SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW?

It sure didn't take long, a few hours to be exact, for the United Nations, the European Union and Russia to condemn Israel's retaliation against Hamas for its week-long rocket barrage against Israeli towns just north of the Gaza strip. So what else is new? The United Nations and most members of the European Union have had a long history of condemning every Israeli military response to Arab attacks on its people.

The only time the Russians ever supported Israel in its armed conflicts was in 1948, and then only because the Soviets were anxious to see the British lose their foothold in the region and because they thought the new state might emerge as a communist entity. After 1948, the Russians, in concert with the communist world, always sided with Israel's enemies.

Just imagine how Russia, or any other nation for that matter, would react if its border towns were rocketed by a neighboring state. Don't forget, Russia's recent massive invasion of Georgia was in response to attacks on ethnic Russians inside South Ossetia, a Georgian province, and not because of any attacks on its own soil.

Since the beginning of this year, 21 Israelis have been killed in attacks from Gaza, including 13 civilians, 10 of them by rockets. Despite a six-month cease fire between Israel and Hamas, southern Israel continued to be the target of sporadic rocket attacks by Gaza militants. Since the end of the cease fire, Israel has been subjceted to heavy daily rocket fire from the Gaza strip.

Thus far, three days of Israeli air strikes against Hamas targets in Gaza have resulted in 360 Palestinian deaths, with over 1,400 wounded. According to the U.N., at least 60 of the dead were civilians, including a number of children. The number of civilian deaths is remarkably low considering that the rocket sites and Hamas security facilities are all located within densly populated civilian neighborhoods.

Muslims throughout the world, as expected, called Israel's attacks on Gaza a "crime against humanity." Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president who would love to see his Fatah rival Hamas destroyed, nevertheless called the air strikes a "sweeping Israeli aggression against Gaza." While French President Nicolas Sarkozy condemned the rocket attacks against Israel, he was also quick to condemn "the disproportionate use of force" by the Jewish state.

It is as certain as death and taxes that as the attacks on Gaza continue, there will be more and more accusations of "crimes against humanity" and the crescendo of calls from the international community for Israel to halt its "brutal agrression against the Palestinian people" will become more pronounced.

I am concluding this blog with a joke sent to me by a good friend because the final part of this joke pretty well illustrates the anti-Israeli modus operandi of the Palestinians, the U.N., the Europeans and the Russians.

What happens when a fly falls into a coffee cup?

The Italian - throws the cup, breaks it, and walks away in a fit of rage.

The German - carefully washes the cup, sterilizes it and makes a new cup of coffee.

The Frenchman - takes out the fly, and drinks the coffee.

The Chinese - eats the fly and throws away the coffee.

The Russian - Drinks the coffee with the fly, since it was extra with no charge.

The Israeli - sells the coffee to the Frenchman, the fly to the Chinese, drinks tea and uses the extra money to invent a device that prevents flies from falling into coffee.

The Palestinian - blames the Israeli for the fly falling in his coffee, protests the act of aggression to the UN which immediately passes an anti-Israeli resolution, takes a loan from the European Union to buy a new cup of coffee, uses the money to purchase explosives and then blows up the coffee house where the Italian, the Frenchman, the Chinese, the German and the Russian are all trying to explain to the Israeli that he should give away his cup of tea to the Palestinian.