Seemingly, then, the only lasting effects of air strikes are civilian casualties. As a recent Washington Post editorial argues, “The latest mini-war between Israel and the Hamas movement is as unwinnable for either side as previous rounds in 2009 and 2012.”

As usual, Washington’s response to the Israeli bombardment of Gaza has been little more than justification and support of Israel’s “right to defend itself,” as exemplified by the U.S. Administration’s stock condemnation of Hamas rocket attacks on Tuesday. What White House spokesman John Earnest failed to clarify, however, is whether Palestinians are also afforded the right to protection — and who exactly Washington is expecting to provide that protection.

http://www.brookings.edu/research/opinions/2014/07/11-palestine-right-to-defense-sharqieh – 7/11/2014.

Hamas’s “Human Shields” murders noncombatants but seems to support disingenuous argument.http://www.brookings.edu/…/11-palestine-right-to…  … Dishonest. Despicable.

Evil starts with a lie, and lying has to do always with hiding something or getting something.

We may not think of failing to mention the Hamas tactic and strategy to place noncombatants between its weapons manufacturing and storage elements and the Israeli Defense Forces, but, and we call as much a “sin of omission”, that’s exactly what it is.

To even think that sacrificing families and their children to portray them as victims of so-called Israeli aggression should pull a sympathetic response from anyone in Washington — apart from the Muslim Brotherhood — seems to me breathtaking.

From The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, posted today:

Related Reference

http://www.danielpipes.org/14574/israel-hamas-war – 7/11/2014: “What explains this role reversal? Are Islamists so fanatical that they don’t mind losing? Are Zionists too worried about loss of life to fight? / Actually, Hamas leaders are quite rational. Periodically (2006, 2008, 2012), they decide to make war on Israel knowing full well that they will lose on the military battlefield but optimistic about winning in the political arena. Israeli leaders, conversely, assume they will win militarily but fear political defeat – bad press, United Nations resolutions, and so on.”

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/stephen-harper-accuses-hamas-of-using-human-shields-1.2706122 – 7/14/2014.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/hamas-human-shields/ – 7/14/2014; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-kohn/operation-human-shield_b_157837.html – 1/14/2009: ” When terrorists use areas such as schools to teach their children hatred and use places of worship to hide and store weapons, it is IMPOSSIBLE to keep civilians safe” (note from 2009 — the last time).

http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/07/surreal_in_the_middle_east_hamass_human_shields.html – 7/14/2014: “As with previous assaults and conflicts orchestrated by an array of regional Islamic terrorist groups against Israel, not much attention is being paid to the way Hamas uses its own Palestinian citizens as human shields, or its deliberate and intentioned strikes on Israeli civilian neighborhoods and population centers.”

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28302539 – 7/14/2014: “Palestinian officials say at least 175 people in Gaza have been killed by Israeli air strikes since the offensive began last Tuesday. / Israel says nearly 1,000 rockets have been fired from Gaza in that time.”

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=18803 – 7/15/2014: “The piece, titled “Lowest deeds from loftiest heights,” disregards the extensive efforts made by the Israel Defense Forces to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza Strip, as well as Hamas’ repeated use of Gazans as human shields.”

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4543634,00.html – 7/15/2014: “Hamas Got Rich as Gaza Was Plunged Into Poverty”.

An Addendum on Israel as an Apartheid State

Documentary producer Corey Gil-Shuster has a raft of clips on YouTube.  I happened to be watching this one from February 2014 this afternoon and thought it might fit in here.  The Islamist Muslim claim focused on the Jewish persecution of Muslims would seem to play primarily with and to the criminal, deluded, and ignorant — or some combination thereof.  Are there issues?  Yes.  Are they civilizational?  Not really.  The Arab barbarism displayed by the artifice of the Palestinian liberation movement has been consistent over the years, but it would seem the liberation wanted is liberation from either a racist pan-Arab nationalism beloved of dictators or a religious fanaticism reliant on a deeply anachronistic and decontextualized approach to Islam.  The refugees of 1948 have been drowned between those two political streams.

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