An excellent Jerusalem Post editorial raises an important point about the MSM’s coverage of the Islamic month of Ramadan:
Curiously, this is also a time when some non-Muslims are prone to blame anyone but Muslims for the violence and frustration so prevalent in Islamic civilization.
For instance, an Agence France-Presse dispatch begins: “As most of the rest of the Islamic world welcomes Ramadan . . . Palestinians in the Gaza Strip warily brace for another holiday under a crippling [Israeli] blockade.”
No mention is made of Hamas’s adamant refusal to recognize previous Palestinian agreements, end violence against non-combatants, or even accept the right of the Jewish state to exist. There’s nothing about Gilad Schalit; or about tons of humanitarian aid Israel has allowed in; or about the 200 Hamas-authorized (and revenue-producing) tunnels between Sinai and Gaza which funnel, among other commodities, arms, missiles and explosives; or about concerted preparations for further aggression. AFP notes only that “Israel has kept the sanctions in place despite a two-month-old truce with Palestinian militants which has mostly halted rocket fire on southern Israel.”
Bottom line: this is the third Ramadan since Gilad Shalit was captured, and we’re still waiting for a humanitarian gesture from his captors.
Furthermore, Ramadan offers no guarantees of a lull in Islamic violence against Israel or the West. In Iraq, for example, it means just the opposite.
