Isn't It Telling?

The world accepts the vision of a "humanitarian mission" to deliver aid to Palestinians in Gaza, in the process condemning Israel for shutting off access to the outside world to Gazans by its blockade, instituted when Hamas ousted Fatah and gained power as the de facto government in the Gaza Strip. Hamas was a duly elected political party, elected by Palestinians living in Gaza, and many living in the West Bank as well. That Hamas is dedicated to the violent overthrow of Israel with the intention of destroying the Jewish State does not appear to bother those who declare their interests lie with the plight of the beleaguered Palestinians.

Why is it that the humanitarian issue does not focus on a very practical and humane end to the current situation through the focus on the Hamas charter? Commiserate with the Palestinians perhaps, but instruct Hamas unequivocally that to promise the destruction of a legitimate state is no way to promote peace and understanding between peoples. The solution to the blockade of Gaza is fairly simple: transform themselves into a civil and reliable partner for peace, bring an end to the existential threat aimed at Israel, and everyone will get along.

Why is it that Israel, defending itself from every angle in the territories and beyond, is expected to make a grand sacrifice, opening itself up once again to incessant suicide attacks by the fanatical disaffected who will never accept its presence in the geography, and only that will satisfy the demands of the "humanitarians". Jewish lives lost come cheaply, but the lives of Palestinians are exceedingly dear to those dedicated to fairness and 'justice' on behalf of the Palestinians.

The Islamic world is fairly well united in its opposition to the longevity of Israel as a Jewish State. That Israel exists is an unpalatable reality that grates on Islamist sensibilities. For land once taken in the name of Islam is forbidden to be turned back to non-Muslim rule. And the presence of non-Muslims within a Muslim geographical enclave is not looked on with enthusiastic favour. Israel has made, and continues to make, continual overtures to her neighbours, to live together in peace with shared aspirations, only to be shunned as a nonentity.

Secular Turkey of yore had found itself in fair accord with Israel, with a long-running political, social and military alliance and reliance one upon the other, until the spread of Islamism encompassed Turkey despite its constitutional disallowance. This is a new Turkey, one embracing its Islamist roots with huge gusto and determined to make its way back into the Muslim fold. The obvious way to do that is to shun and dun Israel, to impress the waiting, watching Muslim world. And nothing quite succeeds like success.

So the 'old' Turkey that once held the Turkish Islamic charity IHH, the one that has close sympathy with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, under suspicion, now clasps it close to its understanding heart. And assisted in the conspiracy to board militants, trained and armed, alongside the political humanitarians, to entice Israel into entrapment to enable them to 'prove' to the world that Israel indulges in brutality against those who criticize her inalienable rights to protect her existential interests.

Direct and potent evidence of the conspiracy with its bloody outcome, whereby Israeli naval personnel in boarding the Turkish ship were attacked and threatened with imminent death, compelling one of the Israelis to use deadly fire for self-protection, is negated by the deliberate blinkers worn by those who insist on thinking ill of Israel. The videos posted for all to see, which demonstrate unequivocally the time-line of the events as they occurred, leaving no doubts in reasonable minds who the aggressors were and who the victims, are set aside as propaganda.

Reviling Israel is the order of the day, and there are no mechanisms that can be brought into play that will serve to turn peoples' minds away from blaming Israel for everything and anything that goes awry when dealing with the Palestinians and their fervent supporters. Support is with the downtrodden Palestinians who have the means to turn antipathy into a search for meaningful and final peace, but who resist with all their might, preferring to reclaim what they feel is theirs; land upon which Israel sits.

And isn't it telling, that American Rabbi David Nesenoff, who had interviewed the elderly, respected White House news correspondent, Helen Thomas, is on the ropes. Ms. Thomas, whose vociferously-stated view was that Israel had no business existing in the Middle East, that Jews should return from where they had come from, that Poland and Germany represented the natural homelands of the Jewish people, not Israel. As a result of her rabidly anti-Semitic outcry, she has been retired from her news-reporting position as the Grand Dame of White House reporting.

On the surface, most people who became aware of her outburst felt it to be entirely regrettable, shameful, unworthy of one who had surely been aware of what Poland and Germany succeeded in performing historically for Jewish survival in a Jew-hostile world. Under the surface of civil society, a backlash has been unleashed against Rabbi Nesenoff, threatening death to his family and himself. Thousands of pieces of hate mail have rained down upon this man. Among them emails espousing a new Holocaust.

The polar opposite has been presented on behalf of Ms. Thomas. Her relatives have described how she has been embraced by the public. Simply put, they claim, her statements were misunderstood, taken out of context. And she has been inundated by a flood of support. "She has so many bouquets of flowers they can't get into her condo", her sister complacently informed a journalist.