These editorials in the Chicago Tribune and The Guardian have radically different takes on Israel’s two-front war. The Trib writes:
In an op-ed in the Washington Post recently, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas railed about being “besieged by our occupiers, who destroy our roads and buildings, our power stations and water plants, and who attack our very means of civil administration … . As I inspect the ruins of our infrastructure–the largess of donor nations and international efforts all turned to rubble once more by F-16s and American-made missiles–my thoughts again turn to the minds of Americans. What do they think of this?”
Hamas had a chance to govern peacefully. It had a chance to build a state in Gaza, to stop terrorists from lobbing shells into Israel. It chose to cheer a terrorist attack in Tel Aviv and help kidnap a soldier for ransom. For Hamas and Hezbollah, the masquerade is over.
Meanwhile The Guardian writes:
Since the abduction more than 70 Palestinians, many of them civilians, have been killed by Israeli forces. The latest fatalities included nine members of one family (two adults and seven children) who died when an Israeli plane dropped a bomb on a supposed meeting of Hamas leaders. That is the dreadful reality of the “collateral damage” suffered by bystanders in Israel’s relentless pursuit of its enemies. Self-defence is the right of every nation. But actions such as these are war crimes that will not be expiated by occasional expressions of regret.
