In recovery circles (as in recovery from addiction), the term “denial” commonly refers to an addict’s inability to see the deleterious effects of their substance of choice upon their life and the lives of others. Dictionary definitions speak of a refusal to believe, or disavowing.
In the arena of global terrorism, specifically as practiced by militant Islamists, and despite a recent escalation in attacks and the potency of rhetoric, this phenomenon appears to be taking hold in America in no small way. While conservative pundits might argue that this is at least in part due to the election of Barack Obama as president, a case could be made that it is rather a natural progression, the result of sympathies on the part of news organizations leaning toward Islamo-fascists.
The attacks on the Gaza Strip by the nation of Israel that began just under two weeks ago was in response to repeated rocket attacks on the latter by the terrorist group Hamas (which gained control of Gaza in 2007), but it is unlikely that the average consumer of establishment media is aware of this fact. Israel’s aerial bombing campaign and subsequent ground invasion of Gaza have been as overplayed as Sarah Palin’s wardrobe was during the 2008 election.
There is little doubt that Israel’s refusal to allow the press into the combat zone is a direct result of the coverage American troops have enjoyed in Iraq. The Israelis saw from the first day that they were being portrayed as the aggressor; news was slanted toward reporting Palestinian casualties over Hamas’ yearlong bombing campaign and a “disproportionate” response on the part of Israel. It seems only prudent that Israel would seek to curtail the media’s ability to damage worldwide perception of their nation in this manner.
In Europe, thousands of Arab Muslims have begun protests against the Gaza invasion; assaults against Jews and firebombings of synagogues in France, Sweden and Britain have been reported. In the U.S., Palestinians and Hamas supporters protested in San Francisco and Fort Lauderdale. At the latter venue, protesters were heard to shout for Jews to “go back to the oven.” A scant few years ago, pro-Islamists would not have dared such action in America for fear of being fired upon – or at least severely beaten – by irate Americans still stinging from the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
What happened?
The establishment press happened. As this columnist has asserted (and will continue to do), this entity has effectively become our nation’s Ministry of Propaganda, and a frighteningly effective one. Poor leadership on the part of President Bush was wildly spun, transforming him into the most unpopular president since Herbert Hoover, despite his achievements in the War on Terror. Victories in Afghanistan and Iraq were themselves counted as defeats, creating self-fulfilling prophecies as public opinion turned against the actions and America’s enemies were emboldened. On the flip side, the story of the global economic crisis being directly traceable to ultra-liberal American lawmakers has not been reported at all.
With the press in America now enjoined with the European press (which has excoriated the U.S. for her foreign policy for decades), it is no surprise that the current criticism of Israel seems universal. If it is, or should it become universal, it will be the majority that is akin to the besotted addict.
The aforementioned denial lies in this: Israel, like the U.S. and other non-Muslim nations, wishes to coexist with Muslims. Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran maintain that they wish to exterminate Jews and drive Israel’s Jewish population into the sea. Al-Qaida has proven that there are no innocents in its mission to kill Americans in punishment for their nation’s “imperialism.” Organizations like Hamas and the PLO before them have used truces and cease-fires to sucker the West (while they reinforced their armaments) over and over again. Here we have intractable enemies with whom no negotiation is possible, Western politicians advocating diplomacy, and press outlets propagandizing in favor of terrorists.
It is nothing less than patent insanity.
Should the Unites States and Israel convert to Islam en masse and adopt Shariah law, it would not be sufficient. There would still be jihadists who, like today, can always find Muslims who don’t quite measure up. As far as the Obama argument goes, on Tuesday, al-Qaida’s second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, actually blamed the U.S. president-elect for the Israeli offensive in Gaza.
Jihad needs its scapegoats as much as the Nazis did.
As in Mumbai, India – where Jews were targeted, tortured and killed, incidentally – the barbarity and eagerness to kill indiscriminately on the part of Islamic terrorists underscores their retrograde inhumanity. They are, by their actions, inferior beings.
