Amid all the shrill condemnation over its incursion into Gaza, Jerusalem Post Editor David Horovitz notices a surprising acceptance of the fact that Israel has bombed a number of mosques in Gaza in its campaign to defang Hamas.
The bombings have not been the target of a new wave of protests over the destruction of Muslim houses of worship. Horovitz guesses this is because it is accepted that Hamas desecrated them first by storing explosives in them and because "Islamists know they've been found out."
One bombed mosque was named for Ibrahim al-Maqadma, a Hamas founder and military chief killed by the Israeli military in 2003 in retaliation for a series of Hamas suicide bombings. "There has been no frenzied rush" to deny Israeli claims that the mosques are being used to store weapons and as Hamas command centers, Horovitz writes.
If people aren't going to blame Israel, he wonders why they aren't blaming Hamas for creating the situation:
"Imagine the intra-Jewish storm were a synagogue's sanctity to be compromised in any remotely comparable manner. So where are the Islamic leaders, in Gaza and beyond, bitterly castigating Hamas for its unholy disrespect? And where are the horrified rank and file worshipers?"
It's not the only violation of the rules of warfare by Hamas, he notes:
"Civilians are supposed to be off limits. So too, by extension, homes, schools and places of worship. Yet Hamas stores its ammunition and manufacturers its weaponry in precisely such places."
Hamas fighters are wearing street clothes to blend in with civilians and keeping children nearby as they launch missiles toward Israel, in hopes it will dissuade an Israeli response.