Consider this: Last week I linked to a Washington Post op-ed attacking an American academic paper published in an abbreviated form in a little-read British publication a month ago and wrote seven oblique words about it. Visitors spent thousands of words repeating the arguments in the Post op-ed. Never mind that some hadn’t read even the abbreviated form of the paper they were attacking. They had strong opinions all the same.

Technorati searches indicate that both articles are still being discussed ad nauseam in the English-language blogosphere.

Now consider this: Since Friday, the Israeli Defense Forces have killed more than 17 Palestinians, including a little girl (Ha’aretz and Al-Jazeera disagree about her age) and a little boy, by firing hundreds of rockets a day into residential areas of Gaza. The shell that hit Hadil Ghabin’s house and killed her injured nearly everyone else in the house–that is, 13 other family members, including toddlers, children, and teenagers.

I just did a technorati search on the Ha’artez article (thinking the Israel crowd would be more likely to read that) and the Al-Jazeera English article and found no posts about either.

Pardon me if I take a preachy tone for a minute. I understand that civilian casualties in the OPT are nothing new and that in Amrika these deaths more often than not appear on page A-13 as brief items written by AP. Still, if you got exercised about the Walt-Mearsheimer article, ask yourself why you are less exercised about the death of 17 people, including a little girl and a little boy. Which is more important to you: an academic paper or the end of 17 human lives?

Technorati Tags: Israel, Palestine, Palestinians, Gaza