Only now, the world is appalled?

President Obama said yesterday that the world was appalled at the murder of journalist James Foley by the Islamist terrorist group ISIS.  He also said that the group is a relic that has no place in the 21^st century.  Unfortunately, it is President Obama himself which is out of touch in the 21^st Century.

The reality is that the murder of James Foley, while exceedingly cruel and barbaric, is not unique.  It is just one of countless murders of people around the region at the hands of these terrorists.  And it is not just innocent adult men that have been killed.  It is women.  And children.  And babies.  And yet President Obama says that now, ‘the world is appalled?’

The sad fact of the matter is that the world is not really appalled.  There are no marches on the streets of Paris, or New York, or London for the world to intervene.  There are no mass demonstrations in the Arab capitals against this.  There are certainly no emergency UN Security Council sessions.  To be honest, while people might not like it, they certainly don’t concern themselves too much with it.

And that’s where Israel comes into it.  Israel is fighting against the same mentality as the ISIS group, yet over here they call themselves Hamas.  A read of their charter will quickly tell you that their objectives are the same.

And while America has the luxury of the Atlantic Ocean separating them, Israel does not.  What separates them from Hamas, is a few kilometres.  If Hamas ever had to defeat Israel, it is not difficult to imagine the fate of the people who live there.  And not just Jews, by the way.  Christians and moderate Muslims would clearly be in their target sights as well.

Yet as Israel defends itself against Hamas, the world has suddenly become appalled.  Suddenly the outrage that has been sorely missing in the last few years of the Syrian war or the current march of the ISIS terrorists, has now been found by the world, but not on behalf of Israel, instead against it!

Suddenly, the world had finally found its voice and the outrage can be seen in demonstrations in New York, London and Paris and all the Arab capitals, but not against the people who scream in joy as they chop off the heads of the innocent, but rather against the one, sole country that fights for its very survival against an evil that has not been seen since the Nazi era.

President Obama almost got it right.  He said the world is appalled, but really what he should have said, is that the world is appalling.