So what can we do?  The cost of freedom is more than just eternal vigilance.  We must get involved and do some hard work.  Don’t think so?  Need motivation?  May I suggest this post, FAMILY FOUNDATION DAY AT THE CAPITOL, at the Prince William-Manassas Family Alliance?  The excerpt from Alexis De Tocqueville‘s Democracy in America is quite timely.

This may be silly but this is the way I have thought through the ethical dilemma Israel is in:

Your neighbor, call him Pal E. Stine,  is consistently shooting at you and your immediate family.  Fortunately his weapon lacks range and his aim isn’t accurate, so he very rarely hits anyone.  He is encouraged to do this by some other neighbors who have never liked you and resent your moving back to the neighborhood.

You are able to block deliveries to Pal’s house from the grocery and pharmacy and to block him from leaving his home to go to work.

You have asked Pal to stop shooting you and on the rare occasion that he does, Pal continues to negotiate with one of his neighbors for deliveries of additional and better guns.

Pal’s home is small, cramped and lacks many amenities.  He thinks he has a claim to your home and his stated purpose is to remove you and your family from the premises by any means necessary.  Pal’s shows no indication of ever backing down from the position that your family has no right to exist and may very well follow you any where you move to and attempt of obliterate your family.

As Pal is shooting at you, he is surrounded by all the members of his large family.  If you return fire with your superior weapons, there is a good chance that you will kill small children, the old and/or the infirm.  If you succeed in killing Pal one of his many sons will take his place and continue shooting at you.

You have a friend in another neighborhood (US) that supplies you with weapons and has, in the past, worked to facilitate a peace process between you and Pal.

Local law enforcement, the UN, refuses to interfere unless they are sure that none of their people will be harmed and they are granted complete control of both properties.  In the past, when you lived in a boarding house in another neighborhood, everyone in that neighborhood and the entire world stood by while most of your family was killed by the owner of the boarding house, G. Manny.  They finally intervened when G Manny began taking their houses and killing their family members.  You returned to your house in the old neighborhood because you feel safer with all of your family in one house.

What do you do?  Here are some options:

1. Do nothing.  Wait until Pal’s weaponry or accuracy improve and he kills you and yours off.
2. Ask U.S to try to negotiate a peaceful solution.
3. Move, possibly to a boarding house or with your family members living in different houses in different neighborhoods.
4. Place the safety of your family in the hands of the UN.
5. Return fire, aim exclusively at Pal and do your best to avoid killing any family members.
6. You return fire and deliberately obliterate the entire family with speed and no mercy.
7. Hire someone from another neighborhood to kill the Stine family by nefarious means that cannot be tracked to you.
8. ???

#7 is my personal favorite.   #6 is clearly the response most consistent with the Old Testament, so, perhaps, Israel’s response is measured.

Israel scrapped arrangements Monday to allow the first foreign reporters into the Gaza Strip since the military launched its offensive against Palestinian militants, adding to mounting media frustration at being locked out of the war zone.

The ban on foreign media, which has been appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court, drew criticism from journalists that Israel is trying to manage the story.

Israel asserts that opening border crossings for journalists would endanger staff at the terminals, which have often been targeted by militants.  (from here)

As one reads this story, one wonders if journalists think Israel staged its offense for their benefit.  What is apparent is that some journalists do regard themselves as indispensable.

“There is a need for journalists to be on the ground to document the news stories, and frankly to monitor the behavior of all belligerent parties, whether it is Hamas or the Israeli army,” he said. “The presence of the media in any place where war is raging has helped keep violations under check.”

Reporters who cannot enter Gaza devote much of their time reporting on rocket attacks by Palestinian militants and filming the damage caused on the Israeli side of the line, or filming Gaza from distant vantage points inside Israel.  (from here)

Israel is conducting military operations, and secrecy is generally helpful under such circumstances.  In addition, the news media is notorious for emphasizing the lopsided casualty counts.   Apparently, too much of the foreign press is unhappy with the relatively small number of Israeli dead and injured.

What should be obvious is that Israel is surrounded by hostile nations.  Yet only Iran, the backer of Hamas, would clearly benefit if Hamas continues its belligerency.   So Israel’s task is to quiet Hamas with minimal civilian casualties.   In fact, if Israel kills too many civilians, the operation will be a dismal failure.  Instead of stopping Hamas’ rockets, Israel will have riled its Muslim neighbors.

Nonetheless, the foreign press must report something, and gore is best.  So we get unhelpful, gory speculation.

Israel is believed to be using controversial white phosphorus shells to screen its assault on the heavily populated Gaza Strip yesterday. The weapon, used by British and US forces in Iraq, can cause horrific burns but is not illegal if used as a smokescreen.

