Peterr at FireDogLake points to a quote by Munib Younan, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jordan and the Holy Land in which he likens the security wall Israel erected to the Berlin wall:

[W]ho would have imagined that less than two decades later we would be back to building walls? I have no doubt that the Separation Wall in the Holy Land will one day fall for the same reasons. The only question is how many lives, how many shattered and demolished villages, how much dehumanization and stigmatization will we tolerate?

This Wall is not a sign of justice or peace, it is a material sign of the walls of hatred that are growing stronger everyday. This wall does not provide security, it breeds despair and a culture of separation. And it cannot contain the hatred and resentment that are building every day.

Anyone who can liken a wall erected to keep oppressed citizens in with a wall erected to keep suicidal enemies out simply can't be taken seriously.

But this is a common tactic of the left - attempt to draw parallels between any totalitarian regime and Israel so its attempts at self-defense can then be compared to those oppressive regimes.

Not a single mention of Hamas. Not a single mention of the fact that the West Bank is mostly peaceful. Or that since Israel has erected the wall, Hamas sponsored suicide bombers have largely been unsuccessful in blowing themselves up on buses and in pizza parlors (although they've certainly tried to sneak their martyrs through on numerous occasions). Certainly no mention of the Hamas charter's refusal to negotiate anything, much less peace, with Israel. And constant rocket attacks? Nah. Not important. It's all about "walls" and "violence" being the "tool of the incompetent" - Israeli "violence" of course.

The belief that all Israel has to do is quit being violent and the Palestinians will live in peace with them (because that's what they want) continues to stun and amaze me. Where does that come from? One can only believe that if they have a totally blinkered view of the conflict.

And, where were the protests and UN resolutions when the government of the Palestinians in Gaza, i.e. Hamas, was lobbing 4,000 rockets and thousands of mortar rounds into Israel? Where were the denunciations of "violence" being the "tool of the incompetent" then?

Elements of the left continue to be as misguided about this situation as most of the Hamas rockets.

Peterr concludes:

A week ago, Bishop Younan and a dozen of his ecumenical partners in Jerusalem called for Sunday, January 4, 2009 to be "a day for justice and peace in the land of peace." If that were to happen, it would be a miracle.

No, the miracle would be having Hamas renounce its charter, declare a willingness to advance the peace process and then actually doing that. Until that happens, or Hamas ceases to exist, no peace in the region is possible. It looks like Israel, seeing no possibility of a Hamas renunciation of its charter of violence, has chosen to take the second option.

I wish them success.

[Crossposted at QandO]