XDA

Every so often I read something from the left. It's usually unsatisfying as what is written almost always conflicts with what I believe and/or facts I am morally certain of. Often the lefty screed is heavy on emotion and light on logic. Those are very unsatisfying indeed. Then there are things like this Nation op-ed piece, Free Gaza, which are not only bad for the reasons above, but actively dishonest, usually by omission. Behold:

The title has a bit of the time warp about it, Free Gaza? Didn't the Israelis unilaterally depart from the Gaza back in 2005, violently uprooting over 8500 Jewish settlers and making the Gaza completely Judenrein, as the Nazi like Palestinians insist? Why yes they did--Gaza is already free. The article never actually comes out and states that obvious history. It's not the worst omission. Here is a representative paragraph.

The attack on the Freedom Flotilla is the culmination of more than four years of failed policy, in which a siege has been imposed on the entire population of Gaza in an attempt to weaken and isolate Hamas after its victory in the 2006 parliamentary elections. Israel does not bear sole responsibility for an unjust blockade that also undermines its own long-term security; indeed, the policy was jointly crafted and executed with the United States and has enjoyed the collusion of the European Union, Egypt and even the Fatah wing of the Palestinian Authority.

The "attack" was from the radical Islamacists on the one ship on the IDF soldiers whose primary weapons were non-lethal. What the lefties call a "siege" is in fact a method of preventing re-armament of a hostile neighbor. It is an entirely legal method about as far from a siege as you can get. It is a just blockade. Of course, to the left, legitimate and successful self defense is always wrong, always is a failure, always undercuts true security. The left seems to know a way to true security which does not involve any actual security measures, like guns or a border fence. Here's another.

The effects of this policy on the people of Gaza have been devastating. According to various UN agencies, the formal economy has collapsed. More than 60 percent of the people are food insecure, and nearly 80 percent depend on the UN for sustenance, with rising levels of malnutrition. The destruction of Gaza's infrastructure has been comprehensive, with the reduction in electricity supply damaging food production and storage and dangerously limiting access to safe drinking water. The blockade has prevented all but minimal repair of the damage from Israel's 2008–09 military assault; thousands are still displaced from their homes.

In other words the shiftless Gazans rely entirely on international largess which Israel allows into Gaza, several hundred thousand tons a day. Some siege. Oh, and the destruction of the infrastructure, the Gazans did a whole lot of that in looting and vandalism of efficient Israeli farms and greenhouses shortly after the IDF left. That operation 'cast lead,' the Israeli defense from continual Gazan attack, caused further destruction is also solely the result of Gazan malfeasance. Oh, the power cuts, where does the power come from? Israel. Some siege. One of the items not allowed into Gaza is concrete, so that Hamas can't use it to build bunkers and defense points. The Gazans smuggle in so much through the hundred tunnels into Egypt, that lately the price of it has dropped. Some siege. Ready for some more?

Israel's occupation would not have been possible without tens of billions in US military aid, without dozens of UN vetoes cast by Washington, without the State Department's back-room strong-arming of other nations. It would not have been possible without the dishonesty of a US media establishment that habitually twists or simply refuses to report basic facts about the Israel-Palestine conflict—and is often less critical than the media in Israel.

Now this is just delusional. Occupation? The Israelis left Gaza completely half a decade ago. If we were to actually enforce our border with Mexico, would we then occupy Mexico? Occupation by guarding the border and insisting on customs like inspections of humanitarian aid. This is prime lefty logic. And, given the point of this posting, which I'm getting to, don't rush me, it is rich to hear the lefties complain about the American media's so called 'refusal to report the basic facts about the Israel-Palestine conflict.' Rich!

And my point? Well the article leaves out a few things, a few thousand things, that is, the thousands of Kassam rockets and thousands of mortar rounds which the Gazans were firing into Israel for years and years. That little fact is left out of the article. It is an important and telling omission. The whole reason there is a sea blockade, by both Egypt and Israel, and both nations enforce their border with all the seriousness with which we fail to enforce ours, is to prevent Hamas from rearming and beginning the deadly barrage again. Everything this silly, dishonest editorial complains of is a direct result of the deadly, war crime barrage the Gazans started shortly after the IDF left. Why the lefties don't mention it is patently obvious. That little fact of naked Gazan assault undercuts every word of the lefty screed. It is an inconvenient fact the editors of the execrable Nation choose merely to ignore.

Delusion, projection, lying outright, lying by omission. Fairly typical lefty article, actually.

Labels: Arab Israeli Conflict; Gaza front, Nation magazine; omission of key facts; psychological projection