Every day provides an opportunity for those attempting to delegitimize Israel's and America's war on terrorism.
Events created an opportunity to further the perception that this war is ill conceived, misguided, fraught with error and morally corrupt. The enemy seized the initiative to cloud the objective or clarity in fighting evil, and to intimate that we are no better, or perhaps even worse, than them. The mainstream American media was complicit in creating this deception with its graphic photographic depiction of the carnage inflicted by both the Israelis and the Americans against "innocent civilians." One was left with a clear and intended image of American incompetence resulting in "tragedy, as scores were killed in the US strike on an Iraqi wedding party."
Apparently, celebrants were firing weapons in the air out of jubilation and the Americans, whom we know often "abuse" the Muslims with no regard for human rights, indiscriminately launched a lethal strike. Our media didn't take the time to investigate the circumstances and gain the perspective of the US military, but left lasting images of rows of shrouds, with children's bodies exposed so as to create an indelible witness to the wanton destruction perpetrated by our forces. Our military issued statements denying the possibility that they fired upon a wedding, and stating confidently that they were fired upon first, while indicating that they were investigating the matter further. It is interesting how the Iraqis were quick to call the fallen "martyrs".
I don't really have a clue as to what transpired, but I do believe that the media, rather than reporting an unbiased account of the event, chose to parrot as truth the claim of the enemy, giving no benefit of the doubt to our troops. This kind of sensationalistic headline attracts the reader while feeding the propaganda line that this war is one of senselessness, confusion, demoralization and defeat.
While America dealt with the details of its military operation, the Israelis were similarly embroiled in a situation that threatened to undermine the moral and ethical imperative of its Operation Rainbow. Headlines read "Israelis fire on protestors, many children dead." A whole slideshow of photos were available with images of Arabs carrying wounded children. The implications were crystal clear: Israelis had indiscriminately fired into a group of unarmed protestors who were peacefully expressing their distaste for "occupation." Yasser Arafat called the strike "genocide and a massacre that stands against all humane, civilized and political principles." A Palestinian health official described the "stairs and floors of Rafah hospital running with blood."
All of these images were reminiscent of the blood libel hurled against the Jews in their assault on Jenin, a fabrication that was deliberately committed to portray the Israelis in the most disreputable and evil manner. Palestinians, who are masters of deception and lies, never miss an opportunity for a photo op, to display their suffering at the hands of the "occupiers" and to show the inhumanity of the Jews. They have an army of accomplices like Khalil Hamra, a writer from the Associated Press, who so eloquently quoted chapter and verse from the Palestinian Propaganda machine. Reading his article on Rafah, and those of numerous others in the media, you would have a hard time understanding what the Israelis were even doing there, the justifications for the incursion and the events that precipitated this tragedy. One would think that the Israelis were just giving a good dose of that "collective punishment" against their Arab foe.
Absent or hidden in the reports were recent events leading up to the Israeli offensive, which include the following: The brutal murder of a pregnant woman and her four daughters; the assault on the mourners who were conducting a memorial service for the above; the explosion by a mine of a military vehicle, dismembering six Israeli soldiers, whose remains were transported using a UN vehicle, triumphantly paraded around Gaza and held for ransom against Palestinian prisoners; the subsequent explosion of another Israeli vehicle, that resulted in five additional deaths. These vehicles were there for the purpose of transporting engineers who would destroy the tunnels used to smuggle weapons from Egypt to Gaza. Israeli intelligence had detected stockpiles of Katyusha missiles ready for transport through these tunnels. These missiles have a range that would threaten many of Israel's population centers. The operation was initiated to disable the transfer of these missiles to the Palestinians, and to defeat the terrorist infrastructure supporting attacks against Israeli military and civilian interests. It was in this context that the Israelis were fighting.
