How much better if the White House had said nothing, instead of issuing a fuzzy statement Wednesday condemning the shelling of a UN school for Palestinians in Gaza.
It matters little that the National Security Council’s spokeswoman, Bernadette Meehan, did not explicitly accuse Israel of the bombing.
Or that she went on to condemn those “hiding weapons in UN facilities.”
The world understands the game. On the same day the White House issued its condemnation, the UN secretary general was blaming Israel for a “shameful” attack on “sleeping children.”
Now, anything suggesting Israel and Hamas operate on the same moral plane is a victory for terrorists. And this is the practical effect of the US as well as UN statements — never mind that the State Department lists Hamas as a terrorist organization.
No one suggests that Israel should have carte blanche to bomb indiscriminately. The IDF insists Wednesday’s strike was in response to Palestinian mortar fire from that location. And the reported casualty toll, 15 dead and 90 wounded, is indeed horrific.
Yet this ugly fact remains: In a grisly bid for world sympathy, Hamas is maximizing Palestinian civilian casualties by placing weapons in schools and launching rockets from hospitals.
This shouldn’t be surprising. The leaders of Hamas are the same people who, instead of using their resources to build things that would improve the lives of Palestinians — schools, apartments, sewer systems — built terrorist tunnels aimed at taking Israeli lives.
We’d add there’s something awfully selective about our president’s moral indignation. How would the White House react, for example, if Jerusalem issued a statement condemning the killing of civilians in the drone strikes on al Qaeda homes?
If the Obama administration truly cares about protecting innocent Palestinian life, the best message it could send Hamas is this: Your strategy to advance your war aims by placing your own civilians in the crossfire will not succeed.