We live in the digital age with vast and almost limitless resources at the click of a button. This allows information to flow easily from source to reader, and one might think it would ensure only the truth makes it to print or television.
On the contrary, the truth is out there (that sure makes me feel like Agent Mulder), but it is something that requires quite a bit of digging. Every story has two sides, and which side is the “truth” relies heavily on what someone’s preconceived ideas are. In most cases, there is a cold hard reality, but generally it is twisted in different ways to serve the needs of those who manipulate it.
For example, the international community can be divided into two groups in relation to the Israel-Gaza conflict: supporters of Israel or supporters of Hamas.
Jan. 24, The Reflector printed two letters that were strongly against Israel. Hazem Abusara claimed that a previous column by Lazarus Austin had statements that were “proven in the media to be the complete opposite.”
I guarantee by using other sources, I can prove any statement you think you can disprove. My sources reveal the cowardly and horrendous acts of Hamas and show sympathy for both Palestinians and Israelis.
Since the creation of the state of Israel, the Arab world has tried to make that primarily Jewish nation disappear. Israel has had to bear the burden of a searing hatred from Muslims who declare it has no right to exist. How would we in the U.S. feel if Canada and Mexico had such animosity toward us? We would feel it essential to defend ourselves from violence.
The type of violence that has been directed at Christians and Muslims throughout the world by Muslim extremists, such as genocidal campaigns against animists and Christian Sudanese (two million dead), as well as Muslim Kurds (200,000 dead) in Iraq and Berbers in Algeria.
Israel has suffered this violence too. Take for instance the 2001 bombing of a Sbarro pizzeria in which 15 Jews were killed and more than 100 were injured.
As reported by the Associated Press a month later, “Palestinian university students opened an exhibition that included a grisly re-enactment” of that mass murder. The students built a replica of the pizzeria complete with fake blood, splattered pizza and dismembered limbs.
Between 1987 and 1993, Hamas murdered 800 Palestinians, labeling them “Israeli collaborators.” To call Hamas “freedom fighters” is to glorify murderers!
However, Hamas understands the international press and truly proves the maxim, “The pen is mightier than the sword.” For Hamas to win a war against Israel, all it must do is turn the world to their cause. For most who see photographs of Israel’s recent defensive action against Gaza’s Hamas, all they find are injured children, not the dead terrorists who launched thousands of rockets into Israel in the past few years.
Instead of becoming angry at the terrorists, they become angry with Israel. When this happens, Hamas wins, even though it makes no attempt to protect its citizens and intentionally puts innocents in harm’s way.
These spineless terrorists choose to fire mortars from positions near U.N. humanitarian centers and rockets from inside a ring of human shields. In one instance, a Hamas member had a child walk into the middle of the street during a gunfight to retrieve a weapon for him. The Israeli soldiers immediately ceased fire until after the little boy had reached safety even though he had armed their attacker.
Israeli troops make every attempt to prevent the loss of innocent life using pamphlets, mass phone calls and much more. Despite these efforts, innocents die and Hamas has that blood on its hands.
Some scream that Hamas is only fighting to remove Israel from Gaza where Palestinians are starving because of the Israeli blockade (which does not stop humanitarian aid). Instead of demanding an end to the cause of the blockade (munitions smuggling), the press fires insults at Israel, whose hospitals regularly treat Gaza residents and whose Ashkelon generator provides 75 percent of Gaza’s electricity. The only crime is that Israel waited this long to defend itself. Instead of berating Israel for simply trying to survive as a country of Jews and Muslims, all Americans should support its wish to live in peace.
That’ll be the day.
Ryan Rougeau is a junior majoring in computer engineering. He can be contacted at [email protected].