FISK: What if 35 Palestinians had died, and 800 Israelis?

[yurbud]

Robert Fisk points out two layers of irony in the US government reaction to Israel's attack on Gaza, but there's another one:

Washington just made a big stink about satellite photos that MIGHT show Russia firing rockets into Ukraine, whereas Israel's attack, over what was originally a murder investigation that the Israelis themselves now say was not done by Hamas, is quite a bit easier to detect.

Our politicians are lucky the Israelis don't teach their detective methods to the DC police for those occasions when they can't catch the pol responsible for the death of an intern or rentboy.

And there’s something very odd, isn’t there, about our reactions to these two outrageous death tolls. In Gaza, we plead for a ceasefire but let them bury their dead in the sweltering slums of Gaza and cannot even open a humanitarian route for the wounded. For the passengers on MH17, we demand – immediately – proper burial and care for the relatives of the dead. We curse those who left bodies lying in the fields of eastern Ukraine – as many bodies have been lying, for a shorter time, perhaps, but under an equally oven-like sky, in Gaza.

Because – and this has been creeping up on me for years – we don’t care so much about the Palestinians, do we? We care neither about Israeli culpability, which is far greater because of the larger number of civilians the Israeli army has killed. Nor, for that matter, Hamas’s capability. Of course, God forbid that the figures should have been the other way round. If 800 Israelis had died and only 35 Palestinians, I think I know our reaction.

We would call it – rightly – a slaughter, an atrocity, a crime for which the killers must be made accountable. Yes, Hamas should be made accountable, too. But why is it that the only criminals we are searching for today are the men who fired one – perhaps two – missiles at an airliner over Ukraine?

***

From the massacre of Arab villagers by Israel’s new army in 1948, as it is set down by Israeli historians, to the Sabra and Shatila massacre, when Lebanese Christian allies of Israel murdered up to 1,700 people in 1982 while Israeli troops watched; from the Qana massacre of Lebanese Arabs at the UN base – yes, the UN again – in 1996, to another, smaller terrible killing at Qana (again) 10 years later. And so to the mass killing of civilians in the 2008-9 Gaza war. And after Sabra and Shatila, there were inquiries, and after Qana there was an inquiry and after Gaza in 2008-9, there was an inquiry...

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/robert-fisk-what-if-it-had-been-35-palestinian-dead-and-800-israeli-9631756.html

Just a couple more paragraphs after that, but well worth the read.

[daleanime]

1. K&R....

[arikara]

2. I heard it was over 1000 Palestinians

a couple of days ago. I just feel sick for those poor people. More so when I hear our elected representatives harp on about Israel's right to defend "herself" as if "she" is a helpless baby girl... instead of a lethal nest of vicious vipers.

[yurbud]

3. And they still use the Israel surrounded by enemies meme

Even though they have treaties with Egypt and Jordan and cooperate worth Saudi on covert skullduggery. Not to mention that no other country is likely to try to invade now that they have nukes.