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Opening Arguments

Evil gets a pass

Former President Bill Clinton understands what is going on in Israel right now:

Hamas was perfectly well aware of what would happen if they started raining rockets into Israel. They fired one thousand and they have a strategy designed to force Israel to kill their own civilians so that the rest of the world will condemn them.

They (Israel) know when Hamas attacks them that Hamas has set up a situation which politically it can’t lose, because they (Israelis) can say ‘well if I attack them back they always hide behind civilians and I’ll kill civilians, and if I don’t we’ll look like fools letting somebody shoot a thousand  rockets at us and not responding.’

In the short and medium term Hamas can inflict terrible public relations damage by forcing (Israel) to kill Palestinian civilians to counter Hamas. But it’s a crass strategy that takes all of our eyes off the real objective which is a peace that gets Israel security and recognition and a peace that gets the Palestinians their state.

Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times' "Apostle of Moral Equivalence," appears not to:

Somehow, Nicholas Kristof shows his readers that he does not get it. Instead, he writes, “this is a war in which both peoples have a considerable amount of right on their sides. The failure to acknowledge the humanity and legitimate interests of people on the other side has led to cross-demonization. That results in a series of military escalations that leave both peoples worse off.”

Let us pause to parse this paragraph. Does Hamas (not the Palestinian citizens of Gaza forced to endure their rule) have any humanity and consideration of its citizens’ needs? This is a terrorist group that has no compunction about setting up its own people to act as human shields in the hope that when Israel hits a terrorist target, these civilians will be killed and then Hamas can show grisly videos of the innocent women and children Israel has murdered. Hamas puts its rocket launchers in hospitals and elementary schools, knowing that Israel will hesitate before aiming a rocket at them. It loads weapons into ambulances, in the hope that Israel will let them by, since medical-aid vehicles are exempted from targeting. Hamas’ tactics are inhumane and repellent on principle. Israel’s tactics are a response to Hamas’ aggression.

It's often risky to complain about biased news coverage, because the reason for the complaint is that one feels his own side has been slighted or maligned. We know going in that our objections will not be taken as an objective analysis but will instead be seen as mere partisan whining. This is especially when conservatives complain about "iiberal bias." Yeah, yeah, same old bitching.

But I have no dog in this particular hunt, so I hope my observations can be taken as the views of a neutral observer. I may well be wrong, but it's not because I have any special bias.

I have been strongly surpirsed, almost astonished even, at how lopsided the news coverage of the current conflict has been, especially by the kajor networks and cable outlets. "Moral equivalence" is, on some days, the best they have to offer. More often than not, the coverage is downright hostile to Israel, and I just do not understand it. One side is a democracy fighting for its very right to exist, the other is a bunch of depraved terrorists who are willing to scarfice as many of their own people as is necessary to accomplish their evil goal. To find even a hint of moral equivalency there seems morally deranged to me.

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