Why Defense Actions Are Condemned While Aggressors Escape Blame in Today’s Upside Down World
If you were asked to name the song the British bands played on your History minus 101 test, when General Charles Cornwallis surrendered to General George Washington at Yorktown in 1781, your answer wood probably be “The World Turned Upside Down.” And you would be correct, because that’s what we learned in basic history courses.
But if you took advanced history courses, or did your own research, you would learn that there is no evidence that the British played that song as they marched in defeat from the Yorktown battle field.
However, the song today can be the anthem of a current war – the Israel-Hamas one.
Here’s why
On Oct. 7, Hamas attacked Israel, for the fifth time and said that they will continue to attack Israel in the future until it is wiped off the maps. But it is Israel that is condemned by anti-Israeli activists, governments and pundits. The World Turned Upside Down.
During the attack, Hamas killed about 1200 Israelis, mostly civilians, and took about 250 Israelis as hostages. About 100 living and dead hostages remain in Gaza, according to Israeli authorities, reported the New York Times. Yet it is Israel that is condemned for defending itself. The World Turned Upside Down.
Even though it was the Hamas attack on Israel that started the conflict, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (which is not recognized by our and other governments) has requested arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister and the Israeli defense minister, and the World Court had ordered Israel to cease military operations in Rafah. Doing so would leave in place what is believed to be the last remaining effective battalions of Hamas. In effect, doing so would amount to a Hamas victory and permit it to reconstitute its military forces and prepare it for another attack on Israel, which it has promised to do. The World Turned Upside Down.
When Israeli forces attempt to rescue hostages they are criticized for causing Palestinian civilian deaths that occur during the attempts, even though it is Hamas that is responsible for the deaths by hiding the hostages in civilian areas and homes. (A June 10 Wall Street Journal editorial was headlined, “Blaming Israel for Rescuing Its People.” The editorial said, in part, “The non-surprise is that professional anti-Israel voices, United Nations officials and the European Union foreign-policy chief rushed to attack Israel. Egypt condemned the operation “in the strongest terms.” How dare Israel rescue its own citizens. Didn’t it know there would be casualties? The BBC asked whether Israel gave a warning that the rescue raid was coming.” Seriously? A tip-off to terrorists? Perhaps read them Miranda rights too.” The concluding paragraph said, “Hamas started the war with a massacre, took these hostages and hid them in a crowded civilian area. Then, when Israel came to free them, Hamas responded with heavy fire, including RPGs—yet people are condemning Israel. It makes us wonder if the West has lost the moral discernment and instinct for self-preservation needed to defend itself in a world of killers. Hamas could not survive if not for its enablers around the world.” The World Turned Upside Down.
Israel has been condemned by governments, pundits and organizations for violating the laws of war, as it fights to eliminate future Hamas invasions. But the laws of war say that civilians can not be deliberately attacked as Hamas repeatedly does. American generals have praised Israel for attempting to limit harm to Palestinian civilians, Conversely, Hamas always deliberately attacks Israeli civilians, including women and children and takes hostages, yet it is Israel that is being condemned. The World Turned Upside Down.
Israel is condemned for uprooting Palestinians from their homes. But those who condemn Israel look the other way when more than 80,000 Israelis had to leave their homes near the Lebanese border because of attacks from the Hamas ally Hezbollah. Under the 2006 U.N. Security Council resolution 1701, you can check it out, that ended the war between Israel and Hezbollah, the Hamas collaborator agreed to disarm and move far from the Israel border. But, instead, Hezbollah filled the border with troops and offensive weapons, which are used to attack Israel. Where is the condemnation of Hezbollah’s actions by governments that criticize Israel? Where is the criticism of Hezbollah by the U.N. for not living up to its U.N. agreement? Where is the condemnation of Hezbollah by the International Court of Criminal Justice? Where are the humanitarian organizations telling the plight of the Israeli citizens who were forced to leave their homes? They are none existent and Israel is always blamed. The World Turned Upside Down.
Ever since Yasser Arafat was chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), from 1969 to 2004, Palestinians attacked Israel from hospitals and schools, from windows of homes of civilians and other facilities, effectively using them as human shields, knowing that when Israel fought back civilians would be in the line of fire, as Hamas has always done. Instead of the PLO and Hamas being condemned by world’s leaders for putting civilians at risk, which violates international law, Israel is faulted for defending itself. The World Turned Upside Down.
Hamas’s charter calls for Israel to be wiped off the world’s maps. Yet, instead of condemning Hamas, Israel is blamed by world leaders for defending itself. The World Turned Upside Down.
