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The Disproportionate Criticism of Israel's Self-Defense

[National Post-Canada] Robert Fulford - The big word in Middle East politics is "disproportionate." Applied to the Israel-Hamas struggle, it quietly weakens Israel's position and displays sympathy for the Palestinians while making those who use it feel both righteous and compassionate. The word says: "I of course support Israel's right to defend itself - but not in this way." We are expected to assume there must be a better way to defeat Israel's tormentors, a way that will win the world's respect. No one ever explains this strategy, perhaps because no such strategy exists. Israel faces a relentless, implacable enemy. Diplomacy and "the peace process" will do nothing to stop Hamas or its sponsoring nation, Iran. Hamas doesn't want a better deal with Israel; it wants Israel to cease existing, as does Iran. To achieve that end they will proudly sacrifice many of their own people, not only warriors but also women, children and the old. Israeli forces are ordered to avoid harm to civilians wherever possible. But so long as Hamas hides behind women and children the results are inevitable. Given that fact, should Israel simply decline to fight? Perhaps some nation, somewhere, will take that attitude at some unforeseeable moment in the future. It would be a truly radical idea. We can hardly expect that Israel, which has always lived under the threat of destruction by its Middle East neighbors, will be the first to take that bold and possibly suicidal step. Yet that's the course implied by those who glibly and piously condemn "disproportionate" warfare.
2009-01-20 06:00:00
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