Gaza as North Wazirstan

Does this sound plausible?

“Israel's military launched a major ground offensive in Gaza, south of Tel Aviv, beginning what army commanders say will be a ‘house-to-house search’ for terrorist leaders and other militants.
“The offensive began after two weeks of airstrikes on the area Rafah… .
“In a statement, Israel’s military said its soldiers discovered ‘underground tunnels’ and ‘preparation factories’ for explosives during the initial hours of the ground assault… .
“Backed by artillery and tanks, troops killed 17 terrorists Monday, the army said. Combined with the toll from airstrikes that began June 16, a total of 376 terrorists have died in the offensive, the army said… .
“More than a half-million residents fled their homes in Gaza ahead of the ground offensive. The mass evacuation of the area, which has a population of about 600,000, was intended to limit civilian casualties during the operation. The military also set up checkpoints in the area to trap militants.”

Of course not.

But this is the real story:

What follows are excerpts from a June 30, 2014, news account by Tim Craig, the Washington Post’s bureau chief in Pakistan:

“Pakistan’s military launched a major ground offensive in the northwestern part of the country Monday, beginning what army commanders say will be a ‘house-to-house search’ for terrorist leaders and other militants.

“The offensive began after two weeks of airstrikes in North Waziristan… .

“In a statement, Pakistan’s military said its soldiers discovered ‘underground tunnels’ and ‘preparation factories’ for explosives during the initial hours of the ground assault… .

“Backed by artillery and tanks, troops killed 17 terrorists Monday, the army said. Combined with the toll from airstrikes that began June 16, a total of 376 terrorists have died in the offensive, the army said… .

“More than a half-million residents fled North Waziristan ahead of the ground offensive. The mass evacuation of the area, which has a population of about 600,000, was intended to limit civilian casualties during the operation. The military also set up checkpoints in the area to trap militants.”

That was from Bret Stephen's article.

i searched for more and found this from July 16:

Airstrikes killed at least 50 people in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday...One strike targeted a house in North Waziristan as well as a vehicle passing nearby, local intelligence officials said. Although authorities said 15 people were killed in the strike, some officials said at least 20 died.

Several local officials said they thought the strike was carried out by a U.S. drone. However, the CIA declined to comment.

“The compound was being used by foreign militants, and some local terrorists were present in the vehicle that got targeted,” said one of the Pakistani intelligence officials,

And whereas in Gaza there are Internally Displaced Persons and they are bewailing, look what the situation is in Pakistan:

Many of the refugees in this northwestern city were abruptly forced to leave their homes and now must endure rationed food, overcrowded housing and uncertainty about the fate of their livestock. Yet despite those hardships, the refugees are also rediscovering a life free from the sway of radical Islamists who effectively ruled North Waziristan for the past decade.

That is real rehabilitation.  If only in Gaza.

And here is how Bret finishes his piece:

Since the war in Gaza began nearly a month ago, I have been bombarded with indignant letters and tweets calling me a “racist” for my views and asking whether I would like to live in Gaza.
My answer to the second point is that I would no more want to live under Hamas than I would under any other fanatical dictatorship that starts gratuitous wars, uses civilians as human shields, punishes political opposition with death, and sends others to die while its leaders hide beneath hospital sheets.
As for racism, people often point out how peculiar it is that the Jewish state seems to arouse a level of condemnation that never seems to apply equally elsewhere. But perhaps the real racism is the indifference to Muslim suffering around the world when the person dropping the bomb or pulling the trigger is another Muslim. A world that makes a fetish of the alleged guilt of Israel is also a world that holds too much Muslim life cheap.

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