Food for thought.
Titled:
Why do Palestinians only matter when they're killed by Israel?
" ... "Gaza crisis: Palestinian death toll passes 700," cries the Guardian, as it offers live updates on the growing body count. The BBC is also keeping a tally. And there's a whole Wikipedia page dedicated to "Palestinian Casualties of War", yet to be updated with the latest figures. These "conflicts", as they are termed, are all individually listed: the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, recording 15,000 Arab Palestinian casualties, is listed above "March 2012 Gaza-Israel clashes", which records just three civilian deaths.
Curiously, there is no mention of Assad's persecution of Palestinian communities or the fact that he has "starved and murdered" thousands of them.
No mention of the Palestinians in Iraq who are subject to "discrimination, sectarian violence and ruthless killing by the Iraqi government".
No mention of the mass expulsion of Palestinians by Arab Muslim countries, like Saudi Arabia, Libya and Kuwait, of which Yasser Arafat declared that "what Kuwait did to the Palestinian people is worse than what has been done by Israel to Palestinians in the occupied territories".
Israel has killed some 700 Palestinians in its latest offensive in Gaza. Every death is a tragedy, especially those of children. Some of the pictures coming out of the war zone are brutal, distressing and heartbreaking. God weeps at the suffering. If He has meaning and purpose in the pain, it is lost to the world's baffled intellects.
But it is a curious that Israel should be constantly singled out for special treatment.
After all, the Palestinians have suffered far greater atrocities at the hands of their Arab brothers and co-religionists. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced; tens of thousands terrorised, persecuted and ethnically cleansed; and many hundreds summarily slaughtered.
But the Arab League has been mute. There have been no resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council or by the General Assembly. Not a word is heard from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees or any of its special committee dedicated investigating Israeli transgressions. And not a peep from the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights.
All remain silent.
Of the 1991 Kuwaiti mass expulsion of 300,000 Palestinians, one observer lamented: "You can call it deportation... But I call it the third catastrophe after 1948 and 1967. Imagine what would happen if Israel deported 300,000 people. The whole world would be up in arms. But when an Arab deports or kills his Arab brother, it's all right; nothing happens."
Indeed.
And those who dare to speak up for Israelis or defend Netanyahu's actions are subject to all manner of verbal or physical abuse.
It is almost a conspiracy of silence: a global collusion to demonise Israel and deflect from the greater horror the world is about to face. ... "
http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com.au/I lament the troubles of the ordinary Palestinian in these times, but I also support the right of Israel to protect it's citizenry from indiscriminate attack.
If Hamas are concerned about their own civilian casualties, let them come out into the open and fight the fight they've picked.