U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights: Israel is mean because they won't give Iron Dome missile defense to Hamas

by John Hayward  / Breibart News

For anyone who needed further proof that the United Nations has gone completely off the rails, and reached an altitude where the rails are no longer visible through the clouds, you've got the top "human rights" munchkin complaining that Israel won't give its Iron Dome missile defense system to the Hamas terrorists, to make things a fair fight, as reported right here at Breitbart News:

Navi Pillay told reporters following yet another "emergency" meeting of the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council that Israel was not doing enough to protect civilians. "There is a strong possibility,” said the known Israel critic, “that international law has been violated, in a manner that could amount to war crimes.”

Among the UN’s long bill of particulars against the beleaguered Jewish state comes the almost unbelievable accusation that Israel’s refusal to share its Iron Dome ballistic missile defense shield with the "governing authority" of Gaza – i.e. Hamas, the terror group created to pursue the extermination of the Jewish state and now waging a terrorist war against it – constitutes a war crime against the civilians of Gaza.

The UN chairwoman criticized the U.S. for helping fund Israel's Iron Dome system which has saved countless Israeli and Palestinian lives. "No such protection has been provided to Gazans against the shelling," she said.

I know there's a lot of vicious and stupid to unpack in those comments, but let me just pull out the most brightly-colored clown underwear from the intellectual baggage on display:

1. Israel isn't firing the same kind of low-tech, random, badly-aimed, easily-intercepted rockets at Hamas that Hamas is launching at Israel.
2. Iron Dome is a very expensive system to operate, and as we've all learned by now, Hamas flushed the Palestinian treasure down the swirling toilet of its vast terror tunnel network.
3. Hamas wants civilian casualties.  They would consider missile defense as useless as the proverbial screen door on a submarine.
4. I suspect Iron Dome requires a great deal of technical expertise to maintain and operate.  Hamas' rocket forces are, shall we say, unsophisticated.  Is the IDF supposed to send trained crews along with the Iron Dome hardware and assign them to shoot down IDF air assets?

This goes back to a point I've been making about the Gaza conflict, and the United Nations in general: it is foolish, and dangerous, to give barbarians the same ethical and legal concessions afforded to civilized people.  Civilization is hard work, and should have its rewards.  Extending the benefits of advanced democracy to a gang of murderous thugs who refuse to accept any of the obligations - such as refraining from the use of human shield tactics, the deliberate targeting of civilians, and kidnapping - is not just unfair, it's suicidal.

It has always been understood that the laws of warfare are mutual obligations - the Geneva Conventions are reciprocal obligations owed by all signatories.  If the benefits can be claimed while gleefully ignoring the requirements, civilization hamstrings itself in the struggle against savagery, and savagery becomes a can't-lose proposition.  Why bother doing all that heavy lifting when you can pillage and murder at will, and still get the Turtle Bay crowd to insist you deserve the same considerations as your victims?

I can't think of any more perfect and absurd illustration of this problem than demanding the U.S. and Israel provide Hamas with a missile defense system it couldn't develop or maintain on its own, and wouldn't use even if it had one. Considering the general accuracy of Israeli military strikes, Hamas can "protect civilian populations" by not setting up rocket launchers and munitions dumps in their midst.