Pirate's Cove

Good question. The Washington Post finally deigns to notice what most other people already know, in their own unique fashion

Why Hamas stores its weapons inside hospitals, mosques and schools

To many observers, one of the most troublesome facts of the Gaza Strip conflict — which has killed around 1,340 Palestinians, many of them civilians, and 56 Israeli soldiers — has been Israel’s apparent willingness to strike civilian institutions such as mosques, schools and hospitals. On Wednesday, following a strike on a school while its inhabitants slept, killing 20 people and wounding dozens more, a United Nations official said Israel had violated international law. “I condemn in the strongest possible terms the serious violation of international law by Israel forces, said U.N. official Pierre Krähenbühl. “This is an affront to all of us, a source of universal shame. Today the world stands disgraced.”

Israeli military officials, for their part, say the reality of the strikes is substantially more complicated and claim Hamas’s maintenance of military operations inside civilian institutions precipitate such attacks.

“Hamas chooses to use these protected areas for military purposes in order to shield itself from IDF strikes,” the Israeli Defense Forces said this week. “And to draw international condemnation of Israel if the IDF is forced to respond.”

This is followed by a rehash of how Hamas is hiding weapons within hospitals, mosques, and UN schools. If you thought that WP writer Terrance McCoy was going to condemn Hamas, you’d be wrong. The article is about as vanilla and “just the facts, Ma’am” as one will see in today’s liberal media.

For years, Hamas has “planned carefully for a major Israeli invasion,”according to a Washington Institute for Near East Policy report. In addition to an elaborate tunnel system, there was the “integral use of civilians and civilian facilities as cover for its military activity; schools, mosques, hospitals, and civilian housing became weapons storage facilities, Hamas headquarters, and fighting positions … IDF imagery and combat intelligence revealed extensive use of civilian facilities.”

Whatever its plan, the outcome of this practice is indisputably devastating — both in Palestinian lives lost and Israel’s standing in the international community. As images of death and tragedy clog news outlets, international condemnation of Israel mounts. Which, according to the Israeli military, is exactly what it predicted would happen.

Interestingly, Hamas’ use of civilians and civilian property as shields rarely elicits condemnation from the liberal media nor liberals. When it does happen, there is usually some sort of “oh, but, you know, those Israeli’s are mean, too” accompanying said condemnation. There is a false moral equivalence created, when it is Hamas, a terrorist group, which is at fault.