We learned on the wire today that Palestinians killed four Israelis in the West Bank “on the eve of peace talks.”
Here’s what gripes me about the coverage of this atrocity…

First, I’m not convinced we’d have heard at all about the cold-blooded murder of two men and two women in a car — one of them pregnant — had it not been for the upcoming peace talks.

I am convinced, though, that had the roles been reversed, the shootings would have been front page news, imminent peace talks or not.

The Islamic militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for the murders, according to the Associated Press.

In fact, some 3,000 people in Gaza celebrated the attack, the story says.

“Hamas military wing spokesman Abu Obeida was among them and told the Associated Press: ‘The Qassam Brigades announces its full responsibility for the heroic operation in Hebron.’”

It’s heroic by these creatures to murder pregnant women. Just the kind of folks you want as neighbors.

While the White House, the Israeli Prime Minister and even Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas deplored the murders — for slightly different reasons — so far there are no angry mobs forming in the world’s streets demanding the destruction of the “Palestinian Entity” or “Hamastan” or anything else.

Mostly, with the exception of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the authorities are less concerned about the five lives lost than with the status of the talks.

Anyone keeping up with the issue knows there would be anti-Semitic riots worldwide had the victims been Arabs and the shooters Israeli.

But, despite the fact that much of the world seems bent on vilifying Israel and Jews generally, the violence is almost always coming from the Arab side.

The last fatal attack in the area, according to AP, occurred in June, “when Palestinians opened fire on a police vehicle near Hebron and killed one officer.”

That, the story notes, “was the deadliest Palestinian attack against Israelis since March 2008, when a lone assailant gunned down eight students in a Jerusalem rabbinical seminary.”

The idea of peace talks has elicited violence before, the story notes.

“Palestinian gunmen shot and killed an Israeli in the West Bank before then-President George W. Bush convened Israeli and Palestinian leaders for a summit in Annapolis, Maryland, in November 2007. The gunmen said the attack was ‘an act of protest against the Annapolis conference.’”

Are you sensing a pattern?

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak promised a tough response to the attack, and when that happens, watch the world react with violent anti-Israelism/anti-Semitism, claiming that the retaliation has derailed the peace talks.

It happens every time.

The terrorists murdering four innocent young people doesn’t derail the talks, but any response by Israel will. Watch, you’ll see.

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