Glossary for Operation Protective Edge

Israel’s Operation Protective Edge began on July 8 and, thanks to the misrepresenting of facts and the twisting of the meaning of certain words by the mainstream media and some in the Obama administration, it’s hard to follow the story. So to help you understand what is being presented by our leaders and reported in our mainstream media, here is a glossary for the Operation Protective Edge newspeak. Below are terms you may think you know, but their meanings have changed because of the conflict in the Middle East.

Bomb Shelters: The media is always quick to mention that Israelis have bomb shelters but people in Gaza don’t. That is 100% true. But they don’t mention that instead of using their cement for shelters, Hamas used their cement to make tunnels.

But: A favorite of President Obama’s as in, “I support Israel’s right to defend itself, but…” Sometimes the “but” is silent, either way this administration does not like to defend Israel without trashing it in the next sentence. Most recently the “but” has been used to slam Israel for civilian casualties.

Civilian Casualties: Whenever one speaks about the tragic deaths of Palestinian civilians, most mainstream news organizations (and the White House) do not allow discussion of Hamas use of human shields causing many of the civilian casualties.

As Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer said on CNN last week, when their reporter didn’t mention Hamas rockets found in UN schools during a report about the UNRWA school that was bombed:

“That’s correct. That’s publicly available information. It’s kind of an important fact for your reporter to mention. And in addition to that, he may have wanted to mention a statement made not by the Israeli ambassador, not by a spokesman of the IDF, but by the UN Secretary General yesterday. And I want to read you what he said yesterday, not last year, yesterday. He said this, “The Secretary-General is alarmed to hear that rockets were placed in an UNRWA school in Gaza and that subsequently these have gone missing. He expresses his outrage, and regret, at the placing of weapons in a UN-administered school. By doing so---” now listen Erin to exactly what he says, “By doing so, those responsible are turning schools into potential military targets, and endangering the lives of innocent children, UN employees working in such facilities, and anyone using the UN schools as shelter.”

Perhaps Dermer didn’t know talking about possible human shields is against the rules.

Cycle Of Violence, Tit For Tat: Another favorite of the media and the administration implies that Israeli attempts to eradicate Gaza of the missiles targeting civilians are morally equivalent to the Hamas rockets targeting Israeli civilians. The former is self-defense — the latter is terrorism.

Disengagement: Something else the mainstream media and Western governments are not allowed to mention. In a test of land for peace, Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005, but Gaza is still called occupied territory. Even though the test failed and Hamas turned the area into a terrorist hotbed, Israel has not reoccupied Gaza.

Egyptian Cease-Fire Proposal: Arranged by Egypt, agreed to by Israel, the PA, the U.S and the Arab league. Last Friday, Kerry presented to Israel a deal that had nothing to do with the Egyptian Cease-Fire Proposal. Instead, as members of the Israeli cabinet told Israel’s Channel 2 TV, Kerry “dug a tunnel under the Egyptian ceasefire proposal.”

Embargo: Hamas claims they want the ending of the Israeli embargo that prevents military and construction-type goods to enter Gaza. The media forgets to mention the embargo was enacted to prevent even more rockets being sent to Hamas. Also forgotten is, under UN pressure, Israel allowed shipments of cement into Gaza. That cement was for new houses for Gaza citizens, but instead they were used for tunnels.

Fairness: It’s what the mainstream media tries to do when it spends the vast majority of their report showing collapsed Gaza buildings while ignoring that those buildings may have housed Hamas missiles or other terrorist operations. The IDF usually explains why something is attacked but in fairness doesn’t like to talk about it.

Going On For A Thousand Years: Talking heads love saying the Israeli battle against Hamas terrorists has been going on for over a thousand years. Not true. Jews have been living peacefully in the holy land continuously since Joshua won the battle of Jericho approximately 3,300 years ago. The Arabs have been attacking Jews living on the land for only about a century.

Human Shield: What President Obama and the mainstream media ignore when they talk about the Hamas casualties.

Israel Lobby: Those damned Jews control the government is a charge that falls apart easily. Yes, many Americans including Jews support Israel, but they don’t control the U.S. government (if they did Al Sharpton would be banned from the U.S.). Next time someone complains to you about a “Jewish Lobby,” ask, “Does the Israel lobby have more power than the Cuban lobby, which has convinced our government to boycott Cuba for the past 50+ years?”

Militant: A politically correct way of saying terrorist. We wouldn’t want to insult people who target civilians. Originally, militants were only used for those terrorists who attacked Jews. But the PC police expanded its use to all terrorists.

Pro-Palestinian Rallies: Media Newspeak for Pro-Hamas rallies. A series of rallies in support of Hamas’ rocket attacks on Israel. During the past four weeks, most of these rallies, especially the ones in Europe, have turned both violent and anti-Semitic.

Retaliation: A subset of Cycle Of Violence and Tit For Tat, it implies that Israel’s actions in Gaza are revenge attacks for Hamas terror — not true. Israel attacks have nothing to do with revenge; they are meant to destroy the Hamas ability to attack Israeli civilians.

Three Dead Jews/Dead Arab: The media likes to say that the present hostilities were a result of the kidnapping/murder of three Jewish boys and one Arab boy. This forgets the fact that Hamas sent nearly 500 rockets into Israeli communities before the kidnappings happened.

By understanding these terms you will better understand the statements coming from the Administration and the coverage of the conflict by the mainstream media.

Columnist@TheJewishStar