by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
National Review Online<\/em><\/p>\n A<\/span>\u00a0\u201cceasefire<\/i>\u201d would occur should Hezbollah give back kidnapped Israelis and stop launching missiles; it would never follow a unilateral cessation of Israeli bombing. In fact, we will hear international calls for one only when Hezbollah\u2019s rockets are about exhausted.<\/p>\n \u201cCivilians<\/i>\u201d in\u00a0Lebanon\u00a0have munitions in their basements and deliberately wish to draw fire; in\u00a0Israel\u00a0they are in bunkers to avoid it.\u00a0Israel\u00a0uses precision weapons to avoid hitting them; Hezbollah sends random missiles into\u00a0Israel\u00a0to ensure they are struck.<\/p>\n \u201cCollateral damage<\/i>\u201d refers mostly to casualties among Hezbollah\u2019s human shields; it can never be used to describe civilian deaths inside\u00a0Israel\u00a0, because everything there is by intent a target.<\/p>\n \u201cCycle of Violence<\/i>\u201d is used to denigrate those who are attacked, but are not supposed to win.<\/p>\n \u201cDeliberate<\/i>\u201d reflects the accuracy of Israeli bombs hitting their targets; it never refers to Hezbollah rockets that are meant to destroy anything they can.<\/p>\n \u201cDeplore<\/i>\u201d is usually evoked against\u00a0Israel\u00a0by those who themselves have slaughtered noncombatants or allowed them to perish \u2014 such as the Russians in\u00a0Grozny\u00a0, the Syrians in\u00a0Hama\u00a0, or the U.N. in\u00a0Rwanda\u00a0and Dafur.<\/p>\n \u201cDisproportionate<\/i>\u201d means that the Hezbollah aggressors whose primitive rockets can\u2019t kill very many Israeli civilians are losing, while the Israelis\u2019 sophisticated response is deadly against the combatants themselves. See \u201cexcessive<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n Anytime you hear the adjective \u201cexcessive<\/i>,\u201d Hezbollah is losing. Anytime you don\u2019t, it isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n \u201cEyewitnesses<\/i>\u201d usually aren\u2019t, and their testimony is cited only against\u00a0Israel\u00a0.<\/p>\n \u201cGrave concern<\/i>\u201d is used by Europeans and Arabs who privately concede there is no future for\u00a0Lebanon\u00a0unless Hezbollah is destroyed \u2014 and it should preferably be done by the \u201cZionists<\/i>\u201d who can then be easily blamed for doing it.<\/p>\n \u201cInnocent<\/i>\u201d often refers to Lebanese who aid the stockpiling of rockets or live next to those who do. It rarely refers to Israelis under attack.<\/p>\n The \u201cmilitants<\/i>\u201d of Hezbollah don\u2019t wear uniforms, and their prime targets are not those Israelis who do.<\/p>\n \u201cMultinational<\/i>,\u201d as in \u201cmultinational force<\/i>,\u201d usually means \u201cthird-world mercenaries who sympathize with Hezbollah.\u201d See \u201cpeacekeepers<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPeacekeepers<\/i>\u201d keep no peace, but always side with the less Western of the belligerents.<\/p>\n \u201cQuarter-ton<\/i>\u201d is used to describe what in other, non-Israeli militaries are known as \u201c500-pound<\/i>\u201d bombs.<\/p>\n \u201cShocked<\/i>\u201d is used, first, by diplomats who really are not; and, second, only evoked against the response of\u00a0Israel\u00a0, never the attack of Hezbollah.<\/p>\n \u201cUnited Nations Action<\/i>\u201d refers to an action that\u00a0Russia\u00a0or\u00a0China\u00a0would not veto. The organization\u2019s operatives usually watch terrorists arm before their eyes. They are almost always guilty of what they accuse others of.<\/p>\n W<\/span>hat explains this distortion of language? A lot.<\/p>\n First there is the need for Middle Eastern oil. Take that away, and the war would receive the same scant attention as bloodletting in central\u00a0Africa\u00a0.<\/p>\n Then there is the fear of Islamic terrorism. If the Middle East were Buddhist, the world would care about\u00a0Lebanon\u00a0as little as it does about occupied\u00a0Tibet\u00a0.<\/p>\n And don\u2019t forget the old anti-Semitism. If\u00a0Russia\u00a0or\u00a0France\u00a0were shelled by neighbors, Putin and Chirac would be threatening nuclear retaliation.<\/p>\n Israel\u00a0is the symbol of the hated West. Were it a client of\u00a0China\u00a0, no one would dare say a word.<\/p>\n Population and size count for a lot: When India threatened\u00a0Pakistan\u00a0with nukes for its support of terrorism a few years ago, no one uttered any serious rebuke.<\/p>\n Finally, there is the worry that\u00a0Israel\u00a0might upset things in\u00a0Iraq\u00a0. If we were not in\u00a0Afghanistan\u00a0and\u00a0Iraq\u00a0trying to win hearts and minds, we wouldn\u2019t be pressuring\u00a0Israel\u00a0behind the scenes.<\/p>\n But most of all, the world deplores the Jewish state because it is strong, and can strike back rather than suffer. In fact, global onlookers would prefer either one of two scenarios for the long-suffering Jews to learn their lesson. The first is absolute symmetry and moral equivalence: when\u00a0Israel\u00a0is attacked, it kills only as many as it loses. For each rocket that lands, it drops only one bomb in retaliation \u2014 as if any aggressor in the history of warfare has ever ceased its attacks on such insane logic.<\/p>\n The other desideratum is the destruction of\u00a0Israel\u00a0itself.\u00a0Iran\u00a0promised to wipeIsrael\u00a0off the map, and then gave Hezbollah thousands of missiles to fulfill that pledge. In response, the world snored. If tomorrow more powerful rockets hit Tel Aviv armed with Syrian chemicals or biological agents, or Iranian nukes, the \u201cinternational\u201d community would urge \u201crestraint\u201d \u2014 and keep urging it until\u00a0Israel\u00a0disappeared altogether. And the day after its disappearance, the Europeans and Arabs would sigh relief, mumble a few pieties, and then smile, \u201cLife goes on.