassanain warned that the fuel cutoff would cause a health catastrophe. “We have the choice to either cut electricity on babies in the maternity ward or heart surgery patients or stop operating rooms,” he said.
I don’t have to point out that the babies in these maternity wards will soon grow up and go to school to be indoctrinated in the ubiquitous Palestinian death cult. Not long after that they will be encouraged by their parents, their peers, and the leaders of Hamas to strap on a bomb belt and blow themselves up.Dr. Hassanain’s official concern for the babies is thus to ensure they live long enough to become suicide bombers.
The entire crisis is a hoax perpetrated on the world media by Hamas:
Shlomo Dror, spokesman for Israel’s Defense Ministry, said Gaza has enough fuel and accused Palestinian officials of trying to create the impression of a crisis that did not exist.
And the usual suspects from the UN and the quangos are saying the appropriate lines from their scripts:
“The logic of this defies basic humanitarian standards,” said Christopher Gunness, spokesman for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency.
Human rights groups also condemned the fuel cutoff. The British group Oxfam called it “ineffective as well as unlawful.” Gisha, an Israeli group that has fought the fuel cutbacks in Israel’s Supreme Court, said “punishing Gaza’s 1.5 million civilians does not stop the rocket fire; it only creates an impossible ‘balance’ of human suffering on both sides of the border.”
To make matters worse, there is an ample supply of self-loathing ready to be deployed within the elites of Israel’s liberal media:
Alon Ben-David, military analyst for Israel’s Channel 10 TV, said Israel could not maintain the blockade for more than a few days. “Israel understands that a humanitarian crisis is developing here,” he said.
Hamas, of course, is not required to cease its violent activities:
A defiant Hamas said its attacks on Israel would not cease because of the sanctions.
“We will not raise the white flag, and we will not surrender, “ Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said Sunday.
After several days of this kind of coverage, the Israeli authorities were unable to tolerate any more, and withdrew the blockade:
Israel Agrees to Ease Blockade on Gaza as Bakeries, Gas Stations Close
Israel agreed Monday to move diesel fuel and medicine into Gaza on a one-time basis, easing the blockade imposed because of a surge in Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israel. The shift came after the Israeli prime minister said Gaza’s residents can “walk, without gas for their cars.”
Israel and Gaza’s Hamas government were locked in a public relations battle over the depth of the hardship, and the U.N. warned that international food aid could be suspended by the end of the week. An angry Hamas TV announcer shouted that “we are being killed, we are starving!” and Palestinian leaders issued emotional pleas for national unity, while Israel accused Hamas of fabricating a crisis to gain world sympathy.
That’s exactly what they have been doing, and it worked, didn’t it?
Late Monday, Israel decided to allow some diesel fuel and medicine into Gaza on Tuesday.
“We think Hamas got the message. As we have seen in the past couple of days, when they want to stop the rockets, they can,” said the Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, Arye Mekel, confirming the decision.
Oh yes, Hamas got the message, all right. The message is: “You may act against us with virtual impunity, because our responses will be mild and limited, and even those will be withdrawn at the first hint of condemnation in the world’s media.”
Hamas has perfected the art of fourth-generation warfare:
- Limited but continuous violence, to terrorize the enemy and wear down his will to resist.
- Skillful manipulation of the gullible Western media, using falsehood, selective information, staged atrocities, and all the other time-hallowed methods of the unscrupulous propagandist.
- The preservation of deniability at the official level of the state or pseudo-state.
If, for example, the Egyptian army were to mass in the Sinai on the border of Israel and attempt a conventional invasion, few outside the Arab world would condemn a vigorous military response on the part of the Israelis.
But when the attacking force is a ragtag mob of terrorist militias armed with homemade rockets, any response by the Israeli authorities is routinely condemned.
Back in the 19th century, before the onset of white guilt and Multiculturalism, the attitudes towards such irregular warfare were far more sane.
If pirates launched attacks on shipping from within a country’s territorial waters, it was considered an act of war.
An armed incursion by a terrorist militia would provoke a severe military response against the state that harbored the terrorists.
But nowadays the legitimate government of a country is no longer considered responsible for organized violence by its citizens directed at another country. Add to this the fact that “Palestine” is not even a functioning state, and the terrorists can act with almost complete impunity.
If the Palestinian Authority truly cannot control the actions of its citizens, then it is a joke, not a government, and should be granted no effective recognition by the world’s real governments. If it does have control of its citizens, then it is guilty of international aggression, and should be dealt with accordingly.
But since the Palestinians are “brown” people, and Israelis are “white”, the former must never be held responsible for their behavior, and the latter must always show restraint.
Include in this toxic mix the anti-Semitism that has become all but universal in the last decade, and Israel doesn’t stand a chance against a handful of keffiyeh-clad thugs with their Qassam rockets.
Hat tip: Zenster.
