Disproportionally Deranged
Mark Steyn on the latest hot buzzword: 'disproportionate'.
But let's say you're a northwestern American municipality — Seattle, for example — and you haven't lobbed missiles at anybody, but a Muslim male shows up anyway and shoots six Jewish women, one of whom tries to flee up the stairs, but he spots her, leans over the railing, fires again and kills her. He describes himself as "an American Muslim angry at Israel" and tells 911 dispatchers: ''These are Jews. I want these Jews to get out. I'm tired of getting pushed around, and our people getting pushed around by the situation in the Middle East.''
Well, that's apparently entirely "proportionate," so "proportionate" that the event is barely reported in the American media, or (if it is) it's portrayed as some kind of random convenience-store drive-by shooting. Pamela Waechter's killer informed his victims that "I'm only doing this for a statement," but the world couldn't be less interested in his statement, not compared to his lawyer's statement that he's suffering from "bipolar disorder.'' And the local FBI guy, like the Mounties in Toronto a month or so back, took the usual no-jihad-to-see-here line. ''There's nothing to indicate it's terrorism related,'' said Special Assistant Agent-In-Charge David Gomez. In America, terrorism is like dentistry and hairdressing: It doesn't count unless you're officially credentialed.
On the other hand, when a drunk movie star gets pulled over and starts unburdening himself of various theories about "f—ing Jews," hold the front page! That is so totally "disproportionate" it's the biggest story of the moment. The head of America's most prominent Jewish organization will talk about nothing else for days on end, he and the media too tied up dealing with Mel Gibson's ruminations on "f—ing Jews" to bother with footling peripheral stories about actual f—ing Jews murdered for no other reason than because they're f—ing Jews.
If you are a legitimate nation-state fighting for your very life against a terrorist organization that has absolutely no real reason whatsoever to go to war against you, you will be held to a higher standard. Keep in mind that Hezbollah is a Lebanese Shia organization. Israel pulled out of Lebanon. Hezbollah has no legitimate rationale for attacking Israel. That's what seems to get lost in all the talk about the war. They had no legitimate reason to attack. But Israel will get pilloried at every turn while the murderous, reasonless terrorists get a complete pass in world opinion.
There's disproportionality alright. But it's not Israel that's doing it. Read the whole thing. Steyn is spot on.
