JANUARY 20, 2009 --

An Associated Press story, on-line, on the combat in Gaza included this assertion: “Israel launched its war on December 27….” LPR has some difficulty with that report. First, what was the reason for the Israeli action? Did Hamas violence against Israel cause Israel to act on December 27? And if Israel responded to the use of force by Hamas, would it not be accurate to report that Israel, December 27, responded to the war launched against the Jewish State by Hamas on….?”

For LPR, however, Hamas did not begin the Gaza War with rocket attacks on Israel. Hamas was simply beginning a new campaign of force against Israel in the Arab War On Israel that was started May 15, 1948, when the military forces of several Arab countries, including Egypt, Jordan (then called Transjordan) and Syria attacked the Jewish State with the intent of ending her existence.

This war ended for Egypt and Jordan when they signed peace treaties with Israel. The state of war has continued between other Arab states, including Syria, and Israel – with Islamic but non-Arab Iran now seeming to consider itself in a state of war with Israel, too.

On June 6, 1944, allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy. Following the logic of the AP story, citied, ,here, it should be said that Allied forces launched their war on France and Germany on June 6, 1944.

Yes, common usage –even from Israel—refers to each military campaign in the very long war as wars in themselves, and so we have the 1948 war, the 1956 war, the Six-day war in 1967, the 1970 war of attrition., the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and the terrorist attacks from The PLO Hezbollah and Hamas ever since.

With respect to Syria, for example, and Israel, none of these “wars” was ever followed by a treaty of peace. Every ceasefire, or truce or armistice merely brought a “time out” in this war,, a” time out “that led to another military campaign in this conflict.

Turning each military campaign into a separate war serves anti-Israel propaganda. The AP report, quoted above, effectively asserts that Israel started the Gaza conflict. The Hamas attacks forced Israel into another military campaign in this 60 years war.

To break the War into separate wars, it would be no less accurate, LPR believes than to break World War II into The Polish-German War, the Anglo-French War, The Normandy War, The War of the Bulge. Following the logic applied against Israel, the allies should be deemed the aggressor June 6, 1944 for attacking France and the German forces that occupied her

It is tragic that Israel is still. forced to continue the war brought on by Arab states. It is not an indication of objectivity to denounce Israel for attacking civilians in Gaza. Hamas uses Arab civilians, including women and children as shields. Those who ignore the reason civilians in Gaza are in harm’s war remind me of the mother who thought there would be justice if King Solomon divided a baby in half, with the halves going to each of the contending mothers.

In 1948 the U.S. representative in Israel, James Mc Donald, sent a cable to White House-aide Clark Clifford pointing out that our Mideast policy lets the Arab states call the tune.

That mindset is, LPR submits, still apparent in the media and in various world capitals. LPR wonders how long it will take “world opinion” to realize that its pro-Arab tilt encourages the fiercest anti-Israel parties to keep this 60 years’ war going and going and going.