Gary Selikow, Johannesburg
One must marvel at the hypocrisy of those who claim to be against war, but oppose the actions of only one side in a war – defending themselves, not the killers of women and children on the other side. It also brings to our attention the fact that no other country in the history of warfare has gone to such lengths to avoid harming an enemy civilian population – especially the population of a group of people that has vowed to murder every Israeli down to the last child.
Col. Richard Kemp, a former commander of the British forces in Afghanistan, told the following to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva during Operation Cast Lead, “Based on my knowledge and experience, I can say this: the Israeli Defence Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a warzone than any other army in the history of warfare.”
In his brilliant book, Israel: Reclaiming the Narrative, by Barry Shaw, the author asks how Israel can be labelled a racist state when it airlifted thousands of Ethiopians to safety in Israel? And yet, nothing is done to stop violent incitement to genocide against Jews by Palestinians, including at officially sanctioned events with media coverage, and in children’s education.
In another brilliant chapter, Shaw pens a letter to a pro-Palestinian human rights activist, asking him, “Why have you not expressed your outrage for other far more critical human rights disasters as I have done? I understand you like political adventurism, like flotillas to free Gaza. Why have you not joined a flotilla to feed and care for the thousands of dying children in Africa? What is it about the Palestinians that gets your juices flowing over all other humanitarian tragedies? Could it be that you cannot incriminate Israel in human rights crimes perpetrated in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Burma, Russia, China, Pakistan, Turkey, Kurdistan, and Cuba, so these abusive regimes do not get you emotionally involved?”
Is it because Israel is the world’s only Jewish state?