13 comments:
Having lived about half my life in Israel I think I can shed some additional light on the reasons why Israel does not use much stronger measures agaist Hamas ,such as a total and permanent blokade.
ANY Israeli government ,including Olmert's would naturaly want cut off fuel,electricty etc. to a Hamas led Gaza, but the political and ECONOMIC price is just too high. It could very easily lead to full-scale economic sanctions being voted inn by the UN and EU.
And this is something that Israel can not aford ,because conventional war is a far more realistic possibility than peoble outside of the country seem to believe ; and conventional war against a worst-case -scenario coalition including Egypt,Iran and Jordan is what any Israeli government ALWAYS have to be ready for,and that is very,very expencive ; so, at this point in time ,it is not worth the damage to the Economy that going after the Hamas would cause .
Those Israeli's, like myself, that have to live with artilery rokets raining down on their homes on a daily basis ,know all this ,and wait for the day when somthing will change . Before or later Gaza will experience something similar to what happened in GROZNY , Chechenia.
Which only goes to show the hypocritical nature of the UN and the EU.
This is one of the stupidest dilemmas ever. First, the miscreants fire rockets at the people they depend on for supplies and then get upset when the supplies are cut-off. Just how ignorant can one group of people be?
Gaza borders Egypt, Israel and the mediterranean Sea. If everybody (read the UN)is so concerned about these worthless cretins, why don't they bring what they need through Egypt? Or better still, spend a few more hundred$ of million$ and build them a port that can handle what they need so it doesn't have to go through Israel? As far as the humanitarian supplies and fuel are concerned take Israel out of the equation.
I am so sick of these whining, murderous wastes of protoplasm that if it were up to me, I would let them sit in the dark and starve.
Baron, thank you very much for posting this article. The notion of collective punishment is one that will need to be addressed at length before significant progress can be made in fighting global jihad.
“We all understand the security problems and the need to respond to that but collective punishment of the people of Gaza is not, we believe, the appropriate way to do that,” said John Holmes, undersecretary-general for Humanitarian Affairs.
In light of how Hamas won with a majority vote, Israel's reprisals in response to continued rocket attacks represent justified retaliation against aggression sponsored by the Palestinians' elected government. There is no "collective punishment" happening. The majority of Palestinians wanted war to be conducted against Israel and they are currently experiencing what happens when war is waged against a well-armed and well-trained military force.
Weren't counting on getting your arses kicked so hard for openly declaring genocide? Too effing bad. Perhaps a little more thought might be in order next time around.
“I’m calling on the Hamas leaders … to do whatever they can to stop these attacks because they claim to be in control of Gaza there,” Holmes said. “Therefore they have a responsibility to stop the attacks.”
“[S]top the attacks”? Hasn’t the undersecretary-general for Humanitarian Affairs bothered to read Hamas’ charter?
Article Thirteen: Peaceful Solutions, [Peace] Initiatives and International Conferences
[Peace] initiatives, the so-called peaceful solutions, and the international conferences to resolve the Palestinian problem, are all contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement. For renouncing any part of Palestine means renouncing part of the religion;
As to “renouncing any part of Palestine”, a little historical perspective is in order.
From “The communist roots of Palestinian terror”:
(Anyone who has not read this short article is urged to do so.)
During the nineteen years from Israel's victory in 1948 to Israel's victory in the Six-Day war, all that remained of the territory initially set aside for the Arabs of British Mandatory Palestine under the conditions of the UN partition was the West Bank, under illegal Jordanian sovereignty, and the Gaza Strip, under illegal Egyptian rule. Never during these nineteen years did any Arab leader anywhere in the world argue for the right of national self-determination for the Arabs of these territories. Even Yassir Arafat, from his earliest terrorist days until 1967, used the term 'Palestinians' only to refer to the Arabs who lived under, or had fled from, Israeli sovereignty; and the term 'Palestine' only to refer to Israel in its pre-1967 borders.
In the PLO's original founding Charter (or Covenant), Article 24 states: "this Organization does not exercise any regional sovereignty over the west Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, in the Gaza Strip or the Himmah area."
For Arafat, 'Palestine' was not the west Bank or the Gaza Strip, which after 1948 belonged to other Arab states. The only 'homeland' for the PLO in 1964 was the State of Israel. However, in response to the Six-Daywar and Arafat's mentoring by the Soviets and their allies, the PLO revised its Charter on July 17, 1968, to remove the language of Article 24, thereby newly asserting a 'Palestinian' claim of sovereignty to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Part of the reframing of the conflict, along with adopting the identity of an 'oppressed people' and 'victim of colonialism', then, was the creation, ex nihilo, of 'historic Palestine' and the ancient 'Palestinian people' who had lived in their 'homeland' from 'time immemorial', who could trace their 'heritage' back to the Canaanites, who were forced from their homeland by the Zionists, and who had the inalienable right granted by international law and universal justice to use terror to reclaim their national identity and political self-determination.
