(First published in the Vallejo Times-Herald) 

Among the more frustrating elements of the Israel-Hamas conflict — a situation rife with frustrating elements — is that Totalitarian Islam clearly has a different concept of victory than the rest of us.

In fact, they’re set up so that losing is winning, as opposed to Israel, which, it seems, can’t win for losing.

As is typical for the wild-eyed radical Muslims — a group an astute reader suggested is best described as Totalitarian Islam (as opposed to Islamo-fascism which has means-of-production implications) — are declaring victory in Gaza.

The Associated Press reported Friday that more than 5,000 Hamas supporters rallied there as one leader slithered out of hiding to declare victory over Israel.

Never mind that the 23-day Israeli offensive, which was aimed at finally putting a stop to about eight years of constant rocket and mortar fire from Gaza into Israeli cities, completely devastated the Hamas stronghold.

“We thank God when we see our houses bombed and our institutions destroyed, but our people say yes to the resistance and yes to martyrdom for the sake of God,” the AP quotes some Hamas guy as saying. “We say proudly that Gaza has won the war, the resistance has won the war, and Hamas has won the war.”

OK, so, this is an organization that is grateful for the destruction of its property and have convinced a good percentage of its people that one can aspire to no higher purpose than killing oneself in the act of murdering Jews and other “infidels.”

Very nice.

So, if Hamas had actually won this war, in the traditional sense of, say, not losing, I assume they’d also have declared victory, which is a very convenient position to take, it seems to me.

Such a loose definition of winning, encompassing as it does losing hundreds of people and most of one’s infrastructure, leaves the Totalitarian Muslims quite a bit of propaganda wiggle room.

 
• And they’ve had practice at it, having done the same thing after the devastating war against Hezbollah that wasted southern Lebanon, and, even earlier, when Jordan chased the Palestinians out of that country, following a deadly massacre, for plotting to kill the king.See, I wouldn’t ordinarily care if these folks want to delude their own people into believing up is down, black is white, life is death and devastating loss is victory. Except that in this case, it plays to the twisted mindset that perpetuates the seemingly endless violence in the region.

  Israeli officials say it’s offensive killed hundreds of so-called “militants,” though the Palestinian Center for Human Rights says that about half the nearly 1,300 Palestinians killed were civilians.

  The fact that there’s a Palestinian Center for Human Rights would seem to be some kind of sick joke, but that’s what this organization calls itself.

• The Israelis say the Palestinian figures are of questionable merit, and I can’t help remembering the fictional Jenin massacre that created so much anti-Semitism worldwide. Like with the concept of victory, these folks seem to have an entirely different concept of “civilian,” and for that matter, “truth,” than we do, putting Israel at a serious disadvantage in the propaganda war against Totalitarian Islam.But the worldwide media is printing the unsubstantiated Palestinian figures without reservation, as they did with Jenin, before it was proven the massacre was a hoax.
• The hoax news didn’t get the same kind of air time, however, and there are still people who believe a massacre occurred there.
• The same will likely happen here.Despite it’s terrible hammering at the hands of the Israeli military, and a tentative cease-fire established only a week ago, Hamas has already resumed its rocket fire toward Israeli cities, AP reports.

  Shocking as it may seem, this development has inspired no worldwide outcry.

• Go figure.And in typical fashion, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said he hopes the truce will hold, but warned Israel will “strike hard against Hamas again” if the rocket fire continues.
  I have never understood why resumed rocket fire isn’t considered rocket fire or why it isn’t a truce-buster. But I guess I’m a little slow that way.

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