Nope. No Suffering Here

Barack Obama has recently been taking some heat for comments stated earlier in his campaign. "Nobody is suffering more than the Palestinians." This statement has largely been the basis for accusations that Obama is "anti-Israel" or even "anti-semitic" and my question is, how? Aside from whatever political orientation everyone has on this conflict, is it really possible to watch the news--if its being covered at all--about the recent strikes on Gaza and refute this statement? With over 100 Palestinians killed in 3 days, one third of whom were women and children (according to the International Red Cross) is it really possible to say that "No, Palestinians are not suffering. And in fact, anyone who claims that they are must hate Israel." How does this perverse logic rule over our understanding of the conflict?

I am confident that most Israelis would at least recognize that there are many Palestinians suffering from the conflict, even if they support the most recent IDF attacks. On the front page of Haaretz.com (one of Israel's most popular newspapers) the front page articles all focused on the attacks, and while stating Israel's need to defend herself was the focus of some, others chose to focus on the resulting deaths of civilians and destruction of their homes. One such article focused on the death of two sisters, Samah and Salwah, who were killed when their house was bombed. "We thought you wanted peace" their father wept. Haaretz also published a statement by Diab, a former volunteer with Magen David Adom in Ashkelon, laments the attacks "There are no gunmen here. We wouldn't let them near. There are more than 20 children here. We don't want trouble and don't like it, but why did they shoot at us? What did we do to deserve this?" Also on the front page is a photo of Palestinians carrying a 21 month old baby girl who was killed in the attacks. www.haaretz.com

Of course not all Israelis appreciate this attention devoted to the civilian dead. In fact, there are vast discrepancies between the reports of those Palestinians killed. According to the IDF, of the 100 Palestinians killed, 90 of them were militants. So we have the two sisters, the baby girl, and I guess only 7 more then?

Aside from the slightly confused leadership of the IDF, I think that it is safe to assume that even Israelis would admit to the suffering of the Palestinians. But I guess that would make these Israelis somehow anti-Israeli, so we are back at square one. Isn't perverse logic fun?

Also see:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/03/israelandthepalestinians.usa