It doesn’t take much effort for one to see the hidden message behind the Independent’s Christmas appeal: Israel is evil. But let’s pause for a moment and, in a departure from the prevailing wisdom amongst the Independent’s hacks, look at the big picture.
Israel a liberal democracy – a novelty in the region – and friend of the West exists in a state of constant uncertainty; the kind of uncertainty that results from not knowing whether if when one boards a bus it will ever reach its destination. The threat of foreign terrorism is all too real in a state that wishes only to reside in peace. In focussing on apparently dispossessed Palestinian citizens the Independent all too readily ignores the Israeli citizens who live in the northern border regions and face the daily terror of Hezbollah rockets coming from southern Lebanon, and even more readily ignores the enormous fear felt by parents throughout Israel who wonder whether their children will return from a meeting with friends at the local pizza restaurant.
The suffering of innocent Palestinians is of course deeply concerning, but to focus on their plight in-and-of itself to the exclusion of all other considerations ironically results in the cause of that suffering being lost. Any Israeli action that may, accurately or not, be attributed to Palestinian suffering is not itself the cause of that suffering, it is rather a symptom of the real cause; the unwillingness of Palestinian terrorists to lay down their arms and come to the negotiating table with a country that has, time and time again, shown its willingness to work hard for long-lasting peace.
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