Walk Away

Yahoo News reports:

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hamas rejected an Egyptian proposal for a cease-fire with Israel that was to take effect Tuesday, saying Cairo did not consult the group over the deal. Israel accepted the truce plan, but warned it would strike Gaza hard if Hamas didn't abide by it.
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Militants from Gaza fired five rockets at Israel, shortly after the Egyptian-proposed starting time for a gradual de-escalation on Tuesday morning.

The military wing of Hamas, which has been responsible for most of the hundreds of rockets launched at Israel in the past week said the Egyptian plan "wasn't worth the ink it was written with."

So ... let me get this straight.

Hamas continues to fire rockets indiscriminately at Israeli population centers. The purposeful intent is to kill and/or maim as many Israeli civilians as it possibly can. Hamas launches these rockets from its own civilian population centers—from houses, next to Mosques, from courtyards next to hospitals and schools, hoping that if Israel tries to neutralize the rocket launching sites, collateral damage—civilian deaths— will result. They do, but it is Hamas, not Israel, that has purposely and cynically put their own people directly in harm's way. Israel drops leaflets before an attack, warning palestinians to flee an area near a rocket launching site before an attack. The intent is to minimize casualties. Hamas ... not so much.

Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netyanyahu probably said it best when he stated:

"The thing that differentials Israel from Hamas is that Israel protects its civilians from rockets. Hamas protects it rockets with civilians.

And through all of this, leftist media sources (meaning the majority of all media sources) either (1) condemn Israel outright for having the temerity to defend itself or (2) try to draw a ridiculous moral equivalence suggesting that it's somehow not fair that "only" a few Israelis have been killed while over 100 Palestinians have died in Israel air strikes.

In what has to be one of the most idiotic comments ever made on CNN (and that's saying something), CNN anchor Wolfe Blitzer implied that it wasn't fair that the Israelis had developed the Iron Dome missile defense system and that an analogous system wasn't available to the poor beleagered Palestinians.

In writing about this conflict, I get a strong feeling of deja vu. It always goes the same way. Like a spolied child with no control or morals, the palestinians strike at Israel with deadly intent. The Israelis defend themselves forcefully but with incredible restraint, and yet, it's the Israelis who are demonized. In the through-the-looking-glass world of the Left (and it is the Left and its Muslim allies that are doing the lion's share of the criticizing), that's absolutely appropriate.

So today, the Israelis agree to a cease fire, but Hamas says no. The sad thing is that Hamas knows it can and will hide behind the skirts of its Western sympathizers when things for them get tough, when Israel begins to do them great damage. For now, though, they can try to kill as many Israeli civilians as possible and the Israelis will still get most of the criticism.

Wouldn't it be fascinating if Hamas' western protectors (Barack Obama included) simply walked away? If they allowed Israel to finish this without criticism or constraint. If they allowed the Israelis to kill the terrorist group's leadership, destroy its rocket caches, close every smuggling tunnel and otherwise cripple this vicious, corrupt, anti-Western Islamist group. In the long run, that would help the "palestinian people" far more than "protecting" them when the going gets tough.

UPDATE:
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After discussing the abject hypocrisy of Mahmoud Abbas who called the death of 50 palestinians in recent fighting "genocide" but recently praised Bashar Assad of Syria who gassed a Palestinian village in Syria and then starved those still alive to force them to leave, Brett Stevens writes:

Similarly with pro-Palestinian demonstrators marching in the civilized nations. In Paris on Sunday, one such group of demonstrators tried to lay siege to a synagogue "with bats and chairs," according to the Associated Press, trapping 150 Jewish congregants inside until police could rescue them. A day earlier, a firebomb was thrown at a synagogue in a Paris suburb. At yet another French protest there were calls for the "slaughter of the Jews." In Seattle, a Voices for Palestine rally posted signs reading "Zionist Israel=Nazi Germany." In Frankfurt, protesters held signs reading "You Jews are Beasts." Police lent the protesters a loudspeaker, ostensibly to "de-escalate the situation," according to the Jerusalem Post.

Maybe the Presbyterian Church, USA, which last month voted to divest from companies doing business with Israel, will issue a statement of concern. But don't count on it.

All of which, as I say, is a blessing for Israel and her supporters.

If you must have a nemesis, better it be a stupid one. If your adversary has an undeserved reputation for moderation and sincerity, better that he should give his own extremism and hypocrisy away. If you are going to be the object of mass protests and calumny, better to be hated by the worst than by the best. Israel's enemies continuously indict themselves, whether or not the rest of the world has the wit to see it.

"Better to be hated by the worst than the best" ... man, that's almost as memorable as Bibi 'rockets' comment.