Amr Moussa decides to be cute

Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa has actually done us all a favor in his hypocrisy regarding the no-fly zone above Libya. The Arab League provided diplomatic backing for such a move, and this seems to be one of the main factors that convinced President Obama to embark on that course of action.

It was a little bit of an unwanted surprise, then, that Moussa made a point of criticizing the small amount of civilian casualties that were an externality of the bombing campaign that disabled Muammar Qaddafi’s air defenses. He said glibly, “What has happened in Libya differs from the goal of imposing a no-fly zone and what we want is the protection of civilians and not bombing other civilians.”

Moussa’s about-face could be dismissed as mere politicking; after all, he’ll be running for the Egyptian presidency in a matter of weeks. On the other hand, it neatly puts into perspective how Arab leaders tend to treat the issue of civilian casualties in Israel. They endorse the idea of Israeli self-defense against Qassam rocket attacks, but its legitimate practice is scorned.

This is a lesson that will be lost in the Arab world, but Westerners queasy about Israeli civilian casualties should take note.