In 2008, hundreds of civilians were murdered. Some were hacked to death with machetes, others burned alive. Children were kidnapped and raped. Did the international community take much notice of these atrocities? No, because it was too busy being outraged by Israel killing roughly the same amount of Islamic terrorists during the early days of the war in Gaza (when there was little question that the people dying were terrorists).
The massacre of civilians described above, which took place in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is merely one of (far too) many examples to demonstrate the world’s obsession with condemning Israel. It is, of course, fine to criticize Israel, but it is not acceptable to continually single out Israel for condemnation or to effectively impose special conditions that are only applicable when it comes to Israel. Doing so is immoral and unfair.
The recent flotilla incident, for example, deserves to be questioned, but Israel was found guilty before the facts were known. There is a vast difference between killing a number of unarmed peace activists trying to deliver food to starving people (as was the first - and lasting - impression made), and killing baton-wielding religious extremists who declared their wish for martyrdom before embarking on their journey.
Time and again, the entire world gets outraged when they have the opportunity to criticize Israel for an activity that would not see the bat of an eyelid when committed by someone else.
This sudden interest in human rights is not out of caring for the Palestinian people – there is global disinterest when Palestinians are executed by Hamas for example. Check the websites of self-declared ‘pro-Palestinian’ groups to see if they care – they are typically deafeningly silent and disinterested in Palestinian deaths unless they can attribute the blame to Israel.
Why does the world have this obsessive nature when it comes to Israel? It is not a matter of number statistics - the numbers of dead in the entire Israeli-Arab conflict are far, far lower than many other conflicts from which the world turns the other way. There are many possible explanations – Islamism, anti-Semitism, the fact that demonizing Israel has become fashionable, European guilt over the Holocaust or countries trying to hide their human rights record which would be off the scale compared to Israel’s – if the world would dare to look.
The obsessive focus on Israel is unjust – it is unfair on Israel, on Palestinians and certainly on other people who deserve the world’s attention, such as the civilians in DRC.
In addition to that – those who obsess over Israel typically do so under the pretext of an interest in promoting peace, but the reality is that this obsession actually serves as an obstacle to solving the conflict. While the world repeatedly cries ‘Israel is guilty’, the Palestinians are effectively absolved of the responsibility of addressing the (many) issues they need to deal with before they are worthy of having their own state alongside other states.
Solving this small-scale conflict won’t make the slightest bit of difference when it comes to most of the current problems in the world, nor even the numerous other violent clashes in the Middle East for that matter.
The Israel-obsession has driven the civilized world to an insane situation where the world has its head in the sand concerning the real problems in the region. While world leaders try to further a peace deal with Palestinian President Abbas, they ignore the fact that he does not have the mandate of the Palestinian people, who voted democratically for Hamas – an Islamic terrorist organization which is anti-peace by its own mandate. If the world dared to address the fact that the Palestinian majority elected Hamas and assess how this can possibly define their desire for peace – they would be horrified to realize how far away peace is right now – but they might just be one step closer to embarking on that path to peace.
Michelle Moshelian
Israel