That this was a political confection was, perhaps inadvertently, revealed to the West by Zahir Muhse'in, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, in a 1977 interview with the Amsterdam-based newspaper Trouw:
"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct 'Palestinian people' to oppose Zionism."
[Emphasis added.]
Arafat himself asserted the same principle on many occasions. In his authorized biography he says, "The Palestinian people have no national identity. I, Yasir Arafat, man of destiny, will give them that identity through conflict with Israel."
Once the total fabrication is understood of how Arafat invented the “Palestinian” people out of whole cloth, earlier parts of the foregoing article fall into place:
The PLO came on the scene at a critical moment in Middle East history. At the Khartoum conference held shortly after the Six-Day war, the defeated and humiliated Arab states confronted the 'new reality' of an Israel that seemed unbeatable in conventional warfare. The participants of the conference decided, among other things, to continue the war against Israel as what today would be called a 'low intensity conflict'. The PLO's Fatah forces were perfect to carry out this mission.
The “Palestinians” have always been nothing more than a proxy military used by surrounding Arab nations to continue their fight against Israel without suffering further humiliation at the IDF’s hands.
From this, we can see how Hamas’ stance that “renouncing any part of Palestine means renouncing part of the religion” is a patent forgery designed to link Palestinian and Islamic causes despite the total absence of any justification save that of establishing a global caliphate.
Was the bombing of Hamburg by the Allies in WW2 a collective punishment? Or the firebombing of Tokyo? Obviously, by today’s criteria, they were. But to those who actually fought the war, mass reprisal was a necessary and appropriate strategic decision.
This is where we finally begin to traverse some pertinent historical geography. Even the most cursory examination of Islam reveals that it is—if nothing else—all about collective punishment. Muslim women are—one and all—held continuously responsible for Eve’s deception of Adam and mankind’s eviction from paradise. The Islamic notion of dhimmitude epitomizes collective punishment. The wrongs of even a single dhimmi can be laid upon the backs of an entire ethnic community.
Finally, we come to the most vile and malignant form of collective punishment; TERRORISM. Lest there be any doubt, the Koran exalts terror in warfare:
K 8:012 — “I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them.”
How is it that we must endure such a singularly evil form of collective punishment and not be entitled to dispense it against those who inflict this indiscriminate slaughter? I have previously noted how this world’s Muslim population must be made to feel the West’s pain. Nothing of the sort has begun to happen, not even in the remotest sense.
Few large forest fires are fought without setting a backfire to deprive the conflagration of fuel. So it is with Islam that we must begin to fight fire with fire. If Muslims refuse to expel terrorists from their ranks they must be made to pay a price for their tacit complicity. We in the West have absolutely no obligation to clean Islam’s house. Western efforts to do so are the height of folly and earn us nothing but scorn from Islamic friends and foes alike. Muslims must be coerced into taking up the fight against terrorism. The penalties for inaction must be increased until change from within occurs.
With each new terrorist atrocity, entire Muslim cities must vanish. For the sake of humanity, we can give warning at first. After suffering enough continuing atrocities, any warnings can be stopped. The net result must be that sufficient numbers of Muslims are deprived of wealth and shelter until they begin to blame the terrorists for their plight. Each new terrorist atrocity must be made to increase Muslim anger until they begin killing the jihadis in each of their respective communities. If they rermain unwilling to do this, then depriving them of wealth will serve to emliminate their ability to fund terrorism. Either way, popular support for terrorism must be halted or punished vigorously. Muslims must make that choice for themselves but we must force them to choose. To date, they have rejected any need for opposing terrorism and that must change.
The alternative means allowing our misplaced sense of humanity to stay our hand until some truly horrendous atrocity—like a terrorist nuclear attack—unleashes a far more deadly chain of events. This is the butcher’s bill and it grows with each passing day. Our political elite seek only to pass this nettlesome problem along to future administrations. Far too many of them are either deluded about Islam’s true intentions or beholden to Saudi paymasters that pervert our government’s will to fight when war has been declared against us.
Anyone about to comment this? http://www.weforum.org/pdf/C100/Islam_West.pdf
Survey with the european countries about the threat of muslim countries. It's making headlines in Denmark today.
Interesting article from Kramperen. Everybody should read it. It is a fascinating insight into the mind of the self proclaimed universalist - with all their presumptuous arrogance.
Also features some poor polling on the state of Western/Islamic relations. This has been mainly caused by the Iraq War. A war whose most vicious defenders and apologists are the so called Universalists.
Ole
You are quite right in your assessment. There is no point in squandering the little goodwill that Israel has, just to score points on Hamas, PA or its supporters in Israel, or wherever.
