Rulers of Rubble

The Washington Post reports here on the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, a withdrawal that is now complete.

The first paragraph gives us a hint as to the sensitivity and solemn acceptance of responsibility we might see from the Palestinians in coming days as they exercise their newfound control of Gaza.

The last Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip left Monday morning, officially ending Israel's nearly four-decade presence here and marking the start of the Palestinians' most ambitious attempt at self-rule. Before dawn, thousands of jubilant Palestinians poured in to the settlement areas, celebrating and setting fire to some of the synagogue buildings deliberately left intact by the departing troops.

Burning synagogues. These are not the actions of a people ready for statehood.

This picture says it all for me. It is taken from the washingtonpost.com site, and the caption there said:

Palestinians celebrate atop the rubble in a Jewish settlement that was evacuated and bulldozed by the Israelis. (AP)

A Palestinian rejoices that he is now king of a pile of rubble. Who is there among the Palestinians to tell this youth that you do not create a new and better way of life by destroying, you do so by building? And that you do not build by tearing down your neighbor's house and using his bricks, you build by creating your own bricks?

The Israelis had their reasons for withdrawing, as this article and links there point out. But now that they are gone, the Palestinians will have nobody to blame but themselves for conditions in Gaza. It's their rubble now. Will they be content to dance on it, or they will clear it, and build something lasting in its place?

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Six Meat Buffet looks at the religion of peace at its finest.
Power Line links to an article that describes more destruction.
Mark Kilmer observes such people are hard to respect.
La Shawn Barber correctly points out the MSM won't play up this destruction much.