As the Israeli army stormed to the edges of Gaza City and the Palestinian death toll topped 500, the tell-tale shells could be seen spreading tentacles of thick white smoke to cover the troops’ advance. “These explosions are fantastic looking, and produce a great deal of smoke that blinds the enemy so that our forces can move in,” said one Israeli security expert. Burning blobs of phosphorus would cause severe injuries to anyone caught beneath them and force would-be snipers or operators of remote-controlled booby traps to take cover. Israel admitted using white phosphorus during its 2006 war with Lebanon.  (from here)

Other Views

The Armchair Generalist explains the limits of airpower here.

Mosquito blog has string of stories.  This here was my ahh… favorite.

The Richmond Democrat offers the news media a full blown frontal assault of his own.  See here.

Avenging Archangel provides a link to pro-Israeli news coverage here.

XCurmudgeon takes the Israeli side here.

Shaun Kenny provides some pertinent information about the rocket attacks here.  Make certain you check out UPDATE x3 at the bottom is his post.

Israeli ground troops and tanks cut swaths through the Gaza Strip early Sunday, bisecting the coastal territory and surrounding its biggest city as the new phase of a devastating offensive against Hamas gained momentum.

Thousands of soldiers in three brigade-size formations pushed into Gaza after nightfall Saturday, beginning a long-awaited ground offensive after a week of intense aerial bombardment. Black smoke billowed over Gaza City at first light and bursts of machine gun fire rang out.  (from here)

Part of this effort also involves the political cover the United States is providing Israel in the United Nations.

The United States late Saturday blocked approval of a U.N. Security Council statement calling for an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers, diplomats said.  (from here)

As usual, there is also information warfare.  For example, the Israelis made calm pronouncements regretting the necessity of the invasion.

Israel’s ground assault followed a weeklong flurry of airstrikes. Israel has said the attacks are in response to recent rocket attacks from Hamas militants in Gaza.

“We haven’t articulated regime change as the goal of this operation. Our goal is to protect our people,” Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said.

Regev said Gaza’s civilian population was not Israel’s enemy.

“In many ways, they are victims like us. Both the civilian population of southern Israel and the civilian population of the Gaza Strip have been victims of this terrible, extremist Hamas regime,” Regev said.  (from here)

Hamas, on the other hand, talked about death and destruction.

Hamas threatened to turn Gaza into a “graveyard” for Israeli forces.

“You entered like rats,” Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan told Israeli soldiers in a statement on Hamas’ Al Aqsa TV. “Gaza will be a graveyard for you, God willing.”  (from here)

Because the same article mentions the bomb-sniffing dogs the Israeling troops are using to avoid booby traps, Hamas’ rat analogy left me with a different perspective than their propagandists intended.

Rat Terrier

The breed name comes from the occupation of its earliest ancestors; brought to the US by working class British migrants, these quick, tough little dogs gained their fame in rat pit gambling. However they were, for the most part, bred for speed. Their speed is used for controlling vermin and hunting squirrels, hare, and other small game.  (from here)

Hamas and its gunman hide in an urban environment amongst a civilian population and they dare to call the Israeli Defense Forces rats?  What stupid hypocrites!

Of late I have been exchanging comments on Mosquito Blog with Mac (see here) about the situation in the Gaza Strip.  Mac wants peace.  However, he left me mystified as to what he expected Israel might do to achieve peace.  I wonder if he would be elated if Israel just laid down it arms and gave up.   The way he ended his response to an anonymous comment indicated as much.

This is really about trying to move everyone’s consciousness up a notch, toward more spiritual awareness. Spirit is universal, thus so is love, because love is integral to spirit. Everyone, Jew, Moslem, Christian, etc., is capable of spiritual growth and awareness, which can move us beyond “tribalism” on all sides.  (from here)

The problem is that Mac’s belief that everyone is capable of moving beyond what he calls “tribalism” is not true.  Of course, all people can love.  Unfortunately, not all people learn that God expects us to love people from outside our immediate group.  The notion that we should love people from other communities and  people of other races and religions is actually still somewhat novel.   What is worse is that there are those who still teach children to hate.   Consider the following extracts.

From The American Thinker

In a few weeks, it will be five years since the Palestinian Authority was to prepare its citizens for a two-state solution and end incitement in its educational system. Yet from pre-school through highschool, Palestinian children are indoctrinated to deny Israel’s legitimacy, demonize Israelis and Jews, and glorify violent struggle as a religious goal. The Palestinian government-produced textbooks and government-controlled media work in tandem to assure that Palestinian children will be no more disposed to living peacefully with Israel tomorrow than their parents are today.  (from here)

From The Jerusalem Post

In the first of a series of papers analyzing the effectiveness of Britain’s overseas aid, the Tax Payers Alliance (TPA), which lobbies for lower taxes and better government, has published a report looking at the effects of British aid spending in the Palestinian territories.

