The following is presented as part of The Columbian’s Opinion content, which offers a point of view in order to provoke thought and debate of civic issues. Opinions represent the viewpoint of the author. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus opinion of The Columbian’s editorial board, which operates independently of the news department.
Our task today is to finally make clear a couple of core realities that have somehow remained camouflaged and unrecognized in the human tragedy in Gaza and Israel.
Our plan is to cut through both the fog of war and the bomfog of the war-explainers. And as a fragile cease-fire has just begun between Hamas and Israel, it is way past time for us to do this. That’s because, for weeks, we have been allowing the war-makers to double as our war-explainers. And yes, the “we” I am talking about includes the most highly respected of my news media colleagues. So buckle up.
Let’s begin with one basic reality the world’s deciders must finally recognize:
QUESTION: Who is the culprit most responsible for the horrific slaughter of hundreds of Gaza’s innocent civilians — Palestinian men, women and children?
ANSWER: It is Hamas, Gaza’s own duly elected governing body, which the United Nations and others have classified as a terrorist organization.
Hamas’ rulers have long installed rocket launchers (also military attack tunnels and other targets) in the middle of Gaza’s most densely populated residential areas. In a damnable, diabolical act, Hamas then repeatedly fired rockets from those launchers targeting Israeli population centers. Why? Hamas was deliberately goading Israel into believing it had no choice but to protect Israeli civilians by launching retaliatory airstrikes that would not just blow up those launchers but would inevitably kill massive numbers of the neighboring Palestinian civilians.
Why has Hamas done that? Because Hamas’ main goal was to win a much larger war — a worldwide propaganda war in which Israel would be seen as killers of Palestinian civilians. And the world would then turn against Israel. And lo, that too has come to pass. Once again, Israel has fallen into Hamas’ years-old, battle-tested human shields trap.
QUESTION: Does Israel’s military superiority guarantee its invincibility in the Middle East?
ANSWER: Not if Israel refuses to skillfully use all the weapons in its arsenal. And so far, Hamas’ ragtag terrorist rulers have outsmarted, outmaneuvered and outgunned Israel on one battlefield — fighting the 21st century PR “www” wars that are fought with weaponry of the worldwide web.
It had been happening even before Al Gore invented the internet — and now it is happening again, more decisively than ever. Indeed, Israel seems to have given up on being smart and has simply stopped trying to win the online war (and the U.N. diplomatic wars).
Once again, Hamas was locked and loaded — and deployed its best weapon of modern-day warfare where Israel’s most orthodox leaders have been bizarrely the most pigheaded. The Palestinians rocketed around the world videos showing bodies of dead Palestinian children. And Israel’s response was to increase its airstrikes on launchers and attack tunnels — but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government stopped trying to show the world its visual evidence that Hamas fired waves of rockets from launchers near apartments, schools and hospitals.
Perhaps the best way to grasp the extent to which Israel has become the ultimate victim of its own pigheadedness can be found by looking at the very best in our news business — The New York Times.
Wednesday’s lead article on the front page was a long, detailed chronicling of the massive damage inflicted upon Gaza’s civilians: “ … damaged 17 hospitals and clinics …wrecked its only coronavirus test laboratory … sent fetid wastewater into its streets … a humanitarian crisis that is touching nearly every civilian … about two million people … dozens of schools have been damaged … at least 213 Palestinians have been killed, including dozens of children.”
The action was summed up much as most of the world thinks of the Gaza tragedy: “Israeli airplanes continued to pound Gaza with missiles, and Hamas and its Islamist affiliates fired rockets into Israel.”
But actually, that’s the reverse of how it happened: In reality, Hamas rockets were launched first. That’s how Israeli military located the source and was able to retaliate. Some 70 percent of Israelis scurried into bomb shelters. Israel had no choice but to destroy Hamas’ launchers. Sometimes Israel could warn civilians to evacuate. Other times there was no time. Tragically, the Hamas launchers’ innocent neighbors died, their homes demolished.
Why has Netanyahu’s government refused to show the world — at the U.N. or just online — its high-tech visual evidence that Hamas’ launchers were surrounded by unwilling Palestinian human shields?
There can be no reason. Unless it is the unthinkable — that no evidence exists because it was all a lie. Otherwise, it is way past time for Israel to regain the diplo-moral high ground. Here’s how: Show-and-tell us the truth.
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