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Why Gaza Is No Selma

(CNN) Thane Rosenbaum - Welcome to the Promised Land of Dreadful Optics, where Hamas employs a deliberate strategy of inciting a disproportionate loss of Palestinian life in a bid to garner sympathy and demonize Israel. By emboldening Gazans to place themselves directly in the line of fire and embedding terrorists among civilians, Hamas baits Israel and then waits for the world's outrage. Calling the March of Return a peaceful protest unfairly demonizes Israel and romanticizes Palestinians. What is a proportionate response? Yes, more Palestinians have died in these clashes, but it's not for a lack of Hamas' trying to kill Israelis that Israeli lives have been relatively spared. These were not peaceful gatherings, and Americans, at least, should know better than to judge them as if they were. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led a protest movement that rejected violence and never glorified death. And yet, some headlines are treating Gaza like a Middle Eastern Selma. King, who is memorialized with a forest in Israel, would be surprised that we now somehow couldn't tell the difference. The writer is a distinguished fellow at NYU School of Law where he directs the Forum on Law, Culture & Society.
2018-05-18 00:00:00
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