Thomas Sowell – Moral Clarity personified….
Cycle of Nonsense
“Now that Israel has responded to rocket attacks and the abduction of its soldiers by terrorists by making military strikes into areas controlled by those terrorists, much of our media are deploring another “cycle of violence” in the Middle East.
For reasons unknown, some people seem to regard verbal equivalence as moral equivalence — and the latter as some kind of badge of broadmindedness, if not intellectual superiority.
Therefore, when Palestinian terrorists (“militants” in politically correct Newspeak) attack Israel and then Israel responds with military force, that is just another “cycle of violence” in the Middle East to some people.
The “cycle” notion suggests that each side is just responding to what the other side does. But just what had Israel done to set off these latest terrorist acts? It voluntarily pulled out of Gaza, after evacuating its own settlers, and left the land to the Palestinian authorities.
Terrorists then used the newly acquired land to launch rockets into Israel and then seized an Israeli soldier. Other terrorists in Lebanon followed suit. The great mantra of the past, “trading land for peace,” is now thoroughly discredited, or should be.
But facts mean nothing to people who are determined to find equivalence, whether today in the Middle East or yesterday in the Cold War.”
Mr. Sowell has been one of my favorite columnists for years. I so appreciate his clarifying of the current conflict.
Jenny Hatch