by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
NRO’s\u00a0The Corner<\/em><\/p>\n The virulent worldwide reaction to Israeli\u2019s handling of the Gaza flotilla has been quite instructive. The bankrupt Greeks, for example, are taking a holiday from railing at the Germans to demonstrate in solidarity with the Turkish-organized Gaza effort, which puts them on the same side as those whose government supports the occupation of much of Greek-speaking Cyprus and its divided capital.<\/p>\n No one in Europe worried much about the constant shower of missiles from Gaza in the past. No one in Europe said a word when North Korea torpedoed and slaughtered South Koreans on the high seas. No one objected when the Iranians hijacked a British ship and humiliated the hostages.<\/p>\n We ourselves seem to be getting a sort of novel pass for executing scores of suspected terrorists \u2014 and anyone in their vicinity \u2014 in our new, stepped-up Predator drone assassinations.<\/p>\n But the Western and Islamic worlds have a preexisting furor at the Jewish state that can be tapped at will by almost any pro-radical-Palestinian group clever enough to do proper PR after a desired asymmetrical confrontation. The fallout from Sharon\u2019s visit to the Temple Mount, the distortions around the 2002 terrorist storming of the Church of Nativity, the 2006 Lebanon war \u2014 over time, these incidents do their part, in weird fashion, to incur hatred for a liberal democracy while creating sympathy for a theocratic thugocracy like Hamas.<\/p>\n What explains this preexisting hatred, which ensures denunciation of Israel in the most rabid \u2014 or, to use the politically correct parlance, \u201cdisproportionate,\u201d terms? It is not about \u201coccupied land,\u201d given the millions of square miles worldwide that are presently occupied, from Georgia to Cyprus to Tibet. It is not a divided capital \u2014 Nicosia is walled off. It is not an overreaction in the use of force per se \u2014 the Russians flattened Grozny and killed tens of thousands while the world snoozed. And it cannot be the scale of violence, given what we see hourly in Pakistan, Darfur, and the Congo. And, given the Armenian, Greek, and Kurdish histories (and reactions to them), the currently outraged Turkish government is surely not a credible referent on the topic of disproportionate violence.<\/p>\n Perhaps the outrage reflects simple\u00a0realpolitik<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 350 million Arab Muslims versus 7 million Israelis. Perhaps it is oil: half the world\u2019s reserves versus Israel\u2019s nada. Perhaps it is the fear of terror: draw a cartoon or write a novel offending Islam, and you must go into hiding; defame Jews and earn accolades. Perhaps it is anti-Semitism, which is as fashionable on the academic left as it used to be among the Neanderthal right.<\/p>\n Perhaps there is also a new sense that the United States at last has fallen into line with the Western consensus, and so is hardly likely to play the old lone-wolf supporter of Israel in the press or at the U.N.<\/p>\n At this point, it doesn\u2019t much matter \u2014 as this latest hysterical reaction reminds us, much of the world not only sides with Israel\u2019s enemies but sides with them to such a degree as to suggest that, in any existential moment to come, the world either will be indifferent or will be on the side of the side of Israeli\u2019s enemies.<\/p>\n Quite frightening, when you think of it.<\/p>\n \u00a92010 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson NRO’s\u00a0The Corner The virulent worldwide reaction to Israeli\u2019s handling of the Gaza flotilla has been quite instructive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[587],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-pF","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1559,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/raising-cain-over-israel\/","url_meta":{"origin":1591,"position":0},"title":"Raising Cain over Israel","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner The Turkish Question Turkey thought that the Gaza flotilla would be yet another clever way of confronting Israel: They would hype the hoped-for \u201coverreaction,\u201d then posture as regional defender of the faith to the world\u2019s outraged Muslims. However, as more details of the incident\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "June 2010"","block_context":{"text":"June 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/june-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7768,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/7768\/","url_meta":{"origin":1591,"position":1},"title":"On Cyprus, the World Is Silent","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Because Turkey is not Israel. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online Limassol, Cyprus\u00a0\u2014 Cyprus is a beautiful island. But it has never recovered from the Turkish invasion of 1974. Turkish troops still control nearly 40 percent of the island \u2014 the most fertile and formerly the richest portion.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Middle East"","block_context":{"text":"The Middle East","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"A U.N. peacekeeper in the buffer zone in Anatolia, Cyprus. (Andrew-Caballero-Reynolds) Photo via NRO","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/pic_giant_081414_SM_Cyprus-Bufer-Zone-G.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1676,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-pathology-of-double-standards\/","url_meta":{"origin":1591,"position":2},"title":"The Pathology of Double Standards","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 26, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine The surreal moral idiocy that characterizes hatred of Israel is illustrated daily by states whose actions are shrugged away by the international media. Consider the recent Turkish invasion of northern Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish militants who killed 24 soldiers at military posts near\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Israel"","block_context":{"text":"Israel","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/israel\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1553,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-new-wannabe-ottomans\/","url_meta":{"origin":1591,"position":3},"title":"The New Wannabe Ottomans","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 15, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services A\u00a0Turkish Islamic group \u2014 the \"Humanitarian Relief Foundation,\" often associated by Western intelligence agencies with terrorist sponsorship \u2014 orchestrated the recent Gaza flotilla. It was hoping for the sort of violent, well-publicized confrontation with the Israeli navy that later followed. Turkish Prime Minister\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "June 2010"","block_context":{"text":"June 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/june-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4287,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/right-strategy-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":1591,"position":4},"title":"Right Strategy Again","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 29, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Gaza pullout will turn terror morass to conventional standoff. by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services \"Brilliant tactician, lousy strategist.\" So goes the conventional wisdom about the old bulldozer Ariel Sharon. But that assessment is exactly backward. Sharon's strategic insight has always proved more impressive than his messy tactical operations.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "August 2005"","block_context":{"text":"August 2005","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2005\/august-2005\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3041,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/surreal-gaza\/","url_meta":{"origin":1591,"position":5},"title":"Surreal Gaza","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media The world reacts I spent today reading accounts of Gaza \u2014NY Times, AP, Reuters, etc. There are no terrorists, just militants. Not much about past rocket attacks on Israel \u2014 most everything on the crowded conditions of Gaza. Iranian aid is rarely elaborated on;\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "January 2009"","block_context":{"text":"January 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/january-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1591"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1591"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1593,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1591\/revisions\/1593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}