A lot of you have surely noticed Megan McArdle at the Atlantic breaking loose and talking bluntly about the Gaza blockade, how inhumane it is. Beautiful. The funny thing about finally talking about Israel/Palestine is that once you step on the third rail and live, you sort of enjoy the party. Look at Andrew Sullivan. You generally don’t go back. I hope McArdle’s around for a while. Here she is talking about Palestinian deaths (recalling Steve Walt’s amazing post on how many Muslims have died in the last ten years):
On a side note, Jeffrey Goldberg is complaining that I am unfairly singling out Israel for criticism, which he says is a new direction for The Atlantic. Look, I blog about this stuff very irregularly. And as far as I know, since I’ve come to The Atlantic, the Israeli body count in this conflict has consisted of one Arab construction worker who died of wounds sustained in a rocket attack, and kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who seems to still be alive. If the vile, rapacious and brutal Hamas regime, or any of the other vile, rapacious and brutal Palestinian terror groups, kills more Israeli citizens, I will be happy to note my outrage and revulsion at vile, rapacious groups of people who believe that murdering civilians is an appropriate means of pressing their grievances (no matter how legitimate they may or may not be). Well, not happy, you understand, but I’ll do it anyway–and have, many times before. It is possible that I have known more victims of Islamic terror than my colleague, given where I grew up, and the fact that I did consulting work for a number of companies housed in the twin towers; it’s hard to argue that I’m soft on Islamic terrorists. There’s a reason they called us "warbloggers".
However, for the last three years, the deaths have overwhelmingly been on the other side. If and when that changes, I will be among the many voices raised in horrified condemnation.
