Support

Submitted by Mark D (United States), Jul 13, 2014 at 17:43

But, more surprisingly, Israel is getting support, or at least restraint and fairness, from unexpected sources:

Fact of the matter is Israel should be receiving widespread support. I wonder what the Europeans think.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon: "Today we face the risk of an all out escalation in Israel and Gaza with the threat of a ground offensive still palpable and preventable only if Hamas stops rocket firing."

True. Unless the rocket attacks end, Israeli reaction is wholly appropriate.

The Lebanese Internal Security Forces detained two persons for having fired rockets into Israel.

Inexplicable?

Egyptian security forces seized 20 rockets on their to being smuggled from Gaza.

This deserves a big round of applause.

Jordan's Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh demanded that Israel "stop its escalation immediately," but balanced this with calls for "the restoration of complete calm and avoidance of targeting civilians" and "the return to direct negotiations."

Well, even Netanyahu has hinted in handling the matter at this point now with diplomacy, to exhaust all diplomatic avenues. Reasonable leader in an unreasonable place.

The BBC published an article, "Are #GazaUnderAttack images accurate?" about pictures claiming to show the effects of Israeli airstrikes on Gaza and found that "Some of the images are of the current situation in Gaza, but a #BBCtrending analysis has found that some date as far back as 2009 and others are from conflicts in Syria and Iraq."

On a gut level, I had thought of those things.

CNN's Jake Tapper asked former PLO legal advisor Diana Buttu about a tape of Hamas spokesmen encouraging civilians in Gaza to protect homes of Hamas' leaders with their bodies. When Buttu retorted by calling this a racist accusation, Tapper replied, "It's not racist, we have video … That's not racist, it's a fact."

This amply demonstrates, I am sorry to say, twisted thinking to say the least. Using civilians as protection for terrorists? Buttu retorting by calling such accusation as racist?

Overshadowing all these indications, but less surprising, Rasmussen reports that likely American voters by a nearly 3-to-1 margin (42 to 15 percent) blame Palestinians more for the conflict in Gaza than they blame Israel (according to a survey conducted on July 7-8, just as hostilities began). This is perhaps the single most important statistic about the conflict from outside the Middle East, certainly more so than Security Council votes.

Still, I say 15 percent is a disturbing aspect. Who would support terrorists?

Comments: (1) In large part the coolness toward Hamas results from the belated realization that Islamists pose a greater threat than Zionists. But media sobriety suggests that, in part, it also follows from a weariness of Hamas' vile tactics and revulsion against its hideous goal of destroying Israel. (2) As Hamas' goal in this war is political, this lesser support is of supreme importance to it. (July 11, 2014)

Yes, reality check.

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