Blaming Israel

This is from Mona Charen at the Washington Times:

The Washington Post, hoping to provide context for this crisis, provides a chart in the July 13 edition labeled "Events that led to the military escalation in the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon." Under "Gaza," The Post starts with the swearing-in of the Hamas government March 29. Fair enough. But the next item is "June 9: Explosion kills seven members of a Gaza family. Witnesses blame Israeli artillery, but Israel denies it." Missing is any reference to the nonstop shelling of Israel from the Gaza Strip that began in 2005 and has not let up since. Nearly 3,000 rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israel. And why? If you believe the conventional wisdom about the conflict, getting Israeli "occupying" forces out of Gaza (and the West Bank) was exactly what the Palestinians most fervently wished to achieve. The occupation, they ceaselessly wailed, kept them from a decent life, economic advancement, dignity and peace. They could not be expected, advised Hanan Ashrawi and a host of other spokesmen, to cease their terror against Israel so long as the occupation continued. When Israel, for its own reasons, elected to accommodate them and withdrew from Gaza (even uprooting several thousand Israeli settlers in the process), the Palestinian moment should have dawned.

I agree. The Philistines Palestinians had so many opportunities to be at peace, but their warlike nature prevents them time and again. Its easier and politically correct to blame Israel.