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A Captain Speaks: Entering Gaza to Care for Civilians
Austrian President Heinz Fischer and the word Disproportion
By Karl Pfeifer
Heinz Fischer insisted on August 30, days after his speech at Alpbach, that he was right and lectured rudely Dr. Ariel Muzicant, former president of the Jewish community of Austria and Vice-president of the European Jewish Congress, that he was right to point out, that the number of victims in Gaza was disproportionate. He never once mentioned the provocations of Hamas and their refusal to agree to a ceasefire on July 15, when the Egyptians made the first proposal which in the cause of the high number of victims.
Austrian President Fischer with Israels former President Shimon Peres in Vienna, March 2014.
Those who want to understand Austria should know official Austria based its narrative after its liberation by the Allied Armies on the half-truth that it was the first victim of Nazi Germany. This is true as far as the Austrian State is concerned. However, it is a brazen lie as far as Austrian society is concerned. While pretending to be the first victim, Austria as a state did for some decades after 1945 a lot to help many Nazi perpetrators and to hold on to the property robbed after the Anschluss in 1938.
Austria ignored also for decades the disproportionate contribution of Austrian supporters of the Nazi regime to the crimes committed by Nazi Germany. Probably this is the psychological reason that Austrian President Heinz Fischer is blaming the Jewish state to have caused “a considerable, if not extreme disproportion” of victims in Gaza.
Israel pays heavily for its defense as civilians: building the safe rooms in the apartment or the house can cost a private citizen more than an additional room due to special reinforced concrete and other materials. This comes out directly from the private pocket. Each Iron Dome rocket costs $50 000 that come from army budget i.e. taxes paid.
If Israel did not have those rockets, it probably would have much higher casualties than Gazans: about 800 successful interceptions could mean at least x5=4 000 casualties. According to official numbers over 4 500 rockets were fired into Israel. Hamas used his citizens as a human shield, with the leaders sitting out in the comfortable bunkers, under hospital, schools etc. or abroad.
No one mentions that all the money donated by "useful idiots" (Lenin) from around the globe is spend on arms, building the tunnels, paying for killing Jews or awards for families of killed terrorists. Moreover, no one even mentions that the declared goal of Hamas is elimination of the State of Israel, which is the core of indoctrination from childhood.
I think that comparing the numbers is not only prostitution of the victims' tragedy by comparing the not comparable things. I feel that under all this European concern for Gazans (Palestinians) is an old anti-Semitism that demands from Jews always to remain a victim and insists on payment with Jewish life. Nobody cares for mass executions of Arabs by Assad, ISIS and similar.
The "disproportionality" argument is wrong, as Israel's civilian casualties were low thanks to its investment in defensive systems and shelters (as well as some good luck), not because the Hamas rockets weren't dangerous or weren't intended to cause mass civilian casualties.
Heinz Fischer did not compare the number of victims when he criticized the war against the Baath regime. From March 2003 and until 2006 655.000 Iraqis lost their life but “only” 3004 American soldiers.
Let me remind Heinz Fischer that applying double standards by requiring of Israel a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation is anti-Semitic.
The fact, that the president of Austria is naming an Israeli Jew as his crown witness, does not make his arguments sounder.