Where was diplomacy when needed? (Jan 6)
By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune
International diplomats are doing all they can now to get Israel to stop its war against the Hamas militants, citing the suffering of Palestinian civilians, and it is understandable why they are putting forth such effort. As the Israelis fight the Hamas, civilians are suffering and dying because of the Hamas habit of hiding
among normal people.
But I have a question: Where were these diplomats when the militants of Hamas were lobbing rockets month after month from the Gaza Strip into Israel? Why did those diplomats not go to the forces of Hamas and give them a good bawling out, like they are giving the Israelis now? Where was the diplomatic outcry against unprovoked attacks by Hamas against civilian peoples in Israel? Where was the diplomatic outcry against the smuggling of arms into the Gaza Strip by Hamas? Where was the diplomatic anger against attacks by Hamas on its political foes, the Fatah? Where were those diplomats?
Let’s see. Maybe they were in bed. Maybe they were in their offices or vacationing. But we know where they were not. They were not standing in protest at the United Nations or elsewhere protesting attacks against free a people. They were not standing in protest of Hamas’ government by treachery, or against its closing of newspapers, murdering of Christians or against its using hospitals and other public buildings to stage attacks against its political opponents, al Fatah.
Where were those diplomats in years past to raise protests when the Palestinians, under the late Yasser Arafat, broke every condition of every treaty he ever negotiated with Israel — conditions, by the way, which the Israelis kept?
It is tempting to believe that if they had been as fervent in their criticism of Hamas as they are of Israel, this war might not have started.
