[Jerusalem Post] Rupert Murdoch - We see a growing assault on both the legitimacy and security of the State of Israel from people who make clear they have no intention of ever living side-by-side in peace with a Jewish state - no matter how many concessions Israel might make. For months now, Hamas has been raining down rockets on Israeli civilians. No sovereign nation can sit by while its civilian population is attacked. If you are committed to Israel's destruction, and if you believe that dead Palestinians help you score a propaganda victory, you do things like launch rockets from a Palestinian schoolyard. This ensures that when the Israelis do respond, it will likely lead to the death of an innocent Palestinian - no matter how many precautions Israeli soldiers take. In the global media war, for Hamas, the images of Palestinian suffering - of people losing their homes, of parents mourning their dead children, of tanks rolling through the streets - create sympathy for its cause. In a battle marked by street-to-street fighting, the death of innocents is all but inevitable. But I am curious: Why do we never hear calls for Hamas leaders to be charged with war crimes? Why do we hear no calls for human rights investigations into Hamas gunmen using Palestinian children as human shields? Why so few stories on the reports of Hamas assassins going to hospitals to hunt down their fellow Palestinians? And where are the international human rights groups demanding that Hamas stop blurring the most fundamental line in warfare: the distinction between civilian and combatant? In the West, we are used to thinking that Israel cannot survive without the help of Europe and the United States. Maybe we should start wondering whether we in Europe and the United States can survive if we allow the terrorists to succeed in Israel. The Free World makes a terrible mistake if we deceive ourselves into thinking this is not our fight. The writer is chairman and CEO of News Corporation.
2009-03-20 06:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive