Diana West: Friends and Enemies

Diana West surveys the world's mad reaction to Israel's defending itself -- including that of putative U.S. allies Iraq and Afghanistan.It's quite simple, really: Israel strikes back at jihad, finally, and the world takes sides. So far, the sides looks like this: On Israel's side in its strike against jihad are the US and Australia (here); against Israel's strike on jihad are, well, just about everyone else, from France to Iran, from Russia to the UN, from Iraq (hat tip Andrew Bostom) to Afghanistan.

Hey--aren't Iraq and Afghanistan, after all that American blood and billions spent "democratizing" them, supposed to be allies in the "war on terror"? And isn't Hamas a terror organization? So, wouldn't that make Iraq and Afghanistan opponents of the Hamas jihad on Israel? (Insert hysterical peals of laughter here.)

Answer: Not if the teachings of Islam on jihad and dhimmitude have anything to do with it. And they do, despite the West's cowardice to face these politically incorrect, politically inconvenient, politicially demanding facts.

For the record, here's what the Foreign Ministry of what President Bush styles as the "young democracy" of Afghanistan said:

The Afghan Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Sunday strongly condemning Israel's air raids on the Gaza Strip of Palestine that left hundreds of civilians dead and injured, Xinhua reported.

"The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is following the recent attacks by Israel on the innocent people of Palestine with great concern and strongly condemns these attacks," the statement said.

The statement noted that "the bombardment and killing of civilians cannot be justified with the policies of Hamas."

That's just great. Really glad to know the incoming Obama administration will be sending thousands of American troops to Afghanistan to attempt to shore up this stalwart Afghan "ally" in global war on terror, or whatever they're calling it now. And how different would a Taliban statement on Gaza be from the Afghan government's? Never mind.

Then there's Iraq--the same Iraq President Bush has long predicted will be (when?) "an ally in the worldwide struggle against the terrorists" and a "strong ally in the Middle East." Already, the Iraqi government, a spokesman for the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party and the country's Biggest Cheese, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, have all condemned Israeli airstrikes on terror targets in Gaza.

Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, said condemnation didn't go far enough.

"Expressing condemnation and denunciation for what is going on against our brothers in Gaza and expressing solidarity with them by words only doesn't mean anything in the face of the big tragedy they are facing," he said in a statement released by office in Najaf.

"Now more than at any other time, both Arab and Islamic nations are required to take a practical stance for the sake of stopping this repeated aggression and to break the unfair besieging of these brave people," the statement said, without giving details of the proposed stance.

Only a child in a fairy tale would expect anything else.