According to official Israeli Defense Force reports, the tragedy in question occurred in a war zone where terrorists armed with weapons, including rocket propelled grenades, were shielded by several hundred civilians. The Palestinian Authority orchestrated the procession, and the large group marched towards the Israeli forces, creating a provocation. An Israeli helicopter fired a warning shot in an open area followed by flares to deter the crowd from approaching further. After these maneuvers failed to halt the procession, machine gun fire and four tank shells were directed at an abandoned structure alongside the road. It is possible that the casualties were a result of the tank fire. It is also plausible that explosive charges ubiquitously planted by the Palestinians, and not yet cleared by the Israelis, exploded as the crowd approached.
The Israeli military has already apologized for the loss of civilian life, and is investigating the event. The Palestinians would never conduct an internal investigation into an operation that resulted in Israeli deaths, civilian or otherwise, because that is their target and objective.
As Representative Ron Paul recently asserted: Israel and the United States are fighting the same enemy. This enemy wants nothing short of the annihilation of the free world and will stop at nothing to achieve its end. This is an enemy that values not its children and that worships death. It is a cancer that must be eradicated before it wreaks utter devastation. For the Israelis, they must find the courage to transcend the pressures of global politics and commit themselves to terrorism's swift defeat, without apology for collateral damage and destruction. A world body that places greater value on Palestinian homes than on Jewish lives is a body infected with hypocrisy and lacking any moral compass. Its judgments must be cast aside and ignored. If Israel does this, then they may yet be a light unto the nations by leading in the example of how to eradicate evil from the world.
To win this war, America must acknowledge that good and evil cannot coexist and it must, therefore, unequivocally choose to vanquish evil. It must stop trying to be an "honest broker", playing both sides of the coin so as to curry the favor of the morally depraved Arab world and the morally confused Europeans. Furthermore, America must stop the call for the creation of a Palestinian terror state, any claim for which has been nullified by the PA's failure to abide by any covenant engaged, and by its planting the cancer of murder and terror.
America must properly commit to war via a declaration through Congress, asserting that its power comes from the sovereignty of our nation under G-d, not under a corrupt United Nations that confers legitimacy upon terror and upon the multiplicity of totalitarian states it shields.
Events created an opportunity to further the perception that this war is ill conceived, misguided, fraught with error and morally corrupt. The enemy seized the initiative to cloud the objective or clarity in fighting evil, and to intimate that we are no better, or perhaps even worse, than them. The mainstream American media was complicit in creating this deception with its graphic photographic depiction of the carnage inflicted by both the Israelis and the Americans against "innocent civilians." One was left with a clear and intended image of American incompetence resulting in "tragedy, as scores were killed in the US strike on an Iraqi wedding party."
Apparently, celebrants were firing weapons in the air out of jubilation and the Americans, whom we know often "abuse" the Muslims with no regard for human rights, indiscriminately launched a lethal strike. Our media didn't take the time to investigate the circumstances and gain the perspective of the US military, but left lasting images of rows of shrouds, with children's bodies exposed so as to create an indelible witness to the wanton destruction perpetrated by our forces. Our military issued statements denying the possibility that they fired upon a wedding, and stating confidently that they were fired upon first, while indicating that they were investigating the matter further. It is interesting how the Iraqis were quick to call the fallen "martyrs".
I don't really have a clue as to what transpired, but I do believe that the media, rather than reporting an unbiased account of the event, chose to parrot as truth the claim of the enemy, giving no benefit of the doubt to our troops. This kind of sensationalistic headline attracts the reader while feeding the propaganda line that this war is one of senselessness, confusion, demoralization and defeat.
While America dealt with the details of its military operation, the Israelis were similarly embroiled in a situation that threatened to undermine the moral and ethical imperative of its Operation Rainbow. Headlines read "Israelis fire on protestors, many children dead." A whole slideshow of photos were available with images of Arabs carrying wounded children. The implications were crystal clear: Israelis had indiscriminately fired into a group of unarmed protestors who were peacefully expressing their distaste for "occupation." Yasser Arafat called the strike "genocide and a massacre that stands against all humane, civilized and political principles." A Palestinian health official described the "stairs and floors of Rafah hospital running with blood."
