Truth long has been said to be the first casualty in war, but news coverage of Gaza's war against Israel suggests that the first casualty is actually critical thinking.

There has been some reporting about how the great majority of Israelis think Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should resign because his government was so surprised by the attack from Gaza. But as Gazans now suffer constant bombardment from Israel, no journalists are asking them whether they support the constant war waged by their government, controlled by the terrorist movement Hamas, or if they want their government to make peace instead.

Of course Hamas, being totalitarian, probably would murder any domestic opponents just as enthusiastically as it murders Israelis. But journalism's failure to pose the question prevents Hamas' totalitarianism from being exposed, just as it prevents exposure of the support of the war by many Gazans.

Much news coverage has reported that many Gazans are Arabs or descendants of Arabs who fled or were expelled from British mandate Palestine in 1948 when the territory was divided into Arab and Jewish sections, war began, and Israel declared independence. But it is hard to find any reporting that many Israelis are Jews or the descendants of Jews who were expelled from Arab countries back then or since.

Nor is anything being made of the sharp differences between the cultures of the warring parties. Like Arab countries, Israel has many religious fanatics and haters, but the country is infinitely more egalitarian, tolerant and committed to the rule of law than its adversaries are. Anyone who doubts this should go to an Arab country and try being a woman, a homosexual or transsexual, a Christian, a Jew or a nonconformer of any kind.

This is why the reflexive support for Gaza among leftists in the West is especially hypocritical and crazy. Western leftists who support Gaza would be quickly locked up or worse if they ever tried being themselves in any Arab jurisdiction.

Almost as hypocritical is the United Nations mission in Gaza, which complains that Israel is attacking the populated areas from which the Hamas government launched its attacks. That is, while Hamas uses its civilians as shields, any casualties among them are Israel's fault. Further, the U.N. mission in Gaza long has been feeding, schooling, and providing medical care to Gazans so their government can devote its resources to destroying Israel. Gazans needn't rely as much on their own government for support as long as the U.N. is there.

Gaza's attack on Israel was so barbaric — doubly so because it aimed to derail peace negotiations between Israel and its Arab neighbors — that maybe the West now will smarten up. But maybe not. For as Israel's prime minister during the war 50 years ago, Golda Meir, observed, the world loves Jews only when they are victims and hates Jews who defend themselves.

Israel's Jews may be figuring out at last that it's far safer to be feared than loved.

Bridgeport verdict

To avoid testifying last week in the lawsuit seeking a new primary election for the Democratic nomination for mayor of Bridgeport, Wanda Geter-Pataky claimed her Fifth Amendment right. That is, Geter-Pataky, a City Hall employee, vice chair of the Democratic City Committee, and worker in the re-election campaign of Mayor Joe Ganim, refused to explain what she was doing in the sensational security camera video showing her repeatedly stuffing what presumably were absentee ballots into the collection box outside City Hall in the early-morning darkness a week before the primary.

Geter-Pataky still may be considered innocent of a criminal violation; though what she appears to have done was almost certainly illegal, she has not been charged. But when someone who is a government employee, a political party official and a campaign worker refuses to account for her political work, she must be assumed to be politically corrupt and Bridgeport's Democratic mayoral primary must be assumed to have been corrupted.

However the judge decides about a new primary, Bridgeport's voters should deliver a guilty verdict on Election Day, Nov. 7.

Chris Powell has written about Connecticut government and politics, and sometimes other things, for many years. He can be reached at CPowell@cox.net.