The art of the overstatement in the Arab media

An Arab News editorial discusses the Israeli reaction to rocket fire from Gaza:

What Israel is doing to the Palestinians in Gaza can and should be called a war crime, genocide, and to borrow from the lexicon of one Israeli official, a holocaust. Israel has declared open season on Palestinian infants and children, against those who can do nothing in return.

Not only have more Palestinians been murdered in the past five days than at any other time in the past eight years, but tough voices from Israel say that the slaughter will continue, that Israel has still not hit Hamas hard enough and that a full-scale invasion of Gaza is coming up.

The root of the Gaza problem is not, as Israel and the US like to claim, Hamas. It is that hundreds of thousands of human beings are rotting there in refugee camps — camps that are incubators of poverty and despair, ignorance, and hatred and violence spawned by Israel.

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I am sure they have convinced themselves of these things based on their religious and ethnic bigotry toward Israel. Israel has waited to respond to the Hamas provocation because it knew this kind of ridiculous response would be forthcoming. The Saudis seem to think that the only way to stop attacks on Israel is to give Hamas some hope that it can achieve its objectives of wiping out Israel. That Israel does not accept this advice is not surprising.

The Palestinians only hope for peace and a state is to reject the leadership of people who want to destroy Israel. Until the Palestinians do that they have nothing of value to offer Israel.

As for the bogus statements about massacre and holocaust, if that were Israel's objective they could destroy Gaza and every person in it. If the roles were reversed I am sure that is what the Hamas entity would do to Israel. It will be hard for Arab states to play a constructive role if they do not see events in a more realistic way.

Reuters, which has been accused of having an anti Israeli bias, gives a much fairer report on the events. It also reports that in effect Abbas has given Hamas what it really wanted with the attacks. He has decided to halt the peace talks.

There has been a remarkable coincidence of attacks by Hamas whenever it appears the peace process might be moving toward resolution. In 2002 every visit by a US delegation seemed to be met by Palestinians exploding in close proximity to Israelis. When Israel responded to these attacks we had the tiresome ritual of Palestinians pretending to be victims of a massacre. What the Arab media and the Palestinian leadership are doing now is demonstrating their lack of commitment to a peace process.

The Belmont Club looks at how Hamas has adapted Hezballah's war crime of using human shields. Also discussed is the assertions by some international bodies of bing experts on proportional response. Obviously these guys reject the Powell Doctrine of using overwhelming response. The latter is far more humane although some would consider it counterintuitive. Proportional responses tend to lead to ever escalating bloody stalemates that have a much higher butchers bill than overwhelming response which usually leads to a quick defeat or retreat of the less powerful force.