An exclusive May 7 poll by Axios, the respected on line American news website, revealed that only 8 percent of students polled are participating in Israel protests. And that includes both pro and anti Israeli students. The poll of 1250 college students was conducted by Generation Lab and shared exclusively with Axios. It also revealed that students “ranked the conflict in the Middle East as the least important issue facing them out of nine options.” Cable news networks and papers like the New York Times cover the college protests as if every college student and professor at the approximately 6000 schools of higher learning in the U.S. are anti-Israel. Not giving significant coverage to the poll was inexcusable. It is selected, slanted journalism and exposes the one-side coverage the protests receive. That a prominent paper like the New York Times didn’t feature the poll doesn’t surprise me. It has always had a pro-Palestinian anti-Israeli slant. It’s Journalism Turned Upside Down.
Students who openly supported Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, then condemned Israel for defending itself and staged anti-Israeli protests, illegally breaking rules and damaging property, were excused as being young and idealistic. But when Israel did not break any rules while defending itself, the country was condemned as colonial occupiers. The World Turned Upside Down.
History shows that a cease fire does not prevent one side of a conflict from threatening the other (North and South Korea is a prime example), and the only way to resolve a conflict is when one side defeats the other, as the U.S. and its allies did when they defeated Germany, Japan and Italy during World War 2. Yet when Israel defends itself from a Hamas or Hezbollah attack, Israel is always condemned. The World Turned Upside Down.
I’ve long said that the New York Times coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian situation is slanted to favor the Palestinians and that it always blames Israel for whatever happens. This was again evident on August 2 in an article that was sympathetic to Palestinians Olympic athletes. In the article, the Times reporters said that the Israeli response to the Oct. 7 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas, which resulted in more than 1200 deaths and 250 Israelis taken as hostages, was “ferocious,” an adjective that should not be used in an unbiased news story. Not mentioned was that Israel didn’t start the war. It was in response to the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas and other anti-Israeli groups, and supported by many “average” Palestinians who celebrated the slaughter, rape and taking of hostages. (A Reuters reports on a poll revealed “Almost three in four Palestinians believe the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel was correct, and the ensuing Gaza war has lifted support for the Islamist group both there and in the West Bank, a survey from a respected Palestinian polling institute found.).
On July 18, 2024, CNN reported that Human Rights Watch said in a report that the Palestinian attack against civilians included “crimes involving sexual and gender-based violence, hostage-taking, mutilation and despoiling bodies, use of human shields, and pillage and looting.” None of this was reported in the Times article.
The New York Times pro-Palestinian, anti-Israeli reporting, which began when Israel commenced to defend itself after the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, continued through the last week of 2024, when the Times published a article which began on page 1 and continued for three full inside pages. The article was based on what the Times said was an investigation that found Israeli “weakened its system to protect civilians.”
The article was headlined, “Israel Loosened Limits On Strikes, Multiplying Risks to Gaza Civilians.” A subhead read, “Flawed Methods for Assessing Targets.” After comparing the Times reporting on the war with other major news outlets, it’s my opinion that if anything is flawed it’s the Times reporting.
On May 20, on this website, I wrote, in part, “Many critics of the Israeli actions justify their positions by saying they are not anti-Semitic; they are just opposed to the Israeli government." But that position is laughable in my opinion. By not acknowledging that there was a cease fire in place until it was broken by Hamas, and by attacking Israel’s right to defend itself, and with many pro-Palestinian proponents declaring that Israel does not have the right to exist, they are attacking the only democratic country in that part of the world that welcomes Jews regardless of their political positions and also has Arab representation in its government.
Certainly all who have long criticized the Jewish state are not anti-Semitic. (Some of their best friends are Jewish, they say.) But words matter, and by opposing Israel’s right to defend itself as its democratically-elected government sees fit, they are on the same side of those who deny Israel the right to win a lasting peace by defeating Hamas and Hezballah without giving the terrorist regimes a chance to rearm so that they can again attack Israel, as Hamas leaders say they will continuously do.”
Not too long ago, when a country was attacked it was okay for the country to destroy its enemy without being condemned for doing so. There was a time when the country that started the conflict was condemned, not the country that was attacked. But when Israel is involved in a conflict that can determine if it will survive as a nation, what’s right is wrong and what’s wrong is right. History will show that when Israel was the subject in 2024 one thing was certain: The World Was Turned Upside Down.
There’s a valuable PR lesson from the situation that PR people assigned to corporate accounts should learn from Hamas’ attack on Israel: While it took several days for Israel to regroup after the attack, Hamas launched a PR war, which dominated the media. PR people assigned to edgy corporate accounts should never let that happen. They should always have a fast response plan to use if necessary.