“Funding Hate Education” reveals disturbing evidence on the millions of pounds of British tax revenue has been funneled into hate education and promoting violence in the Middle East.

Some of the money is even being used to fund school textbooks that teach children in Palestine to worship violence and hate all non-Muslims.

“With moves towards a peace settlement at Annapolis and an American presidential visit to Israel, there is real hope that a peace deal can be reached,” said Matthew Sinclair, author of the report and policy analyst at the TPA. “In order for a deal to stick over the long term, however, it is essential that the Palestinian population fully accepts it. This is why it is particularly concerning that British aid is supporting the radicalization of the Palestinian population, particularly the children.”  (from here)

From the New York Times

Mark Regev, spokesman for Mr. Olmert, called on “Arab leaders who are moderate and believe in peace to speak out more strongly against extremist elements.” He called the “incitement to hatred and violence standard Hamas operating procedure,” adding, “In Hamas education and broadcasting they turn the suicide bomber who murders the innocent into a positive role model, and they portray Jews in the most negative terms, that too often reminds us of language used in Europe in the first half of the 20th century.”

The “serious question,” he said, “is what ethos are they promoting?”

Hazim el-Sharawi, 30, the original host of the Farfour character on Hamas television, and known as “Uncle Hazim,” has no doubts. It was his idea to have Farfour killed by an Israeli interrogator, he said. “We wanted to send a message through this character that would fit the reality of Palestinian life.”  (from here)

More often the major media has little to say about how Palestinians educate their children.  For example The Atlantic in a long article on the Palestinians provides only a passing reference.

The camp consisted of little cement or frame houses rambling over the hillside, a village of poor people, disorderly and beflowered and cheerful. School was letting out for lunch; troops of children, dressed in the pinafore uniform that small boys and girls wear in Italian schools, meandered home, shouting bye-bye at friendly, giggling length. They are Roman Catholics here, but the young teachers are refugees, not priests. They have to teach the children about Palestine, since most of them have never seen the country and even the oldest cannot remember it. The children are taught hate, the Garden of Eden stolen from them by murderers; their duty is to live for Return and Revenge.  (from here)

Oddly, The Atlantic refuses to directly discuss what Palestinian children are actually being taught in school.

What is sad about the Palestinians is the status of these people.  The Palestinians have been deliberately classified refugees for almost 60 years.  The Volokh Conspiracy has an article (see here) that addresses this issue and the role of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.   When one considers the tendency of bureaucracies to perpetuate themselves….

So what is the truth.  When the news media tells about what is going on in far away places, we should be skeptical.  The news media exists to provide an audience for advertisers, not to inform us.   Because they are less spectacular, the rockets that Hamas has been firing from Gaza for months has garnered little media attention.  However, the more “photogenic” Israeli response has.   In addition, when reporters tell both sides of the story, they find it unsafe to cover the more spectacular part of story in Gaza.  Thus we end up with a one-sided picture.

So what is the the latest news?

Artillery units joined Israel’s Gaza offensive for the first time Saturday while warplanes and gunboats pounded more than 40 Hamas targets and a mosque where 10 people were killed.

Airstrikes waned during the day but gathered pace after dark Saturday. In a sign that the offensive was entering a new phase, military officials said Israeli artillery units attacked Gaza for the first time, something that could signal a ground invasion is nearing.

“We will do all that is necessary to provide a different reality for southern Israel, which has been under constant attacks for the past eight years,” Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told Channel 2 TV.  (from here)

Likely the Israelis will invade.  Should they?  I cannot honestly say I have a better idea.  Were I running Israel, I suspect I would take over Gaza and clamp down on Hamas and other such Palestinian organizations.  Why?  How can you hope to make peace with people who are being taught from early childhood to hate you?

World peace is noble goal, but everyone wants to define the conditions for peace their own way.  So we end up with a puzzle.  In order to have a cessation of violence, we sometimes have to impose “peace.”  That, of course, is not what Christians think of as true peace, and that, I think, forms the crux of the problem.  If we want everyone to accept peace based upon love and mutual respect, we have to persuade everyone to either accept Christianity or at least Christian ethics.  Such is a task unsuited for government.

What government has ever taught its people they should love and forgive even their enemies?  None that I know of.  Perhaps that is why no president has succeeded in bringing peace to the Middle East.