Hamas kills civilians, but not as many as Israel
By Ray Hanania
Reuters, which is slightly more objective in covering the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict than
most of its other Western counterparts, conservatively estimates that
Israel’s military has
killed “more than 100? Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip during the
past four months of
this year. Palestinians put the number higher, at more than 250. B’tselem,
the besieged Israeli
human rights organization ostracized by fellow Jews, re****ts that Israeli
soldiers have killed
a total of 323 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the
year. When it comes to
counting Palestinian lives, the numbers are always fast and loose, often
dictated by Israeli
control and a pro-Israel Western news media that hesitates to criticize
Israeli policies too
harshly.
Part of the problem is that Israel never conducts complete and open
investigations into the
killing of civilians, unless those killed are Israeli Jews. There’s no
pressure to stop.
In the very few instances where charges have been brought against Israeli
soldiers, despite
harsh sentences and convictions, the punishments are often revoked and the
soldiers pardoned,
treated as heroes by mainstream Israelis
The latest Palestinian civilian killed is Wafa al-Daghma. Israel’s
military declared it
conducted an “investigation” concluding al-Daghma was the “victim of Hamas
terrorist actions,”
even though she was killed by Israeli soldiers.
The Israeli military issued its typically weak and unconvincing
declaration of “regret,”
providing no details about the incident other than it’s word.
Palestinian sources said al-Daghma, a United Nation’s elementary school
teacher, was killed
when the Israelis exploded a bomb that ripped open her front door of her
home.
Sorry. But “we’re sorry” doesn’t cut it any more.
If anything is fueling the hatred of Israel in the Arab World, it is
Israel’s hypocritical
military and government policies.
Civilians are routinely killed by Israeli soldiers, and there is no
pressure to force Israel to
stop this kind of conduct. There is no pressure on Israel because the
murders have the
complicity of the members of the United States Congress, which vote like
broken records to
defend Israel and blame everyone else. And Congress doesn’t care because
the American news
media cares even less.
Israel says it is more concerned about civilians than the Hamas
terrorists. But the lopsided
numbers which show Israel killing more civilians than Hamas challenges
that claim. Challenging
Israel’s assertions even more is the fact that Israel’s military uses
Cluster-bomb like weapons
filled with thousands of “flechettes,” tiny pieces of metal that explode
in a brilliant
fireball of darts that tear to shreds anyone within several thousand feet
of the explosion. The
flechettes are similar to the metal shrapnel found in the suicide bombs
used by brainwashed
Hamas surrogates.
But while the United States and Israel rightly condemn suicide bombings,
they wrongly defend
Israel’s use of these cluster bombs, which are illegal by International
Law.
Congress voted 404 to 1 on March 5 approving a resolution denouncing
Palestinian attacks which
have resulted in civilian Israeli injuries and deaths, but defended
Israel’s attacks which have
resulted in far more Palestinian civilian killings. That is slightly
weaker than the similar
resolution passed July 20, 2007 by a 410 to 8 vote which unconditionally
endorsed Israel’s
ongoing attacks on Lebanon’s militia and civilian areas and in the Gaza
Strip.
Israel’s government says it is doing everything possible to avoid killing
civilians while
accusing Hamas of intentionally targeting Israeli civilians with their
Qassam rockets, homemade
firebombs that, once launched, have no control on targeting civilians,
Israeli soldiers or the
heavily armed Israeli settlers.
According to Israeli logic, what is really im****tant in this battle is not
whether or not you
actually kill a civilian, but whether you issue a press release
“regretting” the killings of
civilians.
Hamas, according to Israel, intentionally tries to kill civilians. But
when you compare Hamas
“intentions” against Israel’s broken record claims of “we’re sorry,” the
fact is Israel,
without even trying, kills far more civilians than Hamas, which Israel
claims tries hard.
You tell me who is worse.
(Ray Hanania is an award winning columnist, author and former national
president of the
Palestinian American Congress. He is managing editor of the Arab Americans
Writers Syndicate,
www.ArabWritersGroup.com and he writes for the HuffingtonPost.com
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com
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