Proportionality. Some words come out of obscurity and become de rigeur in the echo chamber that is the mainstream media. “Nuance� came and stayed. “Gravitas� came and faded.
The affair in Gaza, and pretty much any time Israel defends itself, gives rise to the concept of proportionality. It’s a word that conveys the disapproval of Israel’s efforts and paints the Palestinians as victims. You can’t escape it. You take a bath in it when listening to the BBC or NPR. And when Jon Stewart on The Daily Show (where young folks reportedly get their “news�) references the imbalance of Palestinian vs. Israeli, you know proportionality is the concept of the moment.
It seems the Gazan Palestinians, namely the terrorist organization Hamas, have a habit of lobbing rockets into Israel. Hundreds of them. Endlessly. If the regular folks in Gaza want Hamas (read: Iranian proxy) to run their show, that’s fine. But surely, they must expect retaliation. Proportional retaliation, I suppose, would entail return rockets. But the liberal media would still complain because, to them, an Israeli rocket is somehow different from a Palestinian rocket, and lobbing hundreds into Gaza would be like shooting fish in a barrel and civilians would fall.
Enter cameras and BBC correspondents. I commend to you the columnist Ralph Peters. Peters has lately been repeating himself with the point that there is only one way to deal with terrorists should you decide to engage them. Kill them. George W. Bush knows this, as do the Israelis.
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Let’s face it. Europeans, who decry the lack of proportionality, have an inescapable history of bigotry, to put it European-style mildly, toward our Jewish brothers and sisters. They never had much use for Israel. Liberal elites have a fetish for all things Europe. It seems European approval is worth something to them.
Personally, I can’t fathom it. Are the Europeans really that much more sophisticated than the folks in fly-over U.S.A.? Formerly a bloodthirsty bunch, they can’t fight their way out of a wet paper bag (except the Brits and Germany-past), nor spring for their own defense since World War II. Visit the left-wing blogs and see this type of European sensibility for yourself.
Which brings us to the United Nations. The major player in the creation of Israel, it proves its long-standing impotence once again (see Yugoslavia, Rwanda, etc.) with its so-called “binding resolutions.� Gaza is tailor-made, in theory, for the United Nations to act. But it’s a hidebound bureaucracy that studies, reports and then whines about proportionality and a return to a status quo the Israelis can’t accept. But Israel is not France and bully for them.
Insanely, the Palestinians have the power to save their own skins but their hatred of the Jews blinds them. If there is to be peace in Gaza, as there ostensibly is for one short week of the agreed cease-fire right now, it will take lots of peace-keeping boots on the ground in a long-term, committed and casualty-taking fashion. Hamas says no.
Your move, United Nations. It’s either your boots or Israeli boots. I seem to recall United Nations casualties early on in Baghdad, but that didn’t last very long.
Peter Chiesa is a Northwest Corner resident who is a semi-retired substance abuse professional.
