A message to the Europeans....

Here's a new introduction by Haim Harari to his book, "A View from the Eye of the Storm -- Terror and Reason in the Middle East. Highly recommended.

Perhaps the so called international human rights organizations should react? Oh, yes, they do, by one proclamation after another, denouncing Israel. The secretary general of the UN is critical of Israel, both in Gaza and in Lebanon. Not one word about thousands of rockets deliberately sent from both areas towards Israeli civilians, when Israel is not occupying one centimeter of their land. The brand new "Human Rights Council", the new improved version of the old UN "Human Rights Commission" (yes, the revised version of the grotesque body previously chaired by Libya) is calling an emergency meeting in order to condemn Israel in the Lebanese context. "This Council represents a great new chance for the United Nations, and for humanity, to renew the struggle for human rights" says the UN leadership. But in the long six-week (repeat: six weeks) history of this new council, this is already the second extraordinary emergency session. The first session was called in order to denounce Israel in connection with the Palestinian terror. Did I hear anyone in Europe protesting? Did Europe announce that it will have nothing to do with this farce at the "Human Rights Council"? Why do we hear about EU financial humanitarian aid for the Lebanese and not for the Israeli civilians whose houses and schools were destroyed by the terrorists? Perhaps we are still waiting for the proof that these are terrorists. Evenhanded Europe, can you please explain why Lebanese civilians are dearer to you than Israelis? Perhaps, the argument goes, because more Lebanese died than Israelis. Ah, but many more Germans died in World War II than British and French combined. Hitler must have been right! Did you realize that when the Lebanese government announces daily the number of dead civilians, they include among them the hundreds of dead Hizbullah terrorists, because they are not soldiers? Did you realize that when Kofi Annan talks about Palestinian casualties in the conflict with Israel, he always includes the suicide murderers in the count? Has anyone mentioned this in Europe? What more should happen before you wake up?

The prime minister of Lebanon, a clear accomplice of the Hizbullah, by omission and by submission, but not by commission, sheds tears publicly, in front of world media and Arab league foreign ministers, about the forty civilians who were just murdered indiscriminately by Israel, only to sheepishly admit, a few hours later, that actually one person was killed in that attack, not forty. But the entire world has repeatedly watched the well acted phony drama of tears, with numerous replays by all networks, long after the truth came out. Few people have bothered to read the small print of the admission that this was a total fabrication. But we have already seen this movie, a few years ago, in the Jenin "refugee camp", where people have been deliberately kept by the UN and by the Palestinians, for four generations(!), as refugees, only half an hour drive from where their grandparents used to live sixty years ago. Arab satellite TV networks repeatedly broadcast pictures of mutilated bodies, some real, some being deliberately paraded in front of the cameras and some being dug from old graves. A gut wrenching dead body of a little girl, killed in Gaza when she fell from a swing, is paraded in front of news cameras, shown repeatedly around the world as an Israeli bomb victim. Shares of Hizbullah, Hamas and Iran go up in Muslim street markets. Shares of moderate Arab regimes go down. Do we hear about it from the European media? What more should happen before you wake up?

How would you defend yourself against a deadly rocket, launched into your civilian population centers, from the terrace of an apartment building, without destroying the building and hurting its dwellers? Perhaps you are supposed to simply announce: "I am not allowed to defend myself". How can you destroy the next rocket, before it is launched, if it is hidden inside an apartment of a family with children, or if it is transported in an unmarked family car? And if you defend yourself in any way, does that make you a war criminal, because civilians died together with the terrorists? When I discussed in my book the need to rewrite international law, both purists and jurists smiled cynically at the naïve scientist, who is expressing views on matters of law. I am the first to plead ignorance and incompetence in matters of international law, but please answer my questions: Can you destroy the building in which the missiles are hidden in bedrooms and from the terrace of which they are launched, or are you forbidden to defend yourself at all? Can you recommend an alternative? Do I have to read every day in European newspapers accusations about Israel violating international law, while no one is answering this simple question? How will you, dear Europe, react when the rockets will be launched against you? In Kosovo, without rockets, you invited the American bombers to solve the problem. Numerous innocent civilians were killed, at your service. You did not complain much. Will you invite the Americans to defend your cities, when the rockets arrive? Will you then enjoy their protection and accuse them of war crimes, when they blast a building full of rockets and, in the process, kill innocent civilians? What more should happen before you wake up?

But, read the whole thing.