Pro-Hamas Arguments Threaten Peace
The Current Conflict in the Middle East Won’t Ease Until Israel Can Restore Order
THE CURRENT CONFLICT BETWEEN Israel and Palestine is showing no signs of ending anytime soon. Of course, matters could be helped more if the United States and its institutions, namely the press, stopped bowing to progressive pressure and treated the dustup with the honesty that is needed if Hamas is to be stopped.
But, as the fighting intensifies, as it did over the weekend, vocal progressives and their media allies have heightened their rhetoric against Israel.
Anti-Semitic Congresswoman at-large Ilhan Omar, who the media props up in opposition to pro-Israel Democrats, published a statement Monday afternoon calling on the U.S. to stop the proposed sale of $735 million in precision-guided weaponry to Israel.
In her call to action, she calls Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “far right” [sic] ethnonationalist and accuses the Israeli Defense Forces of committing human rights abuses, adding that if the arms deal goes through, “this will be a green light for continued escalation and will undercut any attempts at brokering a ceasefire [sic].”
It apparently has never occurred to Omar that preventing Israel from purchasing weapons would send the same message of support to Hamas, which, of course, would also hinder the brokerage of a cease-fire.
Adding to the left-wing pressure campaign is Senator Bernie Sanders, who also called for the sale to be blocked. But taking Israeli money, which is just a return of U.S. money, is not enough for the Vermont Socialist. In his tweet Sunday, Sanders reiterated his call for the U.S. to discontinue the $4 billion in defense aid it sends to its ally in the Middle East, stating that “it is illegal for U.S. aid to support human rights violations.”
Missing from any of the cliched talking points is any actual evidence that Israel, who is in the act of defending its citizens from terrorist attacks, has committed any human rights abuses during this conflict.
The media, however, continue to trot out the disparities in the number of casualties each side has taken as evidence of a crime. But Israel’s casualty count remains lower mainly due to the stellar performance of the Iron Dome defense system that has managed to shoot down 90% of Hamas’ rockets.
Make no mistake, if it were not for the precision-guided rockets used by the Iron Dome, Israel’s death numbers would look a lot closer to Palestine’s and would indeed contain more civilian casualties, as Hamas and Islamic Jihad fire indiscriminately into populated areas.
Currently, the number of deaths is on the rise, and Hamas’ rockets keep coming. As of Monday, the Palestinian death toll is at 212, a number that includes 61 children. In Israel, the number of dead as of Monday is at 11 and includes one child. Hamas has fired 3,200 rockets since last Monday, according to The Wall Street Journal.
But this is not evidence of Israeli misconduct, regardless of whether it has become a talking point on Twitter and among leftist pundits. It should most certainly be recognized that the death of innocent civilians is tragic. But nowhere among the accusations of criminality being tossed around by the left is there any recognition of the fact Hamas and Islamic Jihad use children and civilian infrastructure as shields.
The left feels emboldened to call Israeli forces monsters after fighting intensified this weekend, bringing increased damage to Palestinian infrastructure. Chief among the tragic collateral damage was an apartment complex that collapsed after Israeli Defense Forces ratcheted up their campaign to take out an underground tunnel system the military calls the “Hamas Metro.” The resulting collapse killed 42 people.
Another building that was targeted, and that subsequently caused outrage, contained the offices of The Associated Press and Al-Jazeera. That building was struck Saturday morning. According to the AP, 12 staffers and freelancers were working in the building when the Israeli military contacted them and advised that they had an hour to evacuate as the building was to be hit.
No Journalists were hurt in the attack. But that did not stop AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt from calling the event “shocking and terrifying.” Other press-freedom groups condemned the attack and accused Israel of trying to censor their coverage.
Of course, all of these talking points are false. As the Israeli military does every time it intends to destroy a building that contains civilians, it warned the journalists so they could evacuate — this time an hour ahead of time, which is far more than is usual. This is hardly an assault on press freedom. And the mere fact that they are able to publish stories about the attack to a massive audience is proof that no censorship has taken place.
Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman, said that the building was used as a headquarters for an intelligence wing of Hamas. Pruitt states that the AP had no knowledge of such a situation in the building. This is should either be considered an embarrassment to the AP or a lie. Either way, Conricus states that it is reasonable for the press to want proof of Hamas’ presence and that he will attempt to get it released.
The good news, for now, is that the Biden administration has not backed down from its mild, middle-of-the-road stance that Israel has the right to defend itself. The administration supported calls for a cease-fire between the two powers Monday. But, beyond that, the administration has been reaching out to Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar as a way to suggest to Hamas that they should discontinue their assault.
However, for now, these calls have not caused either side to budge. Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, has stated, according to The Wall Street Journal, that he will only accept a solution that “rises to the sacrifice put forward by the Palestinian people.” In a world where sacrifice is often considered a virtue and hatred of Israel and the West is paramount, this can only mean more death to innocent Israelis.
Benjamin Netanyahu also remained firm Monday, stating “we are going to continue hitting targets in Gaza,” adding, “we will continue to act as needed to restore calm.”
These attitudes represent what the Biden administration is going up against: an unstoppable force and an immovable object. But that does not mean nothing can be done. The 60 miles of underground tunnels Hamas are using are almost certainly being used to assemble weapons with parts obtained from Iran or used to transport the weapons in their entirety from them. The U.S. could achieve significant inroads in restoring calm to the area by returning to a robust pro-Israel stance that recognizes and responds to the threat posed by Iran.
On the other hand, bowing to pressure from the progressive left will almost certainly mean more innocent deaths.
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