A rocket fire from Gaza hit Ashdod causing a massive fire near a gas station. Photo: IDF.
Hamas -which started an offensive war with Israel, rejected ceasefires, deliberately committed war crimes by hiding its weapons and fighters behind human shields, and fired thousands of rockets at Israeli civilians – should be ever grateful to a morally bankrupt media that ignores, excuses, and fails to fully and fairly report the following:
1) At its core, this is in no small measure a religious war. Hamas is the offspring of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose genocidal Qu-ranic-based charter states that they are determined to wipe out the State of Israel and the Jews, who are perceived as the eternal enemy of Allah (as well as Christians).
2) They are terrorists and not “freedom fighters.”
3) Had they been fighting any other Arab/Muslim states or actors, they would be carpet bombed without hesitation and the media would hardly care.
4) This is an existential war. Israel is on the frontline of the defense of Western civilization, democracy, freedom, and Judeo-Christian values against barbarism, totalitarianism, Islamism, and global jihadism.
5) The extensive Hamas tunnel system is an offensive weapon, built to murder and kidnap Israeli civilians and soldiers. The tunnels were built with supplies and cement that Israel, under tremendous international pressure, allowed into Gaza by the thousands of tons for supposedly “humanitarian” and legitimate purposes; no other country in the world would permit such a hostile entity committed to its destruction to have access to such supplies.
6) Hamas uses child laborers to build their terror tunnels. The Institute for Palestine Studies published a detailed report on Gaza’s tunnel phenomenon in the summer of 2012, noting: “At least 160 children have been killed in the tunnels, according to Hamas officials.”
7) Despite the war, and preceding months of thousands rocket attacks by Hamas, Israel is still providing electricity, power, and water and medical care to Gazans – despite Hamas bombing (unintentionally?) hospitals inside Gaza. This indeed demonstrates Jewish moral values not shared by Arabs/Muslims.
8 ) Hamas bombed a power station in Israel that supplied electricity to 70,000 Gazans, plunging them into darkness, which Israel repaired at great risk. No other country on earth would do repairs under such circumstances, let alone supply power to a hostile entity committed to its eradication.
9) Israel’s Health Ministry offered humanitarian and medical aid worth millions of shekels to Gaza, but the Palestinian Authority has refused to accept it.
10) The Israel Defense Force (IDF) is the most humane army in the world- warning Gazans of imminent attacks, thus degrading the effectiveness of the strikes, and giving Hamas the opportunity to move their weapons. IDF targets the terrorists, not civilians. Indeed the Israel Air Force has aborted many missions when it has noticed that civilians are present and acting as human shields, even at legitimate military targets. Hamas would do the opposite.
11) Israel has built bomb shelters to protect its citizens against deliberate missile attacks by Hamas, but Hamas builds missiles to attack civilians and tunnels to protect its missiles.
12) The double war crimes routinely committed by Hamas, such as placing its weapons in civilian homes, mosques, schools, hospitals, and encouraging, even ordering, civilians to ignore the IDF warnings and become martyrs.
13) “Proportionality” is misapplied. Hamas intends to kill thousands of Israelis with its rockets and tunnels. It is not to be rewarded for its failures, the inaccuracies of its missiles, or the superior defense of the Iron Dome system. Hamas is directly responsible for the deaths of its citizens, which it revels in for propaganda purposes.
14) Hamas has abused the UN, placing weapons in UN facilities and using ambulances as cover to transport weapons and hide terrorists. The UN has failed to respond to this illegal use, or condemn it.
15) The IDF sacrifices its soldiers to protect Gazans; most countries would merely bomb the entire place to smithereens, i.e. the Allies in WWII in Germany and Japan.
16) Israel must be allowed to defend itself as any other nation under such circumstances, especially with a blood-thirsty group whose culture relishes death.
17) Gaza is not “occupied,” and indeed it also has a border with Egypt.
18) Israel unilaterally left Gaza in 2005, leaving behind thousands of viable businesses, including greenhouses; Hamas had the opportunity to establish a thriving economy. Instead, they destroyed these businesses, and have failed to build anything positive for their people, i.e. schools, hospitals; they have made Gaza into a terrorist launching pad against Israel.
19) Hundreds of Hamas leaders have become obscenely wealthy through corruption, the tunnel system, and outright theft from generous international donors. Many do not even stay in Gaza.
20) Hamas is the elected government of Gaza, and a coalition partner with the Palestinian Authority, and thus directly responsible for its actions relative to its people.
21) Focusing so much more on the suffering of Gazans than the hundreds of thousands Arabs/Muslims killed by other Arabs/Muslims in Syria, Nigeria, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, etc.
22) Not reporting on what Hamas says in Arabic and in its media. It states unequivocally that it will never recognize Israel no matter what is offered in any negotiations, and is not interested in peace.
Lee Bender is the co-President, and Jerome Verlin is the co-Vice Present of the Zionist Organization of America-Greater Philadelphia District, and they are the co-authors of the book “Pressing Israel: Media Bias Exposed From A-Z” (Pavilion Press).