While the World Watches Israel, the Rest of the World’s Gone Mad

“They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.” ~Psalm 83

Looking at news these past few weeks, one would think nothing is going on in the world except the Israeli/Gaza conflict which at the time of this writing, has claimed more than 1000 palestinian lives, most of them civilians, while more than 2,400 rockets have been launched from Gaza towards Israel since July 8th.

Being one of the moderators on a popular News Blog, I’ve read enough comments and opinion from both sides of the debate to last me a life time over the past few days. Comments have been from people on both sides, frustrated and the passion from all of us is understandable. Most folks agree that the civilian loss in Gaza is reprehensible, but as many blame Hamas for putting civilians in harm’s way on purpose, and they have a history of doing just that, others blame Israel basically because they have the Iron Dome which has thankfully stopped many rockets, and they have better weapons.

What has been going on between Israel and Hamas has happened time and time again, and the world always blames Israel for fighting back when terrorist groups attack Israel. What would the world like- for Israel to build an Iron Dome for Gaza to Hamas’ specifications and give them better rockets so it can be a more fair war next time?

Looking at recent headlines the past few weeks, they are arguably anti-Israel, such as, “Hamas Offers Cease-Fire after Israel Resumes Gaza Offensive …” from the NY Times, and “Israel rejects blame for deaths at U.N. shelter” from CNN. There was CNN International correspondent Diana Magnay who referred to a group of Israelis as “scum” and then there are the “news” stories such as CNN’s Erin Burnett when the station showed a split screen of dead and injured children for 2 hours, yet never mentioning the fact that the day before the UN Secretary General issued a statement warning people that Hamas was storing weapons in UN schools. There was the interview on MSNBC when Joy-Ann Reid interviewed Prime Minister Netanyahu’s spokesman, Mark Regev, and accused Israeli’s of bombing of schools, hospitals, and blamed Israel for the deaths of civilians. It was more like an inquisition as she first asked him to respond to the accusation from the UN for supposed war crimes. She also falsely accused Israel of occupying Gaza and claiming Israel is responsible for all the displaced Palestinians.

I’m not denying the severity of what’s happening in Israel, and I have reported on it before. But while many politicians, progressives and the mainstream media focus on Israel’s retaliation and lament over the growing number of deaths in Gaza with breathless anticipation and accusation, there is virtually nothing reported on the slaughter, persecution and horrific acts against Christians, Muslims and other non-Muslims in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere.

In Syria during the past three years, over 170,000 people have been killed and the numbers of those who have fled have swelled to the millions. Crowded camps, caves, churches and mosques are where many have gone to, the lucky ones crowd into homes with family. Those left behind are still being tortured or murdered, including Christians and other Muslims who are considered infidels because they are alawite. Syrian President Assad is also alawite, and the ‘rebels’ are Sunnis comprised of many groups including al Qaida who were armed by the Obama administration with the help of Senator John McCain.

Jihadists from the Islamic State group recently killed at least 50 Syrian soldiers in an ambush, executing most of them after their capture, beheading them and putting their heads on poles.

The past couple of weeks have been deadly in Syria as on July 19th, ISIS militants attacked gas fields near Homs. According reports, roughly 270 government soldiers and gas field employees were killed, many of them execution-style. Syria’s gas fields have become a tug of war between Assad and jihadist groups which have caused some of the worst violence since the war began. Another 400 people were also killed country-wide towards the end of last week.

Meanwhile, Iraq is facing its worst crisis since the withdrawal of US troops and since al Qaida and other rebels spilling over from Syria weakened the area and made it ripe for ISIS to come and claim huge areas of land in the country’s west and north, including Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul.