Africans are killing Africans – who cares? Asians are killing Asians – who cares? Arabs are killing Arabs in huge numbers – who cares? Jews are killing Arabs – what, this can’t be allowed!Jack Cohen
USAF jets dropped high explosive bombs on the forces of the Islamic State approaching Irbil in the Autonomous Kurdish Region of northern Iraq. But, was it proportionate? Who cares? Proportionality only applies to the forces of the IDF.
Tens of thousands of Christians and Yazidis were ousted and fled from their ancestral cities in northern Iraq when forces of the Islamic State (formely the terrorist group known as ISIS) attacked their homes and began a systematic genocide. How many were killed? Who cares? There are no Jews involved.
The Ukrainian Army has bombarded the cities of Lukhansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine to try to overcome the pro-Russian insurgents. Many thousands of innocent civilians were caught in the bombing. Does anyone know how many children were killed? No, who cares? It doesn’t matter, there were no Jews involved.
During the civil war in Syria, that has taken ca. 170,000 lives (!), the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad has attacked the Palestinian concentration camps and killed thousands of people, including women and children. But, who cares? There are no Jews involved.
A smart UN official (in the intelligence branch no doubt) has proposed that in order to equalize the death toll on both sides, Israel should provide Iron Dome batteries to protect the Palestinian population against its own projectiles. Whatever happened to fighting to win?
Alternative ideas are that the Iron Dome be automatically turned off in response to Hamas missiles to ensure that there are more Israeli deaths, so that the death count should be more proportionate.
An Israeli came up with the idea that the Iron Dome system be modified so that the missiles from Gaza should be turned back to land in Gaza. That would be more proportionate.
Boko Haram have kidnapped 52 Nigerian girls from their school and turned them into slaves, and this has generated an international campaign. Boko Haram is a terrible Islamist organization. Hamas has killed 162 Gazan children forced to dig tunnels for them to attack Israel. Hamas is a benevolent social welfare organization assisting the poor Palestinian people.
Israel is a terrible anti-humanitarian state that keeps a blockade on Gaza, making it into a big prison. Although Israel does allow the importation into Gaza of food, medical supplies, electicity, water, oil and building supplies. The building supplies were approved for UN use to build schools and mosques, although they were actually used to build a network of tunnels with which to strike at Israel and kill Israeli civilians. Who cares?
Videos have surfaced (after the ceasefire when reporters left Gaza) of Hamas operatives (in civilian clothes) staging incidents of deaths from IDF shelling of UN schools and elsewhere. Other videos show Hamas firing missiles from locations adjacent to UN facilities, hotels containing journalists and within densely populated areas. Who cares? Hamas are a humanitarian Palestinian organization fighting Israel. Now if Israel did those things, that would be a war crime.
The Jerusalem Post has reported that there were two kinds of journalists covering the war from inside Gaza, those who don’t want to go back and who testifed that their reporting was censored by Hamas, and those that do want to go back and who are not prepared to answer the question. Who cares, as long as we get the news.
Hamas are indebted to editors around the world because they know that they believe the basic notion of TV journalism, “if it bleeds, it leads.” Hamas’s aim is to satisfy the needs of the editors and the public for children’s blood. It can be guaranteed that every IDF shell will cause at least one bloody child. Hamas will soon produce a full-length feature film entitled: “Bloody children’s hour,” that will consist of a repeated showing of bloodied children being rushed into the emergency room for public entertainment.
What, cynical, me?
Jack Cohen
Jack Cohen, Netanya, Israel
Kerry’s About Turn: Jack Cohen Born in London, UK, lived in suburban Washington DC area for 30 years, moved to Israel in 1996. He has a web site: Comment From Israel
