By Sig Demling
The world is a perpetual caricature of itself; at every moment it is the mockery and the contradiction of what it is pretending to be.
The above commentary on life was written almost a century ago by the philosopher George Santayana but it very well could have been written today simply to describe the absurdity of European and Middle East.
Here some good examples:
* THE FLOTILLA FOLLY: While the number of massacres in Syria continues to climb activists -- alias troublemakers with nothing else to do with their time -- continue threatening Israel with flotillas.
Most recently such left wing generated boats have been launched from both Sweden and Finland, ostensibly to "break" the Gaza blockade.
Now that would make sense if the death toll in Gaza had climbed past the 100 mark or 200 or 500 or even 1,000. But the known deaths in the terrorist-Hamas-land have been those killed after sending rockets into Israel. In death-dealing rockets were not endlessly launched at Israel, there would be no retaliation from the only real democracy in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, the flotilla folly continues as if Syria is as peaceful as the Cocos Islands. You don't hear a word about the Assad-inspired killings from the hypocrites organizing the flotillas aimed at Israel.
Talk about "a perpetual caricature of itself," that's precisely what these Silly, Sailing Sallies are all about.
But do not forget that it's a tragic caricature and will remain so as long as Israel remains the flotillas target and not Syria!
* WHO ARE THESE 'PEACEFUL' ACTIVISTS? Whenever an anti-Israel flotilla gets underway the media blandly describes those aboard as "activists." The suggestion is quite clear; the flotilla crowd is only interested in peace and means no harm; not even to israel.
But time and again, the flotilla rosters tell another story; one of hate.
There's nothing at all peaceful about radical, anti Israel extremist and terrorist groups.
One such flotilla included Amin Abou Rashed, a notorious Dutch Hamas leader. Others included Huwaida Arraf and Adam Shapiro, International Solidarity Movement founders. It was Shapiro who called for global attack on Israel and termed the flotilla movement part of the third Intifada. And many in the media term them "middle aged European pacifisits.
The press' attempt to minimize the flotillas' potential for violence has been evident since the 2010 crisis. Writing in The American Thinker, Andrea Levin observed, "The word 'scuffle' to characterize the attacks on Israelis was used when soldiers were beaten unconscious, stabbed and thrown off an upper deck."
Ethan Bronner, then bureau chief of The New York Times -- not surprisingly -- termed the violent clash a "tussle," suggesting a pillow fight rather than an attempt to murder Israelis.
Those "activists" were more like killers.
* WHEN IS A WAR NOT A WAR? Israel's decision to end Operation Cast Lead was based on the belief that no further rockets would be shot into Sderot, the Negev and Beersheva, among other places.
As was the case after limiting the Lebanon invasion, Israel was duped into believing that muzzling its guns would produce an end to hostility on the other side.
The result, however, has been what amounts to a twin-pincer war. Hamas has delivered a continuous barrage of endless rocketry since Cast Lead ended while Iran's proxy, Hezbollah, not only boasts of a rocket armada aimed at Israel but also is now employing Iranian drones over Israeli airspace.
If, say, a European country such as Sweden was faced with twin threats via Finland and Norway in the Israeli manner, the Swedes long ago would have launched the first full-scale war in that nation's recent history; no questions asks.
Ditto for Uncle Sam if Canada was doing to America what Hamas has been doing to Israel while Mexico was imitating Hezbollah.
Prime Minister Netanyahu, so far, has been playing it cool, calm and collected vis-a-vis the Gaza terrorists and Hezbollah-Iran. Hamas gets pounded every time a significant rocket attack is directed at Israel while Hezbollah is well aware that one more drone incursion will result in a lot more retaliation than Bibi's verbiage.
What remains to be seen is whether the current Israeli strategy is practical, effective and realistic under the current circumstances.
It's easy to say that specific Israeli sites -- Sderot being the best example -- are being sacrificed to maintain a reasonable calm elsewhere. But is that fair to the citizens in that Southern town?
What cannot be argued is that the assaults will somehow continue from North and South simply based on past performances.
They will stop, however, if -- and when -- Bibi decides that enough is enough and the next time the war will be a real WAR.
This is an eventuality that's not soft on the heart but then again the endless rocketry is hardly soft on one's soul, especially if you happen to live in Sderot or any one of the dozen Israeli towns within rocket range.
Meanwhile, the world outside Israel continues to be -- as Santayana once said --a mockery and contradiction of what it is pretending to be.
No more and no less!
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