Reality check on Gaza

Ezra Levant ^ | 2009-01-06 | Ezra Levant

[Clive]

The Israeli war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza begs the question: what should a sovereign state do in response to terrorists?

Well, we could listen to anti-Israel words. Or we could listen to deeds.

For example, we could look at how Russia dealt with its Islamist threat in Grozny. In the mid-nineties, Russia basically shelled the city until it turned to rubble -- killing 27,000 Chechens. Oh -- and that was just one of three Russian attacks on the city. You can tool around on Google maps, satellite view, and still see flattened areas of the city. I'm sure the United Nations General Assembly is just polishing up the wording on their resolution to condemn Russia right now.

How about Sri Lanka? Their civil war with the terrorist Tamil Tigers has cost 70,000 lives. When will Sid Ryan and CUPE call for a ban on Sri Lankan academics?

Or how about the French? How about their own tangle with Arabs, in the case of Algeria? 150,000 dead?

But we need not go that far back. How about the first Gulf War, in which Canada participated? Depending on who you ask, between 20,000 and 200,000 Iraqis died.

Or, my favourite yardstick of over-reaction: Canada's October Crisis, where a handful of bombs going off in mailboxes and a couple of kidnappings was enough for the Liberals to put tanks in the street and suspend civil liberties in the whole country. Geez, what would Trudeau have done if actual rocket attacks had been launched, Gaza-style?

My point isn't to disparage any of the above military missions, though some were clearly excessive. My point is to compare the dainty approach taken by Israel -- which actually mass-dials Palestinian cell phones in advance of attacks, warning civilians to get out of the way -- with the brutal approach taken by other countries, especially Israel's critics.

I haven't even mentioned China's approach to Tibet or East Turkmenistan, let alone the response by other Arab countries to Islamists, like the massacre in Hama, Syria, where that city was surrounded and just shelled and shelled until 40,000 people -- about a quarter of the population back then -- were killed. By their own government.

The idea of any other country in the world -- including the very ethical U.S. -- acting as carefully as Israel in combat is unthinkable. (When the world saw the U.S. "shock and awe" attacks that opened the 2003 Iraq War, the global response was amazement and admiration, not human rights complaints.) And the thought that Arab nations, or dictatorships like China, would have any advice worth listening to, is execrable.

[Clive]

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[screaminsunshine]

It is impossible to deal rationally with irrational people. The MSM and liberals are irrational. Truth and common sense do not fit their template. They will go to any length to twist reality to fit their insane liberal thought process.

[econjack]

I hope Israel bombs Gaza back to the Stone Age where this whole cult of Islam feels at home.

[Clive]

Ezra Levant ping

[Clive]

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[tarheelswamprat]

It is impossible to deal rationally with irrational people. The MSM and liberals are irrational. Truth and common sense do not fit their template. They will go to any length to twist reality to fit their insane liberal thought process.

With respect, that is only partially true. While it is true that a great many of these types are irrational, their leaders, the ones who devise and lay out the templates, are completely rational - they're just simply evil.

They know exactly what they're doing, they have coldly calculated all the angles, and they have us, the sane members of Western civilization, in a deadly trap, with our own complicity.

As long as we keep viewing these people as irrational and refuse to acknowledge them as evil, we are compelled by our own self-imposed politically correct "civilized" standards to continue trying to talk with and "reason with" them. Until we realize and acknowledge that it's time to simply name them as the evil they are and then eliminate them, they will continue to win...

[Blennos]

Reasoned, cogent and most importantly -- correct.

It is astonishing how little Israel is held to a completely different standard than all of the rest of the countries in the world. What could the reason be for this irrational behavior? Hmmmm. It makes one think.

[Blennos]

With respect, that is only partially true. While it is true that a great many of these types are irrational, their leaders, the ones who devise and lay out the templates, are completely rational - they're just simply evil. They know exactly what they're doing, they have coldly calculated all the angles, and they have us, the sane members of Western civilization, in a deadly trap, with our own complicity. As long as we keep viewing these people as irrational and refuse to acknowledge them as evil, we are compelled by our own self-imposed politically correct "civilized" standards to continue trying to talk with and "reason with" them. Until we realize and acknowledge that it's time to simply name them as the evil they are and then eliminate them, they will continue to win...

Well-stated, excellent commentary.

[screaminsunshine]

These evil ones are also irrational. They think they are good. That is irrational. They are insane. They can not tell the difference between good and evil. We ARE in a GLOBAL religious war yet refuse to acknowledge it. The very Liberals who promote these Muslims are the first ones they will kill. “Irrational”.