No legacy is so rich as honesty - William Shakespeare

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Several of the more idiotic left-wing posters here today have accused me of somehow dodging this story, so here it is from the most unbiased source I could think of: al-Jazeera.

An Israeli settler has opened fire at a group of Palestinians in the West Bank, killing three people, in a shooting that coincided with Israel’s Gaza withdrawal.

Israeli Zaka emergency service said on Wednesday that at least three people had been also wounded in the attack near the Jewish settlement of Shiloh in the West Bank.

Israeli and Palestinian medics said the man grabbed a weapon from a security guard posted at the industrial zone of the West Bank settlement of Shilo, then randomly opened fire on Palestinians nearby.

Media reports said he opened fire in an attempt to disrupt the Gaza pullout, but the reports could not immediately be confirmed.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon condemned the shooting of as an act of “Jewish terror” aimed at stopping the Gaza pullout.

Sharon said the shooting was “aimed against innocent Palestinians, out of twisted thinking, aimed at stopping the disengagement.”

Okay, let’s look at this here.  Israel is currently undertaking a historic withdrawal from Gaza as an immense gesture towards peace.  They could very legitimately lay claim to those lands, but in any kind of negotiation there has to be give and take on both sides, and in this case this is Israel’s “give.” As with any unpopular political decision, there is marked opposition from a large segment of the Israeli population.  And who can blame them?  The Palestinians rejected the Oslo accords, which gave them 99% of everything they were asking for, and in return launched the Intafada.  So now, after years of killing Israelis on busses and in pizzerias, the Israeli government is giving them what they are asking for. 

So some lone Israeli grabs a gun and murders people.  The suspect was immediately arrested, and will be tried and convicted, after which he will pay for his crimes.  There was an immediate, vocal condemnation of the act from Israel’s leadership.  Now, let’s contrast that with the Palestinians.  Suicide bombers are treated roughly the way professional athletes are treated in this country.  Mothers willingly offer up their sons to die as blessed martyrs for Allah.  Suicide bombers have their faces plastered on posters; Palestinian children collect martyr trading cards.  When Israelis are killed the Palestinians dance in the streets.  Violence is never denounced, but is encouraged.

So, tell me, lefties, how exactly can you draw a shred of moral equivalency between random violence of the Israeli sort, and well-planned, well-financed, state-sposored terror like that perpetrated by the Palestinians?