Absence of outrage

By Michael Coren, torontosun.com

Where’s the fire directed (falsely) at Israel as despots kill, torture?

In 2002, the Israeli army entered Jenin in the West Bank as part of their reaction to the second Intifada.

Numerous terror attacks had been launched from the town, including the killing of innocent women and children. There was heavy resistance, but by the end of the engagement 52 Palestinians were killed, almost all of them members of the military. Twenty-three Israeli soldiers were also killed.

Within hours of the battle, Jenin was described as a massacre, and newspapers, television shows, human-rights groups and even governments were condemning Israel as having committed a war crime.

The BBC claimed almost 200 Palestinians had died and the Palestinians themselves assured the world the number was many times that estimate. CNN conducted an interview where its audience was told 500 unarmed Palestinians were dead.

The usual hysterical demonstrations took place, where Muslim radicals and leftist activists took to the streets in Europe and North America, and liberal media expressed incredulity at the sadism of Israeli soldiers. Then the detailed reports appeared, revealing most of the figures were untrue and no massacre occurred.

This was the verdict of Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, hardly friends of the Jewish state.

I write this because in the past few weeks we have seen genuine massacres and gruesome brutality. Thousands of people have now been murdered by Arab and Iranian governments and Arab and Iranian soldiers. In Libya, ordinary mourners attending the funerals of people shot dead in the streets were themselves targeted by snipers.

In Bahrain, the police and army killed unarmed people merely asking for the right to vote. In Egypt there was the execution of demonstrators, the torture and beating of protesters, and the kidnapping and murder of apolitical Christians — this occurred during the so-called secular revolution, but was hardly mentioned in the media.

In Iran, a psychotic regime once again shot down ordinary people in the street; in Tunisia, there was gross violence and fatal shootings; and in Yemen, Jordan and Syria, political dissidents were arrested and have disappeared. Note that while some of these governments are pro-western, this cannot be said of Iran, Syria, or Libya.

Yet where are the massive street protests in Europe’s large cities? Where are the calls to boycott countries? Where are the labour unions demanding action? Where are the student groups using words like “apartheid” and “Nazi”? Where are the moralistic editorials condemning Arab intolerance, Islamic barbarism and the need for Arab countries to be banned from international sporting, cultural and literary events?

All of that is said about Israel, whether it engages in conflict or not. When it responds to the slaughter of its children, it is labelled a terrorist state, and when it allows its people to settle in lands that are historically Jewish, the religion of Judaism is spoken of as archaic. Retired Israeli generals travelling to London or Madrid to raise money for handicapped children are told they may be arrested on landing, Israeli athletes are promised death if they dare to appear alongside “civilized” rivals.

The bigots, the blind, the barbarous and the bullies have formed a coalition. Know them and expose them, before it’s too late.

Read Michael Coren’s blog at canoe.ca/corenscomment