Moral equivalence between Israel and the Palestinian leaders turns a blind eye to many things, but the main things are innocence and intent.

Three innocent sixteen-year-olds were murdered.  Israel mourns.  Without question, this was a hate crime.  A crime of opportunity to kidnap Israeli boys, which went bad when the kidnappers realized one had called the police.  They were killed in cold blood.

Yes the press treats this like an isolated incident of crime.  As if it would never happen again if three Israeli boys wandered alone into Palestinian territory every day.  As reported by HonestReporting.com*, the Christian Science Monitor headline “After Three Israeli Teens found dead will the revenge cycle be ratcheted up?” ignores intent.  It also ignores Hamas opportunistic rocket barrages in central Israel, knowing this would prompt an Israeli military response.  They know the press will attribute the response to “revenge”.

The Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell typified the response:

There is no moral equivalence here.  Israelis don’t use children as a shield for rocket launch sites.  They don’t send young men and women to blow themselves us in Palestinian cities, markets and buses.  The various Palestinian groups and Hamas do.  They do it regularly.

Is it morally equivalent to count the innocent dead caused to be killed by their own families against the innocent dead killed by terrorists and hate?

Gold Meir said

We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.

Thinking otherwise is being willfully blind.

*I recommend HonestReporting.com as a good resource to help counter the media’s anti-Israel bias.