The Israeli news portal YNET (hat tip: National Review's Media Blog) reports that at a media conference Monday in Jerusalem, Bureau Chief Steven Erlanger criticized Israel's lack of "proportionality" in its counterattack against Hezbollah after that Lebanon-based terrorist group crossed into Israel and killed and kidnapped Israeli soldiers.
Erlanger "expressed surprise that Israel's view of the war was different to that of its critics, and said that Israelis didn't 'quite grasp how the war was perceived outside of Israel.'
"He lamented the lack of 'proportionality' in the war, adding: 'This is a charge that came against Israel from the United Nations...the French, the Italians.'"
Well. If the French and Italians are against Israel, who could ever be for them?
YNET has more wisdom from Erlanger: "The New York Times bureau chief also said that Israelis 'were not interested in whether 1,000 Lebanese civilians needed to die,' adding that the question of 'whether Israel fought a proportional war is not much of interest here (in Israel).'
"Erlanger added that during the war, he 'took General Yadlin (who briefed the press on IDF operations) too seriously.'"
Never mind that merely "proportional" counterattacks ("proportional" being a concept of war the world applies only to Israel) would spell suicide for a small country surrounded by hostile nations. How many Israelis does Erlanger think should have had to die in a war started by Hezbollah, to satisfy his obsession with "proportionality"?
Erlanger's apparent hostility toward Israel comes as no surprise. After all, the pro-PalestinianErlanger once referred to the "heroic history" of terrorist leader Yasir Arafat.