Dear Mr. Prime Minister, you recently called for “an immediate independent investigation” into Israel’s “Reported use of excessive force and live ammunition”. Here is my report.

Much that it contains is surely familiar including the bizarre double standard, already noted in this newspaper, in which Israelis’ desire to live in peace and Hamas’s desire to slaughter them are treated as morally equivalent … or worse. I shall presume your use of terms like “excessive” and “inexcusable” does not indicate that your mind is insufficiently open or fair to grasp this point.

Likewise, you doubtless have some understanding that the use of “live ammunition” is not merely excusable but necessary when people are trying to invade your country. And that what many insist on calling “protests” were an attempted invasion involving setting fires, throwing rocks and seeking to cut through the fence. And that while Israel dropped leaflets urging Palestinians to stay away from the fence lest they come to harm, Hamas posted maps and pictures online of how to reach Jewish communities on the other side so that … well, here we come to an awkward point.

Obviously you have benefited in your briefings from the extensive resources of what is now called Global Affairs Canada and other security and advisory agencies. Can they have neglected to mention that this March the Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, sought to inflame a “March of Return” crowd to storm what he called a “transient border” with the advice to “eat the livers” of Israelis?

I trust you would not tolerate efforts by armed mobs to cross Canadian borders in pursuit of a program of cannibalistic ethnic cleansing. Given your oft-expressed exquisite concern for human rights, dignity, and respect you can surely put hand on heart and, voice quavering, articulate sympathy for Israelis who feel the same way.

Especially as the civilized world has duped itself repeatedly about Israeli’s conduct. Including in 2002, when Israel took exceptional pains to limit civilian casualties in Jenin at the expense of endangering its own troops, only to be pilloried for a non-existent massacre. And in this case, though perhaps it was inexcusably omitted from your briefings, a senior Hamas figure admitted 50 of the roughly 60 “protestors” killed on May 14 were members of his terrorist organization whose founding Charter says the Day of Judgement will not come until even rocks and trees incite Muslims to kill Jews.

The matter thus far was so well-summarized in Natan Sharansky’s The Case for Democracy in 2005 that it is surprising that it need be repeated. “There is no moral equivalence between Palestinian terror attacks and Israeli counterterror operations … whereas the more innocent Palestinian lives are lost in an Israeli military operation, the more the Israeli government considers the operation a failure, the more a Palestinian terror attack claims innocent Jewish lives, the more the terrorists consider that attack a success.”

Strong words. Yet with all due respect to Sharansky and yourself, not necessarily equivalent quantities, this former Soviet “refusenik” turned Israeli statesman misses a key point here due to his genuine generosity of spirit.

The problem is not just that Hamas craves Israeli civilian casualties to the point of exulting in the desecration of still-warm corpses. It’s that Hamas craves Palestinian civilian casualties. It is a death cult. And when Hamas leaders, like other Islamist radicals, boast “We love death like our enemies love life” it is, as so often with extremists, foolish and dangerous to ignore their warnings about themselves.

A National Post story last week with the classic headline “PRESSURE MOUNTS AFTER GAZA BLOODSHED” detailed Western abuse of the Jewish homeland for defending itself (“unacceptable” from France, “shocking” from Britain) before noting the death of an eight-month-old Palestinian baby. “According to her family, she was killed after inhaling a cloud of Israeli tear gas during Monday’s bloody protests on the border. They said her 12-year-old uncle had become confused and accidentally brought the baby to within yards of the barbed wire fence that Israel has vowed to defend.”

Instead of asking who “accidentally” takes a baby into a riot, her own father crowed, “She is not the first martyr for Palestine and she won’t be the last. Her sacrifice is for Jerusalem and for the homeland.” It wasn’t her sacrifice; she didn’t have a say in the matter. But his use of “martyr” emphasizes that she was not simply caught in a crossfire. Not only did Hamas want her dead for propaganda purposes, even her father seemed pretty pumped about it.

Yes. It’s revolting. So the key recommendation of my report is to open your eyes before opening your mouth. Hamas keeps leading Palestinians down an ever darker and narrower path that no true friend would want to see them on. Especially given its genocidal intent.

National Post