Terror attacks are apparently not an obstacle to peace. The Obama administration didn’t The State Department does not feel the need to issue a scathing condemnation of the attackers who murdered four Israeli civilians, including a pregnant woman. It’s far too busy condemning rabbis for “incitement.” Say, let’s take a look at that “incitement” that the State Department condemned:
During his weekly lesson, held at the synagogue near his house in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Har-Nof, the rabbi mentioned the blessing said at the Rosh Hashana feast that says, “May our enemies and adversaries be destroyed”, and applied it to the current situation. “Abu Mazen (Abbas) and all those evil men – may they perish from this world. May God Almighty strike them and these Palestinians.”
Hm. He was calling for God to strike down the enemies of Israel. And the State Department responded thusly:
We regret and condemn the inflammatory statements by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. We note the Israeli statement that the Rabbi’s comments do not reflect the views of the Prime Minister. These remarks are not only deeply offensive, but incitement such as this hurts the cause of peace. As we move forward to relaunch peace negotiations, it is important that actions by people on all sides help to advance our effort, not hinder it.
Now let’s see what the State Departmen had to say about the Hamas terror attack:
US cognizant that there could be external events that can have an impact on the environment/US also cognizant that there may well be actors in the region who are deliberately making these kinds of attacks in order to try to sabotage the process/US aware that not everyone sees this in the same way/US believes that the leaders understand that the moment is now, we think an agreement is achievable
Hm. A rabbi uses Biblical terms to describe Israel’s enemies, and the State Dept. goes into full condemnation mode. Terrorists attack and murder four civilians, and the State Dept. recogiizes that terror attacks may happen. In the first case, State issued a release on the rabbi’s words. In the second case, State merely issued notes of the daily briefing. Obviously, the State Dept. felt those are two totally appropriate reactions. Of course they did. Hillary Clinton did, after all, give Benjamin Netanyahu a 43-minute dressing-down for something that wasn’t even his fault last year.
But wait! Catherine Ashton, High Muckety-Muck of the EU, also condemned the attack:
“I strongly condemn the terrorist attack that has killed four Israeli civilians near the city of Hebron,” Ashton, who is currently in China for high-level strategic talks, said in a statement.
“With this unacceptable attack, the enemies of peace have tried to derail the Middle East peace talks. But we are determined not to let these enemies of peace have their way.”
Ah. She is determined not to let the murder of Jews stop the EU from pressuring Israel to make peace. Say, let’s take a look at the release that Ashton sent out after the latest round of terrorist bombings in Iraq:
“Catherine Ashton, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy is deeply saddened by the explosions and continuing acts of violence in Iraq and the High Representative expresses her deepest condolences to the families and friends of the victims, and to the Iraqi Authorities.
The European Union condemns these attacks. The majority of the victims of these terrorist attacks were devoted to building Iraq’s security. HR Ashton wishes to reiterate once again the urgent need to form a stable government in Iraq which is able to take decisive steps towards national reconciliation and to deal with all challenges confronting the country. The European Union looks forward to engaging with this new government as soon as it is in place.â€
Interesting. She extends her deepest condolences to Iraqi victims of terrorism, but nothing for Israeli victims of the same.
France managed to issue a full-blown condemnation. So did Tony Blair.
“I condemn unequivocally the shooting attack in which four Israelis were killed today and extend my condolences to the families of those killed,” Blair said Tuesday. “This shocking act was obviously intended to damage the launch of negotiations, but we must not allow extremists to derail the process.”
The Palestinians? Well, there were the usual mealy-mouthed “condemnations” that were then translated by the media as real ones. Even Robert Gibbs passed along the spin that Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack. Here’s the “condemnation”:
Abbas said the shooting attack in Hebron was meant to “impede the diplomatic process,” stressing that the Palestinian Authority “objects to attacks on civilians from both sides – Israeli or Palestinian.”
Yeah, yeah, yeah—the old moral equivalence condemnation. Terrorists killing civilians are just the same as civilians being killed because terrorists are shooting mortars from their backyards.
To sum up: A terror attack on Israelis? Not an obstacle to peace. No need for State to issue a strong condemnation of the murder of four civilians. It’s just another attempt by the non-peacenik crowd to sabotate the peace talks. Ho-hum.
Building in Jerusalem? Words by a 90-year-old rabbi during a Torah discussion? Condemnations! Incitement! Obstacles to peace!
This the world of Israeli Double Standard Time. But not to worry. It only occurs on days that end with a “y”.
Carl in Jerusalem has an english translation of Abu Mazen’s full remarks in Arabic. They are even worse than your exceprt sugests. Abbas said that the reaso the attack was wrong because it was strategically against the Palestinian’s interests, and challenges the authority of the PA. See israelmatzav.blogspot.com
After all, it was only an abortion, which is legal and preferable (according to NOW and its ilk). Just because the mother died of lead poisoning during the procedure should not require condemnation
/sarc
Ashton calls the attack on the Israelis “unacceptable” but the Euros and many others have been accepting Arab terrorism as normal for decades. Indeed, every terrorist attack is given as more reason for Israel to concede more to the Palis, even unto destruction. If anybody really found such terrorist murders unacceptable they would say “OK Israel, you carte blanche to do to Hamas whatever needs to be done. Kill all the Mamasniks, and we don’t worry about the necessary breakage among Hamas’ supporters.”
Th entire initiative for the war comes from Israel’s enemies. If they stopped attacking Israel and stopped trying to kill the Jews there would be peace tomorrow. Nothing Israel does or says can affect that. There is only one thing that would affect it. Israel’s enemies must feel the pain of being at war with Israel so badly that they want it to stop. When Israel hurts them enough, they will stop making war. Israel has never hurt them nearly enough for that. Hurting the enemy so much that they want it to stop, and thus the enemy stops fighting, is what brought about an end to WWII.
The pregnant 45 year old was my brother’s account manager. She was 9 months pregnant and was killed with her husband. They leave behind 6 orphans. The other two were not a couple, but just people who happenned to be on that same ride. The news here in Belgium barely spoke of it (but the Flotilla was headlines for two weeks).
During cast lead, people I know would complain on Facebook that the IDF were killing Palestinian children point blank range. They have no idea. THIS was point blank range, this was shooting just for the sake of killing and cruelty, as terrorists do.
This terror act didn’t claim four victims, but five. Shooting a woman who is nine months pregnant and shooting the unborn baby through the belly on purpose, making sure that it is impossible to save it, is beyond barbaric.
“Shooting a woman who is nine months pregnant and shooting the unborn baby through the belly on purpose, making sure that it is impossible to save it, is beyond barbaric.”
The Arab terrorists love killing Jewish children. A few years ago two great heroes of the jihad stopped a car driven by a woman eight and one half months pregnant, whose four daughters were also in the car. They shot each child and the mother, then put a sixth bullet into her abdoman for the baby. They destroyed the entire family except the absent father. Arab accusation of child killing by Israel are projections onto Israelis of the Arabs’ method of making war.