Anyone paying attention to this blog will be aware of the sick incitement and child abuse going on in the palestinian-controlled territories, with small children being taught that murdering Jews is a noble and desirable thing to do.
We’ve seen it with Farfur and his fellow cuddly friends on Gaza TV. We see it with the plethora of sickening images of young palestinians dressed as terrorists – such as these:
I say all of this as an introduction to Reuters Israel bureau chief Luke Baker (yeah, that one) tweeting this today:
https://twitter.com/LukeReuters/status/729553649878372352
https://twitter.com/LukeReuters/status/729554954747297792
The implication is clear: there is a moral equivalence between the palestinian children dressed as terrorists, and Israeli children dressed as IDF soldiers.
My response to this is just as clear: there isn’t.
Leaving aside the fact Baker’s source Lisa Goldman had to go back almost two years to find that photo of the Israeli kids, when palestinian children dress up as terrorists, they do so to mimic their role models who deliberately murder Jews (not to mention others who get in their way), and take great pleasure in doing so. Killing is glorified. For instance, in a recent palestinian children’s play, a girl pretended to stab Jews, while a boy dressed as a masked terrorist massacred the soldiers with a replica semi-automatic weapon.
In contrast, when the Israeli children dressed up as IDF soldiers, they did so to mimic those defending them and their fellow Israeli civilians. As you can see from the photo above, they are running around against the invisible enemy. There is no portrayal of this enemy or pretending to kill them in grisly detail. The emphasis is on defense, and there is no joy to be had from killing them.
We see a similar distortion of the truth in this tweet from Manal Tamimi, relative of Ahed Tamimi aka Shirley Temper.
It is called self-defense because – wait for it – it is. Israeli women are not going out to palestinian villages and stabbing residents. They are learning how to deal in a situation where they are being attacked by a palestinian brandishing a knife. Because, real risk.
There is no comparison here. It’s like comparing rotten apples and oranges.
