Israel vs. Hamas - do Israelis cheer when Palestinians are killed?

One pattern I've noticed with opinion writers is that those who are opposed to Israel invariably make very nuanced condemnations of Palestinian terror attacks, such as the one in Jerusalem yesterday. They always condemn the attack in the strongest terms, but there's always a "but" involved. The "but" is usually that Israel created this situation, Israel is worse, or Israel deserved what it got. This post by Dr. Silverstein is one such example:

What will also no doubt be lost on Israelis is that this act, heinous as it was, did not arise in a vacuum. Over 100 Gazans were killed last week by the IDF, the majority civilians. The thirst for vengeance among Palestinians must be deep.

This is only slightly more reflective than the response by Hamas' spokeman:

This is a normal response to all the Israel occupation, commission and aggression, and they [have] committed massacres inside the Gaza and West Bank - about 128 [people were] killed, 30 of them children and infants, people and elderly and [women]. So I find this is a normal response to all Israel's occupational crimes, and waging a war against the Palestinians."

But apparently Israel did kill over 100 Palestinians last week, by some estimates. So who is the guilty party here? Doesn't that mean that Hamas deserved their revenge? Well, let's look at what each side is actually doing:

One side is openly acknowledging its attacks, using a military that is subject to scrutiny by a vigorous judicial process and a democratic government. They conduct air and ground strikes in Gaza in response to continuous rocket attacks from Hamas. They attempt to target terrorist safehouses, but some civilians nearby are killed.

The other side sends a gunman on a suicide mission to kill students at a University; there was not even the attempt to hit a military target here. Moreover, there is no clear acknowledgement of who is responsible so no one can be held accountable for it. The organizers of this attack essentially remain invisible in the Gazan population and use them as a shield against retaliation (which is itself a war crime, by the way).

Oh, and there's one more difference - just like after 9/11, Palestinians are out cheering and celebrating this attack, and firing guns in the air.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I have never heard of Israelis out in the streets celebrating air strikes against Hamas - in fact, just the opposite; after every one of these raids, you see some Israelis out protesting against their government instead. How long do you think an anti-terror protest in Gaza against Hamas would last, assuming Palestinians wanted to?

Granted, Israel killed more Palestinians this week than the other way around. But is that the standard for justice? Israel can do this because it has a real military force; Hamas does not. Now imagine what Israel would look like if that situation were the other way around.

I'm not excusing all of Israel's actions here, but it's very clear that if Hamas stopped their attacks, Israel would stop their raids. If ordinary Gazans are tired of being caught in the crossfire during raids against Hamas, they should rise up and throw these guys out. The ball is truly in the court of the people of Gaza.



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