Failing ‘the Israel test’
The confrontation off Gaza this week demonstrated that the world waits to pounce on Israel when it breaks the rules — and when it doesn’t break the rules, the world pounces anyway.
This is the illogical and unfair reality of Israel’s position in the geopolitics of contemporary opinion. As soon as the first news of the shooting broke, hours before anyone knew the facts, Europeans instantly made up their minds and began condemning Israel. Those first comments, quickly magnified by news media, will stick longer in memory than the slowly emerging truth.
The French Foreign Minister said “Nothing can justify the use of such violence,” the Irish Foreign Minister said Israel’s use of force was unacceptable and the Belgian foreign minister charged Israel with using disproportionate force against “a civilian humanitarian initiative.” You could call that disproportionate use of rhetoric. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made a pathetically typical contribution. He claimed the Israeli action “shocked” him and must be investigated. He lives in a frequently shocking world but he rarely feels shocked enough to send in the UN sleuths. He doesn’t seem notably shocked by how Hamas treats Israel, for instance, or for that matter by how Hamas deals with Palestinians who aren’t adherents of Hamas. He must also be shocked by, to take an infamous example, China’s treatment of the Uighurs in Xinjiang. When did he send in the team to clear up that one? Does he insist, as he does of Israel, that the Chinese leaders who are responsible “provide a full explanation”?