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The anti-Semites are correct. Israel fights wars differently than any country you ever have heard about, as we shall shortly see.
Storylines in America’s leading newspapers have not varied in their coverage of Israel-Gaza. Like a bad debt, steamy touchstone words — designed to woo new fans — are included in every story. “Densely populated” is a mandatory characterization of Gaza City and every other population patch in the Strip.
“Innocent civilians” are in the forefront of every casualty report, although generally ignored is the fact that Hamas uses “innocent civilians” as their personal pigeons, as human shields, as cover for their weapons depots in residential neighborhoods.
When Israel strikes these weapons hideouts, “innocent civilians” die, and Hamas reaps a bounty of strongly favorable, heavily sympathetic publicity around the world because, you see, Israel’s assault has been “disproportionate.” How do we know? Many governments and most reporters say so.
However, persons who fall down in sympathy over this dog-and-pony act probably also believe that television wrestling matches are authentic.
A Warning
Now, about Israel’s unique tactics:
Having apparently secured significant northern portions of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli forces today turned toward the south.
Like the rest of the “densely populated” territory, the southern tip is littered with tunnels through which Hamas deviously smuggles mountains of sophisticated weaponry, gifts from Iran and Syria.
Perhaps the most notorious point of entry for the weapons is the Rafah border crossing.
It is at the far south end of the Strip, adjacent to Egypt.(Lately, and for the first time in history, Egypt has become Israel’s sort-of friend, and a muted ally in the present war.)
The Jerusalem Post reported the most amazing development this afternoon, that the Israeli army had distributed thousands of flyers throughout Rafah.
The flyers carried a stark emergency warning:
Get out.
The flyers urged Gazans living near the volatile Rafah border crossing into Egypt to vacate their neighborhoods. The army was planning tonight to bomb the smuggling tunnels, which the Los Angeles Times delicately and dishonestly insists on labeling “supply tunnels,” as in “humanitarian” supplies.
In addition to the tunnels, Israel intended to destroy homes in Rafah where Hamas had shrewdly hid thousands of weapons.
The Post disclosed the message on the flyers:
"Because Hamas uses your houses to hide and smuggle military weapons, the IDF will attack the area, between the Egyptian border until the beach road," the flyer said, according a local U.N. official. After the flyers were dropped, about 5,000 people fled to two U.N. schools turned into temporary shelters, the official said.
When was the last time you heard about an army warning residents to flee so it could cleanly bombard caches of weapons?
You don’t have to reach back far.
It last occurred on the first day of the Israel-Gaza War, when Israel finally ran out of patience after being attacked daily — for years — by rockets from Gaza.
Before any bombs were dropped on Gaza on Opening Day, Israel peppered certain regions of the Strip with flyers, warning residents to go for cover before the promised assault would begin.
By 9 o’clock tonight, the Post said, 30 homes had been flattened for two reasons — the disguised weapons and the fact that tunnel openings are frequently hidden inside of houses.
A favorite stunt of Arab-friendly countries is to sit around and dream up ways to humiliate Israel:
The following was reported today by the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz:
French public television network France 2 on Tuesday revealed they had aired photographs that allegedly showed destruction caused by the Israel Air Force during Operation Cast Lead, which were in fact taken during a different incident in 2005, one in which Gaza civilians were killed by an explosion caused by militants in the Strip.
You may remember that yesterday’s hot war story was the Israeli bombing of a U.N.-run school where 30 “innocent civilians” were killed.
Not exactly.
While filing through the stacks of destroyed weapons and dead bodies, army troops found two Hamas officers.
