The incessant censure of Israel’s actions in Gaza reveals not only a disgraceful discriminatory double standard, but worse—the use of a singular standard applied to no one but the Jewish state, which, in and of itself, is the epitome of antisemitism. 

"There is always a cost to defeat an evil. It never comes free, unfortunately. But the cost of failure to defeat a great evil is far higher." - Jamie Shea, NATO spokesman, BBC News, May 31, 1999

"There are no sidelines or spectator seats, The people on the ground are considered combatants."  - Maj. David Stockwell, spokesperson for the UN forces in Somalia. Washington Post, Sept. 10, 1993  

Israel has been widely castigated for its response to the Hamas onslaught on Oct 7, 2023.

But to put Israel’s response in perspective, at least two factors need to be considered.  The first is the magnitude of the calamity that befell Israel in relation to its size. The other is how other democracies responded to unprovoked attacks – even those far smaller in relative terms.

Calculating comparisons 

In conducting this comparison, I will exclude from the discussion military campaigns carried out by the world’s major democracies over half a century ago—such as…