60 Gazans Killed

The following is a copy of a comment I posted to The Washington Post in response to an article on Sunday, March 3, 2008:

I'll be blunt. There have been times when I thought that my Jewish friends were just a little paranoid, just a little quick on the draw in perceiving anti-Israel or anti-Jewish threats. Yet, The Washington Post has finally done what none of my Jewish friends were able to do -- convince me that I was wrong. In fact, this article raises a very important question: When did Hamas purchase a controlling interest in The Washington Post?

I'm a Christian who has Palestinian, Israeli, and Muslim friends of various nationalities. I'm embarrassed by Bush and even more embarrassed that his absurd administration duped the American people. I think there should have been better provisions for the Palestinians from the start, though I recognize that Israel welcomed Palestinians to participate in the Israeli state and many Palestinians have. The surrounding Arab states offered the Palestinians "refuge" and then proceeded to treat the Palestinians like refugee trash.

I find it interesting, though, that this article has neglected to include the fact that Hamas has been firing rockets without provocation at Israeli towns such as Sderot for seven years. I can’t imagine any country in the world that would have put up with that.

It's also amazing that the authors include "human interest" elements regarding Gazans only. Where are the accounts of the mangled children in Sderot? How did these "fair" reporters manage to not include interviews of the family members of innocent Israeli citizens killed by Hamas’ rockets. There are seven years' worth of them; you can not say there are none to be found.

I have yet to see Israel attack anyone without a previous actual or impending attack against Israel, with the only thing close to an exception being Israel’s attack on an American spy ship years ago. Israel is far more careful with its resources than the Bush administration is – it cannot and will not afford such wastefulness.

It is terrible that ANYONE is being hurt, but if my son were to willfully provoke another child, I would have to say, "Don't hit somebody and then complain when he hits you back, and if you then hide behind your brother it’s YOUR fault if he gets hit." Israel has been taking these particular punches for seven years. Is the Israeli government partly to blame? Maybe yes, because their failure to stop this years ago has emboldened Hamas, so now even more innocent Gazans and Israelites suffer for it. Hamas finally pushed too far, and now they’re crying about having to answer for it and they are attempting to manipulate the press. Well, they need not have bothered with The Washington Post. It was a done deal.

God bless and good luck to President Abbas and Prime Minister Olmert, for with Hamas deliberately messing things up they obviously have one heck of a challenge.