The world still doesn't get it

A commonplace movie theme involves a high school, a bully and a boy being victimized. We all cheer when the boy learns how to defend himself and gives the bully a life-lesson. In today's Middle East something very similar has happened, the only difference is that the audience hails the bully. 

Almost a century ago, an Arab mob went to the Jewish area in Hebron and started lynching, raping and killing its dwellers. They did that, oddly enough, because the Arabs started a rumor that the Jews were going to seize control of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The result,  67 dead, all Jews. This tragedy shaped the Israeli Palestinian conflict to this day. Bear in mind that the State of Israel was not established yet, there were no green line, no Hamas, no PA (Palestinian Authority) and no settlements. 

One week ago, a barrage of rockets were fired at Jerusalem by Hamas, riots started in Jerusalem and other cities in Israel. The excuse was a private civil law suit involving a tenant and landlord, as happens daily in every city on earth. The rumor was that the Jews wanted to take control of the Temple Mount. 

So, basically the scenario and the actors are exactly the same as in the pogrom of 1929. The one difference is that the little boy who was bullied, now has a black belt in karate. 

Make no mistake, if it was not for the ingenuity and the sheer power of the Israel Defense, we would be witnessing another catastrophic chapter in Jewish history. 

What is so striking is that a large portion of the audience is rooting for the aggressor.

On news outlets, on social media and in coffee shops around the world, people are outraged that Israel is defending itself. Many world governments hypocritically, denounce Israel as the aggressor, knowing full well that if their country was under attack they would react far more aggressively than what Israel is doing. 

But similar situations don't have the same response. When Boko Haram gets bombed by Nigeria, absolutely no one tweets a thing, most will agree that those Islamists deserve it. 

Every single country in the world when attacked by a foreign power will use all of its might to stop the attacking entity and get an unconditional surrender. Why are we expecting Israel to be different?  

Israel has to deal with one of the most complex conflicts in modern times as it defends its civilian population while trying to minimize collateral damage to an enemy that scores media points with every civilian lost on their side, even if that civilian was killed by their own aggression.

The only reasonable explanation is that a large portion of the world can't see themselves on the same side with Jews. Others join this group because they are easily manipulated with half truths and social media trends. 

The image of the helpless jew being victimized by Nazis, by Russian mobs, by Islamic mobs, by inquisitors, has been replaced by a strong Jew that will not take any more nonsense from Jew haters around the world. The paradigm has shifted, but much of the world still doesn't get it.