Kiwis for Balanced Reporting on the Middle East
September 12, 2011
Excessive And Non Proportional? Only When Applied To Israel & Israelis.
The recent UN Palmer Report is rather unique in that it tries to strike an even balance, something most UN reports concerning Israel never seem to achieve. His conclusions that Israel's blockade of Gaza is legal, that Israel has every right in International Law to prevent weapons' smuggling into Gaza and that those on the Turkish boat leading the flotilla were more interested in becoming martyrs than promoting meaningful aid, were generally ignored in the media headlines. Instead, Israel's use of force to protect its sailors was highlighted, thus creating the immediate impression of criminality.
A mob attacks you with iron bars and other lethal implements. You are equipped only with paint ball ‘guns’, hardly life threatening weapons, and side arms in case of emergency. Some of your colleagues are tossed overboard from the ship, others are clubbed to the ground and your life is in danger. The mob advances and refuses your requests to act peacefully. What would any normal person do in such a situation? My guess is that they would take steps to protect themselves by disabling the attackers and if that resulted in serious injury or death, the fault would lie with the thug and not the victim.
That is exactly what happened when a boatload of ‘activists’, backed and sponsored by well known terrorist friendly organizations, decided to break a legal blockade of Gaza and ignore instructions to peacefully allow the boat to be towed to an Israeli port for inspection. The fact that some of the ‘peace loving’ individuals had declared their desire to become martyrs is conveniently overlooked in the aftermath of this event.
It does not take a brilliant mind to predict the hypocritical outpourings of condemnation against Israel. Can anybody actually remember any UN body demanding apologies and compensation from any other country for defending its citizens from terrorist attacks? Look around the world today and identify any other democratic country which is subject to such constant vilification and deligitimisation. Every time Israel takes steps to protect itself, from responding to rockets fired by the terrorists in Gaza & Lebanon, from terrorist attacks on civilian buses, schools and synagogues, from terrorist stabbings on youths at a nightclub and from the cold blooded murder of babies in their bed, the world community trots out its meaningless mantra of ‘excessive force’ and ‘non proportional’ reactions.
Politicians and the media alike have the gall to equate terror attacks against civilians with a sovereign country’s right to defend its population and borders. There is no such moral equivalence and the use of this to justify condemning Israel is obscene.
Presumably the refusal of the Allies to bomb the railway lines leading to the concentration murder camps during World War II could be seen as not wanting to be ‘disproportionate’ or ‘excessive’ when as we all know it was more to do with the fact that Jews were expendable. When Dresden and other German cities were carpet bombed, did any UN Commission subsequently complain of excessive force or demand apologies? Of course not, because at that stage in history, the democracies realized that in order to defeat evil one had to crush those who were murdering at will, even though in the process many innocent civilians also suffered. How times have changed. When it comes to the Jewish State, different rules apply. When Jews are defending themselves and fighting back against today’s terrorists and taking steps to make sure that those guilty of such acts are dealt with, then the politicians and media are convulsed.
There is one big lesson that needs to be recognised and internalised by those pointing fingers and condemning Israel. Never again will we allow ourselves to be at the mercy of an uncaring and hypocritical international community and never again will we willingly agree to be sacrificial lambs on the way to our own destruction. If that does not fit in with current double standards then that is too bad. It is not the first time in its long history that the Jewish People finds itself abandoned and alone in the fight against evil and terror. However, we have prevailed over 3,000 years and I have no doubt that we will prevail yet again, with or without any fair-weather friends. There is a higher power at work here and it certainly is not the UN.
Michael Kuttner is a Jewish New Zealander who was for many years actively involved with several Jewish Communal organisations. He is now retired, lives with his family in Israel and volunteers at the Israel News Resource Agency in Jerusalem.