Waiting Until It's Safe

The events in Gaza reinforce a truth about much of the so-called human rights community and the Left: they care when the villain is Israel, but are indifferent to acts of violence committed by Palestinians against Palestinians.

As Hamas stormed Fatah strongholds in Gaza and began slaughtering members of its rival organization last Thursday, there were no Adam Shapiros racing to Fatah compounds to protect its members. Mr. Shapiro was the "peace" activist who made a beeline for Arafat's compound in 2002 when Israel attempted to isolate the Palestinian leader in response to terrorism.

The Web site of a group Mr. Shapiro helped found, the "International Solidarity Movement," was promoting "Freedom Summer 2007: Confronting Apartheid," a campaign opposing Israel's security fence.

Posts to the site, contemporaneous with the Hamas campaign in Gaza, display support for the effort to boycott Israel's academic establishment and memorialize Israel's "Occupation" since 1967.

A statement decrying last week's violence was not found, if there even was one.

The television news channels and newspapers reported no present day version of Rachel Corrie rushing to place herself in between the Fatah and the Hamas gunmen. Corrie, purportedly in defense of a Palestinian home, was killed accidentally when she placed herself in front of an Israeli bulldozer, which was clearing brush and destroying arms smuggling tunnels.

On Friday, a Haaretz reporter, Avi Issacharoff, reported a few acts of violence in Gaza: "Two days ago, Hamas activists fired at a procession of unarmed citizens and killed two of them. On Tuesday they killed three women and a child. On Monday they threw a Fatah activist from the 18th floor of a high-rise building."

Following these reports of Hamas violence, protesters did not take to the streets of cities in America or around the world. The television news was notably bereft of footage of candlelight vigils mourning the impending disaster.

As of Monday morning, the home page of Amnesty International, a group dedicated to "internationally recognized human rights," didn't mention the Gaza killings. But at noon yesterday, the group posted a statement calling for Hamas and Fatah to "end revenge killings, attacks and abductions." The plight of the Palestinians is referred to in a May 31 report, "Enduring Occupation: Palestinians Under Siege in the West Bank."

The report represents the group's commemoration of the "40th Anniversary of the Palestinian Territories." Israeli security checkpoints, constructed after a spate of terrorism and murder, are the centerpiece of the Amnesty International report. The open battle in Gaza, however, was missing in action.

America is also the subject of Amnesty International scrutiny. The home page highlights the plight of 39 individuals, alleged to have been "subjected to enforced disappearance by the U.S. authorities." The group did not post anything about Palestinians attempting to flee Gaza, an event reported by Israel's Channel Two. The station showed one elderly woman shouting, "We want to enter Israel. If they don't, Hamas will slaughter us."

There were those, such as Christiane Amanpour of CNN, who were asked to comment on the goings-on in Gaza. Ms. Amanpour acknowledged what was happening, but refused to speculate on what the change-over in control to Iranian-backed Hamas would mean. Asked whether the power shift represented a victory for Iran, which, it is, Ms. Amanpour said, "I really don't think it's a victory for anybody."

Instead, she did what many in the world community do when faced with facts that don't gibe with their preconceived views of the Middle East — she found a way to blame America. "What happened was then the U.S., Europe, Israel basically punished Hamas and the Palestinians because of Hamas policy and squeezed them and created this real division between Hamas and the PA, which has exploded now," she said.

What Ms. Amanpour and most other commentators on Gaza fail to mention when they deign to at the least acknowledge the events, is that the seizure of Gaza by Hamas is the final happening in a chain of events that began with the Oslo Accords in 1993.

A former prime minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, opted to give the Palestine Liberation Organization — the Fatah faction — authority over Gaza and much of the West Bank in the hope that Yasser Arafat and his henchmen would crack down on Hamas. Arafat never complied, and Fatah focused on building personal villas on the Mediterranean Sea instead of building a nation.

The usual suspects will likely remain relatively mum. That is, of course, until such time as Israel finds itself unable to live with the situation and moves in. That's when it will be safe, once again, to decry the horrible plight of the people of Gaza.

Mr. Gitell (gitell.com) is a contributing editor of The Sun.