Such a Fuss - Can Israel Do No Good?

Have you ever seen such a ruckus raised by everyone over what Israel may have done in Dubai to a known Hamas leader, Mahmoud Al Mabhouh? You'd think that Israel committed a heinous crime, when the crime which was committed was the Hamas leader's himself, that of murdering two Israeli soldiers and forging a connection between Hamas and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

Hamas is classified as a "terrorist organization" by the United States and by Europe, but nobody accused Dubai of hosting this criminal. They only accused Israel of doing what nobody had the courage (or worse, inclination) to do, which is to eliminate him. Israel may have done just that, and for it, has been heaped with vitriolic condemnation from the world at large. And it isn't even certain that Israel's Mossad carried out this hit. According to Caroline Glick,

What the initial European reaction to [Dubai Chief-of-Police] Tamim's allegations shows is that blaming Israel has become Europe's default foreign policy. It apparently never occurred to the Europeans that Israel might not be responsible for the hit. And it certainly never occurred to them that cutting off intelligence ties with Israel will harm them more than Israel.

They didn't think of the latter, of course, because Europe has no idea of what its interests are. All it knows is how to sound off authoritatively.

But what a contrast there was in news reports on Israel after the earthquake in Haiti, when Israel sent in its rescue teams and set up modern, efficient field hospitals in 48 hours, while other countries (the United States included) were fumbling about trying to get their feet out of their rear ends and organize themselves.

For a brief, fleeting moment in time, the reports were actually positive! How shocking! From Fox News to CNN, the initial reports were blown away by Israel's efficiency and humanitarianism.

But those were the initial reports. After a while, I actually read negative comments on Israel's efforts, which stated that Israel was collecting body organs for resale or that their field hospitals were funded by "American money."

You see, it isn't politically correct to say anything positive about Israel for very long. Even Israel's own temper their praise with condemnation, as Martin Krossel cites Larry Derfner of the Jerusalem Post in Krossel's article "No Israeli Good Deed Goes Unpunished":

The Israel field hospital in Haiti is a reflection of something very deep in the national character. But so is something that is summed up in the word Gaza. It’s the Haiti side of Israel that makes the Gaza side so inexpressibly tragic. And more and more the Haiti part of the national character is being dwarfed by the Gaza part. Gaza too is a matter of life and death – not just for the people who were trapped in the rubble there not long ago, but for Israel. When will this big hearted-nation stop being heartless to the people of Gaza.

"Heartless to the people of Gaza?" Israel went out of its way to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza, by showering the population with leaflets warning them of impending attacks and advising them to flee or take shelter, and by going house to house and conducting targeted attacks (when they could have strafed the area or carpet bombed them, as did the British in Dresden during World War II), which greatly endangered Israeli soldiers--the same as happened in Jenin.

And where was the international community when Hamas was shelling Sderot and other Israeli southern cities for years and years? Where was the condemnation of Hamas' placing arms caches in tunnels in civilians' kitchens and firing rockets from Gazan schools?

The international community wasn't there, and didn't care. but they certainly were quick to vociferously condemn Israel for acting to eliminate--if it actually did--a Hamas leader aiding and abetting the enemy, when their own countries opted to look the other way.

Martin Krossel writes about the condemnation of passport fraud in the Dubai assassination, in his article "Israel Only Acts When the World Fails To":

For the people who are whining about “passport fraud” misdemeanors while ignoring the felony staring them in the face: what do you say about the fact that the terrorist in charge of illegally smuggling missiles from Iran to Hamas apparently had an open invite to hang out in Dubai? This isn’t a problem?

In their haste to condemn Israel, the international community is extremely short-sighted. They can not see that it is not in their future best interests to do so.