Blaming The Victim

Many more Palestinians than Israelis have been killed in the ongoing war. But they picked the fight. Shouldn't we blame them?

Civilian casualties? If they cheer for the deaths of Israelis and they allow themselves to be used as shields, those civilians must know that they're likely to be targets, even if the terrorists who hid among them have already run away leaving them to receive the punishment.

Israel has better weapons and a better defense system? Hamas knew that before beginning the engagement. The victim ought not be blamed for defeating the aggressor. What Hamas seems to have wanted were graphic pictures of the death of its people, and the grief of the Palestinians, that it could “sell” to an eagerly awaiting press to illustrate the suffering of the “oppressed.” And those who claim to represent the Palestinian people will use the numbers of dead as ammunition in their effort to convince the UN to condemn Israel. But just as might doesn't make right, neither does weakness, though this is the argument of weak instigators. They attempt to attract sympathy by pretending to be a David wronged by a Goliath. And the hope is that the sympathy can be parlayed eventually into a victory by David – victory from the jaws of defeat.

There is no justification for the murder of a Palestinian, but neither was there any justification for the abduction and murder of three Israeli teen-agers for which it was unwarranted revenge. And attacks on Gaza are retaliation for rocket attacks from there on Israel. If the reaction is more effective than the original attacks, and if more civilians are killed, it still remains the appropriate response to the war being waged against Israel. And it is nothing less than war. According to the UN Charter, there is an “inherent right” of self-defense against armed attack. Those who view Israel's actions as “disproportionate” haven't been able to prescribe a more reasonable answer to Hamas's aggression, and to its declared determination to eliminate Israel.

Taking the side of the Palestinians out of concern for those flaunting their weakness is simply the bias of a party more concerned about the appearance of right than about right itself. (And by extension it raises questions about the objectivity of other opinions from the same source. I have in mind The New York Times.)

Additionally, the following AP report was on my was on Home Page this morning:

In the first indication that cease-fire efforts were underway, the office of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said he held "extensive contacts with all active and concerned parties" to end the fighting. It said the two sides discussed the "critical conditions and the need to stop all military action, and to stop the slide" toward more violence. It called on Israel to protect Palestinian civilians.

It apparently never occurred to him to call upon Hamas to stop using civilians as shields when their troops were sending rockets against Israel.

Sadly, this has been the pattern of coverage for many years. And it has been the default strategy of the Arab world as well. There has never been a willingness to accept a Jewish State by the countries of the Middle East. Indeed, many of those countries were created by western powers and they question the borders set for themselves as well. Although the inclination is to blame Israel for all of the unrest in the region – and elsewhere, it is difficult to connect Israel with the problems in Syria or Iraq or in other countries. To a great degree, the invective against the Jewish State serves the purpose of distracting the citizens of a nation ruled by tyrants. And the “meek” will join together to conquer the strong, and to “inherit” the world – which they will do until they begin fighting among themselves.

It's hard to see an end to the situation. The amount of distrust between the countries in the area, and the repetition of the accusations and lies and incitements to new generations makes any solution unlikely. The only hope is that the world will finally understand that the acceptance of wrong because it sounds good, and comes from those who control the fossil fuels they need, will never lead to peace. And when the media, and the world that they inform, recognize that the only path is one in which tyrants are discouraged from inciting violence, we'll have a chance.

But until then we'll blame those who refuse to give in, and there will be invective, war, and casualties. It sells newspapers.