How’s this for a choice that’s not a choice? Ask the UN to delete Israel from a blacklist of states and armed groups that violate children’s rights during conflict — but only if Hamas is deleted, too.
Or, blacklist both Israel and Hamas.
That’s the “choice” that Israel faced at the UN last week when Secretary General Ban Ki-moon submitted the blacklist to the Security Council.
If there’s a term for the opposite of poetic justice, this is it. That’s because the reason why Israel should be off the list is precisely the reason why Hamas should be on it. We do note have a parallel here, as if both Israel and Hamas are violators, or neither are violators. Rather, we have here a cause-and-effect: Israel is not a violator of children’s rights during conflict precisely because Hamas is. As follows:
Hamas hides children among weapons depots and hides weapons among children’s residences. The damage that Israel did to Palestinian children in the war that Palestinians in Gaza started last summer was because of Hamas’ cynical, inhumane, deliberate policies to place children in harm’s way.
Yes, Hamas started the war by firing rockets on Israeli population centers from Gaza, from which Israel withdrew in August, 2005, lock, stock and barrel. Gaza started the war by building terror tunnels underneath Israeli territory and popping out of those tunnels to kill Israeli civilians. Even Amnesty International acknowledges this violation of human rights by Hamas, i.e., by the Palestinian rulers in Gaza.
What Amnesty International and others, including the UN, do not acknowledge is that when Israel defends itself against deadly rocket fire and deadly tunnel fire, the fault for the ensuing damage to children lies with those who started the war.
In this upside down world of ours, Israel lobbied the UN not to be included on the blacklist, knowing full well that if it were successful, Hamas would be left off the list, too.
Classic case of the lesser of two evils.
Classic case of the absurdity of diplomatic life at the UN.
Classic reason why Israel is castigated around the world for brutality against the Palestinians.
Classic seedbed for the growth of BDS.
Classic reason why defenders of Israel need to speak louder — and more clearly — than ever before.
Copyright © 2015 by the Intermountain Jewish News