\u201d<\/p>\n And for them, it would very well.<\/p>\n \u00a92006 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Words take on new meanings as Israel struggles to survive. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online A\u00a0\u201cceasefire\u201d would occur should Hezbollah give back kidnapped Israelis and stop launching missiles; it would never follow a unilateral cessation of Israeli bombing. In fact, we will hear international calls for one only when Hezbollah\u2019s rockets are about […]<\/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":[772],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-11r","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3915,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/worry-about-the-west-not-israel\/","url_meta":{"origin":3933,"position":0},"title":"Worry About the West–Not Israel","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 14, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services The reactions and media coverage coming out of the West regarding this latest war in the Middle East are as bewildering as they are instructive. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., for example, recently said, \"I don't take sides for or against Hezbollah or for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "August 2006"","block_context":{"text":"August 2006","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2006\/august-2006\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5547,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/inside-the-cease-fire\/","url_meta":{"origin":3933,"position":1},"title":"Inside the “Cease-fire”","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 23, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"U.N.'s looming failure reveals West's moral confusion by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers With every crisis in the war against Islamic jihad, the West displays a suicidal appeasement that heartens the enemy and lessens any chance of victory. The absurd \u201ccease fire\u201d the U.N. recently hammered out between Israel and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3938,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-strange-war\/","url_meta":{"origin":3933,"position":2},"title":"A Strange War","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 21, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Israel is at last being given an opportunity to unload on jihadists. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Sum up the declarations of Hezbollah\u2019s leaders, Syrian diplomats, Iranian nuts, West Bank terrorists, and Arab commentators \u2014 and this latest\u00a0Middle East\u00a0war seems one of the strangest in a long history\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "July 2006"","block_context":{"text":"July 2006","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2006\/july-2006\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3902,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/relearning-lessons-in-the-war-on-terror\/","url_meta":{"origin":3933,"position":3},"title":"Relearning Lessons in the War on Terror","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 28, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services From the recent Israel-Hezbollah war in southern Lebanon to the jihadists in Iraq's Sunni Triangle to the repeated efforts by Islamists across the globe to trump Sept. 11, what old lessons about terrorism are we in the West finding ourselves having to relearn?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "August 2006"","block_context":{"text":"August 2006","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2006\/august-2006\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3037,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-lose-lose-world\/","url_meta":{"origin":3933,"position":4},"title":"A Lose-Lose World","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner Creepy times There is something especially nauseating about the latest Middle East war \u2014 scenes of worldwide Islamic protests with photos of Jews as apes, protesters (in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida of all places!) screaming about nuking Israel and putting Jews in ovens, parades of\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":[]},{"id":3925,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-brink-of-madness\/","url_meta":{"origin":3933,"position":5},"title":"The Brink of Madness","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 4, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"A familiar place. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online When I used to read about the 1930s \u2014 the Italian invasion of Abyssinia, the rise of fascism in Italy, Spain, and Germany, the appeasement in France and Britain, the murderous duplicity of the Soviet Union, and the racist Japanese\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "August 2006"","block_context":{"text":"August 2006","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2006\/august-2006\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3933"}],"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=3933"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3934,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3933\/revisions\/3934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}