Sharansky's History Lesson

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Save Gaza by destroying the heart of terror. Sharansky notes that Palestinians living in the West Bank have not condemned Israel's move into Gaza. Anyone care to know why? Sharansky details the multiplication of suicide attacks and strengthening of Hamas forces that accompanied Israel's "restrained" response to 2001 attacks and contrasts that with the good fruit of its ultimate West Bank offensive --in spite of the utterly unjust shredding of its international reputation through the Jenin libel.
Our reputation was in tatters.

Yet all this was a small price to pay for what Israel gained. Within a few weeks, Palestinian terror was rendered ineffective, with the number of Israelis killed falling from hundreds per month to fewer than a dozen over the next year. Life returned to Israeli streets. Tourists returned by the hundreds of thousands. The economy started moving again.

Good for Israel, but here's the material point for those who feel solidarity with the Palestinians:

No less important, though, was the effect Defensive Shield had on the Palestinians themselves. With the terror infrastructure removed, Palestinians could begin rebuilding their civic institutions and changing their attitude toward violence. Over time, Arafat’s policy of promoting terror was replaced by the far more cautious approach of his successor, Mahmoud Abbas.

In more than six years since the operation, the West Bank’s economy has boomed. If there is hope in the West Bank today, it is because Israel abandoned the ideas of proportionality and diplomacy in handling terror. The West Bank Palestinians know this; for this reason, they have not joined in the world’s rampant condemnation of Israel in the current war. While tens of thousands protest in Europe, West Bankers are mostly silent.

If you love Palestinian children, you shouldn't be abandoning them to Hamas. Like the feminists' inability to rejoice in millions of women being liberated from the Taliban and Saddam's rape rooms and shredders, the Western elite's condemnation of Israel only shows how little it cares about the real human dignity of poor brown people.