Better that Israel waits for an opportunity, such that it can take action that will increase its strategic depth. And this time, unlike June 1967 and thereafter, make a clear case that Israel has the "Right of Conquest" as any other nation, and refuse to cede any conquered territory. The only concession that Israel should ever make, is peace for peace, nothing else.
The time is not right at this moment, but given the Pali penchant for overreach, it will come. I hope Israel is not so foolish this time, if ever such an opportunity arises again.
I had no idea that Israel supplies 2/3of the power to Gaza! That is insane!
Zenster,
I generally enjoy reading your comments when they are a couple of paragraphs. I understand you have a lot to say but if your comments are so long which they generally are I just skip right over them. And I am probably not alone. I want to read what you have to say, so it would probably help if you cut them down.: )
Respectfully, unlike Spackle, I enjoy and appreciate . . . e-v-e-r-y . . . w-o-r-d of Zenster's carefully composed comments.
Some of us are a little slower on the uptake and appreciate Zenster's efforts at bringing us up to speed with thorough explanations in each comment.
As a matter of fact, I've specifically linked to this most recent comment as it makes significant points worthy further pondering.
Spackle, I wish I could feel bad but I can't. My only apologies go to the Baron and Dymphna for bandwidth consumption. When opportunity presents itself, their tip jar will be hit.
Please find the time to read my comment. As HerRoyalWhyness was kind enough to note, a lot of care and investigation go into my comments. The one above specifically goes into how and why the entire Israeli-Palestinian conflict was manufactured as a way of continuing war by proxy after the Israelis handed their supposedly-more-powerful neighbors one stunning defeat after another.
It's long past tea to rip the mask off of this incredible farce. Notice how Hamas' charter specifically rejects all peace processes?
Why, then, are the Quartet and so many NGOs continuing to force failed agreement after failed agreement down Israel's throat? Regardless of what they might say, the only conclusion available is that much of this world is intensely anti-Semitic and uses this conflict to kill more Jews.
As the Baron very capably notes, this moral inversion doesn't just stop with the Palestinians. Few, if any, speak up about the intense hypocrisy of how Arabs protray the Jews as Nazis when it is Muslims who most resemble Hitler and his aspirations.
Similarly, as with the article, the international community bewails Israel's supposed collective punishment" of an enemy who has consistently engaged in collective punishment of Israel for decades.
This enemy is a small subset of an even larger foe who also uses the very worst form of collective punishment known in modern history, namely TERRORISM. Yet, its victims are scourged for their "Islamophobia" and "racism" whenever they protest such barbarity.
Even now, a group of ex-NATO generals are framing a Grand Strategy (pdf) whereby nuclear weapons may even be used as a "pre-deterrent" against Islam. Europe, who so adamantly refuses to cry "war" against its Muslim oppressors nonetheless can envision a day where they override America's control of its own nuclear weapons and make first use of them in the MME (Muslim Middle East).
This is the lunacy we are facing. Allies who are so spineless that rather than argue and confront their enemy, they would rather begin rattling the saber of a Muslim holocaust. Please note that this is exactly as I have predicted here on numerous occassions.
The Baron deserves much praise in general, but specifically so for posting this article, as it is only by constantly chipping away at the concrete blinkers many have donned in Europe and the West whereby there will be any hope of avoiding the deaths of countless millions, if not all one billion Muslims.
On the one hand, Jews have a world-wide reputation among friend and foe for intelligence, education and achievement, with their enemies believing their few millions are in fact running the world of billions.
On the other hand, I have not seen such a sorry performance as far as getting the facts out on Israel and the Islamic puppet Palestine on the world stage. Where are their silver-tongued orators, to expose the world's double standard and to demand the same rights for Israel that every other UN member enjoys?
It is a documented fact that in the United States, the vast majority of Jews vote for and fund the Democratic party and head up leftist organs such as the ACLU and Hollywood. The left also has a strong presence within Israel itself.
No Jewish liberal seems to have noticed that their fellow leftists, far from standing up for Jews have a new pet, the Palestinians and all other Muslims for that matter and host an insidious and widespread anti-semitism that makes the misdirected hysteria about miniscule BNP etc. look just dumb.
It is the kind of anti-semitism that enables Ahmadinejad who has vociferously declared the goal of annihilating Israel and is developing the nuclear weapons to do it, that requires of Israel suicidal policies and rules that are applied to NO OTHER COUNTRY.
Can one conclude that Israel is up s--t creek because Jews are rowing in opposite political directions so they are canceling each other's awesome abilities out?
Even the disgusting European - and US progressive - attitude vs. Israel's right and duty to protect her citizens has a silver lining.
It makes an excellent litmus test. If you meet someone and need to take their number quickly, an opinion on the conflict between Israel and the various terrorist gangs in Gaza and the West Bank will instantly reveal who you are dealing with.
The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the - Web Reconnaissance for 01/24/2008 A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day...so check back often.
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