“It’s Not Fair!”

According to Al Jazeera, “Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 43, 259 Palestinians and wounded 101,827, since October 7, 2023. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas – led attack that day and more than 200 were taken captive.”

This statement emanates from an Al Jazeera story entitled: “Over 100 staff accuse BBC of bias in coverage of Israel’s war in Gaza.”

We are asked, at least implicitly, to side with the notion that this result is not at all fair. So many deaths on the one side, so few on the other. That would appear to be per se unjust. Surely, equity, equality, fundamental justice, would require if not exact and perfect parity, then at least results at least a lot closer to each other than these. The human mind, it would appear, yearns for symmetry, and nothing like that prevails as a result of the war in the Middle East. At least this is the view put forth by Al Jazeera.

But there are problems with any such perspective. They are by no means limited to the possible inflation of the statistics on the Gazan side, put forth by their ministry of health, that is, by Hamas itself. Let us stipulate their veracity. As well, we overlook the slight reduction in Israeli deaths, which are typically placed at 1200, not 1139.

First of all, contrary to the claims of Al Jazeera, this is not at all “Israel’s war in Gaza.” Much of it is indeed occurring in that unhappy territory, but by no means all of it. There are also battles with, and within, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthies in Yemen, and we must not forget about Iran, to say nothing of Syria and other places in the neighborhood. Nor is it “Israel’s war” in the slightest. Rather, as should be plain as day to all unbiased people, this war was started by Hamas on October 7, 2023, with its vicious, depraved and atrocious pogrom, mainly against innocents who were attending a music festival and members of local kibbutzim. One wonders who Al Jazeera thinks started this war on that date? Maybe Israel? If you knew this was false, go to the head of the class.

Secondly, Hamas purposefully targets civilians during this date of infamy, as well as before and after, albeit on a lesser scale.  That constitutes genocide, when done on this large of a scale. Israel never returned the “favor.” Yes, many Gazans were killed, but they were all victims of collateral damage, something very, very different. Further, each and every one of these deaths, with no exceptions apart from accidents which occur in every war, were the total and complete fault of, wait for it, Hamas! How so? These terrorists embed themselves amongst the civilian population. They place rockets, missiles, drone launchers in Mosques, schools, hospitals, residential areas. Israel has no choice but aim its weaponry at these targets, if it wishes to defend itself against attack.

Third, the IDF, unlike the armies of most nations, drops leaflets on these targets before employing explosives on them. They warn the civilians to depart. If the Israeli army wanted to pile up death statistics, they would do no such thing. Does Hamas permit its citizens to move to greener pastures? Not always. All too often they allow no such thing; they want to add to the numbers of deaths, for purposes of public relations. They can in this way demonstrate the supposed cruelty of the army of their initial victims. Again the two forces are acting at cross purposes: the IDF to save Gazan civilian lives, Hamas in the very opposite direction. Is this any way for a civilized army to act? To ask this question is to answer it.

Fourth, Hamas is still shelling Israel with explosives. It still holds some 100 hostages. It purposefully murdered six of them, two women amongst them. If Hamas released these abductees tomorrow, and surrendered, there would not be a single solitary Gazan who would subsequently perish, except for old age and succumbing from wounds already suffered. No one can stop father time in this regard. But the Israelis would undoubtedly help rebuild Gazan hospitals and transfer the wounded to world class Israeli medical facilities.

Fifth, as to the present imbalance, it is entirely just that more people should give up the ghost on the side of the invader than on that of the victim. Imagine if matters were reversed. Then, many more Israelis would have died than Gazans. Presumably, this is precisely what Al Jazeera would desire. That, it would appear, is the real goal of this organization, not any equality of suffering. Rather, immiseration for Jews. Talk about bias!

The very statistics of which Al Jazeera complains, the wildly disparate number of deaths suffered by the two sides, are both of them the fault of Hamas, not Israel. That is, the Israeli deaths on October 7, 2023 and both before and afterward are the responsibility of these terrorists, and so are the ones to the Gazan civilian population subsequently.