All of these images were reminiscent of the blood libel hurled against the Jews in their assault on Jenin, a fabrication that was deliberately committed to portray the Israelis in the most disreputable and evil manner. Palestinians, who are masters of deception and lies, never miss an opportunity for a photo op, to display their suffering at the hands of the "occupiers" and to show the inhumanity of the Jews. They have an army of accomplices like Khalil Hamra, a writer from the Associated Press, who so eloquently quoted chapter and verse from the Palestinian Propaganda machine. Reading his article on Rafah, and those of numerous others in the media, you would have a hard time understanding what the Israelis were even doing there, the justifications for the incursion and the events that precipitated this tragedy. One would think that the Israelis were just giving a good dose of that "collective punishment" against their Arab foe.
Absent or hidden in the reports were recent events leading up to the Israeli offensive, which include the following: The brutal murder of a pregnant woman and her four daughters; the assault on the mourners who were conducting a memorial service for the above; the explosion by a mine of a military vehicle, dismembering six Israeli soldiers, whose remains were transported using a UN vehicle, triumphantly paraded around Gaza and held for ransom against Palestinian prisoners; the subsequent explosion of another Israeli vehicle, that resulted in five additional deaths. These vehicles were there for the purpose of transporting engineers who would destroy the tunnels used to smuggle weapons from Egypt to Gaza. Israeli intelligence had detected stockpiles of Katyusha missiles ready for transport through these tunnels. These missiles have a range that would threaten many of Israel's population centers. The operation was initiated to disable the transfer of these missiles to the Palestinians, and to defeat the terrorist infrastructure supporting attacks against Israeli military and civilian interests. It was in this context that the Israelis were fighting.
According to official Israeli Defense Force reports, the tragedy in question occurred in a war zone where terrorists armed with weapons, including rocket propelled grenades, were shielded by several hundred civilians. The Palestinian Authority orchestrated the procession, and the large group marched towards the Israeli forces, creating a provocation. An Israeli helicopter fired a warning shot in an open area followed by flares to deter the crowd from approaching further. After these maneuvers failed to halt the procession, machine gun fire and four tank shells were directed at an abandoned structure alongside the road. It is possible that the casualties were a result of the tank fire. It is also plausible that explosive charges ubiquitously planted by the Palestinians, and not yet cleared by the Israelis, exploded as the crowd approached.
The Israeli military has already apologized for the loss of civilian life, and is investigating the event. The Palestinians would never conduct an internal investigation into an operation that resulted in Israeli deaths, civilian or otherwise, because that is their target and objective.
As Representative Ron Paul recently asserted: Israel and the United States are fighting the same enemy. This enemy wants nothing short of the annihilation of the free world and will stop at nothing to achieve its end. This is an enemy that values not its children and that worships death. It is a cancer that must be eradicated before it wreaks utter devastation. For the Israelis, they must find the courage to transcend the pressures of global politics and commit themselves to terrorism's swift defeat, without apology for collateral damage and destruction. A world body that places greater value on Palestinian homes than on Jewish lives is a body infected with hypocrisy and lacking any moral compass. Its judgments must be cast aside and ignored. If Israel does this, then they may yet be a light unto the nations by leading in the example of how to eradicate evil from the world.
To win this war, America must acknowledge that good and evil cannot coexist and it must, therefore, unequivocally choose to vanquish evil. It must stop trying to be an "honest broker", playing both sides of the coin so as to curry the favor of the morally depraved Arab world and the morally confused Europeans. Furthermore, America must stop the call for the creation of a Palestinian terror state, any claim for which has been nullified by the PA's failure to abide by any covenant engaged, and by its planting the cancer of murder and terror.
America must properly commit to war via a declaration through Congress, asserting that its power comes from the sovereignty of our nation under G-d, not under a corrupt United Nations that confers legitimacy upon terror and upon the multiplicity of totalitarian states it shields.