The most telling indicator of anti-Semitism is the application of standards to Jews that are not applied to non-Jews. Under that analytical focus, there is no question but that the response of most of the world’s media and the US government itself to Israel’s defense of itself from Gaza attacks qualified as anti-Semitic. Bret Stephens, in the Wall Street Journal’s Global Review column, draws attention to Pakistan’s recent offensive in the northwest part of that country that directly parallels Israel’s efforts on Gaza, and quotes the Washington Post:

“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."

The world seems rather indifferent to the airstrikes, the casualties, and the refugees in Pakistan. And the parallels to Gaza are striking, up to and including the discovery of tunnels. Yet nobody beyond a few journalists utters a peep, and the world’s protest groups are silent.

Stephens notes the contrast when Jews are involved:

Over the weekend there was saturation coverage of an Israeli strike near a U.N.-run school that killed 10 people, three of them members of Islamic Jihad. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the hit "a moral outrage and a criminal act" that had to be "swiftly investigated." The State Department pronounced itself "appalled." If the Secretary-General, the Secretary of State and other arbiters of international decency have expressed themselves similarly with respect to the conduct of Pakistan's army—take a look at the picture accompanying this column to see how that one looks—I must have missed it. More than 1,500 Pakistani civilians have been reported killed since the government's offensive began in mid June.

Here's what else one might have missed in the midst of the media's saturation coverage of Gaza.

Not Gaza: Pakistani soldiers after a military operation in North Waziristan. 

In Iraq, some 1,600 people were killed in the month of July. "I am concerned about the rising number of casualties in Iraq, particularly among the civilian population," U.N. envoy Nickolay Mladenov told the AFP. "Children and women are most vulnerable."

Note the verb. Not outraged or appalled, merely concerned.

In Syria, more than 1,800 people have been killed in just the last 10 days. On Monday, the London-based Syrian Network for Human Rights reported the deaths of "at least 130 people, including seven children and 10 women," at the hands of forces loyal to Bashar Assad.

As for the State Department, its only Syria-related press release from Monday was an announcement that it was funding a project to "document the current condition of cultural heritage sites in Syria and assess the future restoration, preservation, and protection needs for those sites."

Case closed.

Hat tip: Cliff Thier