As I write, the Israeli Air Force has killed almost twenty Gazans including an important terrorist leader. It did this as a part of its never-ending self-defense against terrorism emanating from Gaza. I wouldn’t be surprised if the number of Gazan dead rose to near one hundred in a short time.
In the past, Israel exchanged hundreds of Palestinian prisoners for one Israeli captive. Once it was against the corpse of an Israeli. The same sort of strange arithmetic prevails with respect to the civilian victims of Israeli military action, according to world-wide liberal opinion. Collateral killings of Arabs by Israeli Jews are unspeakable atrocities. When Arabs deliberately target and massacre Arabs though it’s not really so bad, not really. Mark my word, it will take only days, if not hours, for the liberal media to treat the twenty, or the hundred victims, of Israeli action as more reprehensible than President Assad 20,000 ( and counting).
Look again: 100/20,000.
It’s pretty clear anyway that Arabs killed by other Arabs just get up and dust themselves off when the cameras are gone.
I hope the new Islamist government of Egypt understands that any Israeli government will nuke parts of Egypt rather than see Israel, the state, and even more importantly, its population, seriously threatened. I am not confident that it does understand. Islamists are a parochial lot (ah, ah!) with feet firmly planted in the seventh century. I fear their ignorant, bellicose fantasies.
Hamas is the regularly elected government of the Gaza strip and a terrorist organization. There is no contradiction there. The fact that it’s legitimate makes ordinary Gazans more culpable of terrorism than would be the case if Hamas had been imposed on them from above and by force of arms. The way I see it, in my simplistic, crude moral way: If you bomb my house and I bomb your house back and your son is killed, it’s your fault, not mine.
There is a link to the Hamas Charter in English here. Its correctness has never been contested in the several years it’s been there. The Charter’s several last pages explains in detail how Hamas plans to deal with Jews when it wins and destroys the Jewish state.
In case you are wondering (or certain), I am not Jewish, never have been, never will be. I am not married to a Jew. My children are not Jewish (as far as I know). I have no economic interest in the “Zionist entity.” I am not even one of the God-inspired Christian Zionists. I wish I could confess to being in the employ of rich Jews who often deposit large sums of money in my Swiss bank account. No such friking luck! I am just a dedicated rationalist who loves democracy in its full Western form, specifically.
Notes On Liberty 
democracy in its ‘full western form’? by that do you mean the type where less than half of the country bothers to vote for figurehead politicians or the type that enacts institutional apartheid? there is, i suppose, a kind of crude logic in your house-bombing moral scenario, but given that the current conflict was entirely provoked and instigated by israel, i’m not sure how well it fits in with the general direction of your piece.
Kriss: If you call the other guy “crude,” you lose.
“Full western form” is shorthand to say that elections are not enough..And, I am happy that my knuckle-dragging neighbors including the young who have never read a book don’t vote. It’s a reasonable choice for them to leave government to the grown-ups who know how to read. This is fine with me as long as they are not prevented from voting.
“…provoked and instigated by Israel” The bastards! Hundreds of Israeli agents inside the Gaza strip are raining hundreds of rockets on Israeli civilian targets. That would explain the bad aim, of course.
I understand the sorrow and the rage of Palestinians. That does not make their strategy ethically right. They insist on pulling down the roof of their houses on themselves.
I am always curious about people like you who don’t see the painfully obvious: If you had the Israeli PM’ s ear, what would you do (besides cutting it off, I mean)? This is a real invitation to begin something possibly productive.
So is the point of your piece that Israel’s response to the most recent attacks is appropriate or that the response should be even stronger?
Well said dr.delacroixjacques. It always amazes me how vicious the media portrays Israel for defending itself while the Arabs are practicing self-genocide year after year and nary a word about it. The media thrives on finding a convenient scape-goat to fuel its divisive tactics.
Reblogged this on THIS WORLD IS NOT FOR COWARDS.
Dr. J writes:
This is simply not true. Just as your assertions that US troops were not in Saudi Arabia when 9/11 happened are (were?) false, so too is the idea that the Left-leaning media is somehow more repulsed by the Israeli military’s attacks on civilians than it has been with Assad’s crackdown.
Many prominent left-of-center media outlets have published editorials calling for the Obama administration to “do something” in Syria. Why can’t these same outlets publish arguments drawing attention to the babies and children that the Israeli state has killed?
Here is a line of thought in your reasoning that isn’t entirely finished:
I think you left it unfinished on purpose, of course. Let me try to finish it off for you. Turn away if you don’t like cool, calculated reason smacking you in the face!
Let me begin by briefly stating a fact that has yet to be refuted by anybody with a rational bone in their body: terrorism doesn’t spring up out of nowhere. Got that? Arabs don’t blow themselves up for no reason at all. Let me also state that the Israeli state, while indeed having less-than-savory origins, exists today, and that the US really has no choice but to stand by the ignoramuses in Jerusalem. Not because Israel is a democracy, either, but purely because of a calculated national interest.
I would also like to acknowledge that anti-Semitism is prevalent throughout the Mediterranean Arab world and is heavily promoted in the state-run media organizations of the Gulf Arab world and in Iran and Pakistan (these regions don’t really share the same anti-Semitic views as the Mediterranean Arabs). Oftentimes, in the West and elsewhere, the Israeli state is conflated with Jewishness. I don’t know why this is, either. It’s not like the official name for the state of Israel is the Jewish and Democratic State of Israel or anything like that. If that were the case, one could argue that, well, I’m too afraid to write about what people could argue about on this topic because I might be labeled an anti-Semite. Kinda like how pointing out that welfare programs aimed at minorities in America are racist makes me the real racist.
Anyway, back to the democratically-elected organization known as Hamas.
Yes, Hamas is a terrorist organization. Just like the Palestinian Authority was a terrorist organization…until it actually had to start governing. Then it became irrelevant. Better to be irrelevant than violent, I always say!
The ugly truth is that many Palestinian factions don’t want peace with Israel, and many Israeli factions don’t want peace with Palestinians. I don’t think this a case of the squeaky wheel (minority factions within each society) getting all the grease, either. The Israeli state was founded on the premise that Jews couldn’t live with other peoples so they needed their own ethnic state, and the Palestinian groups are all organized along ethno-nationalist lines as well. Both societies have voted hardliners into office. What did the world think would happen?
I agree with Dr. J’s larger sentiments in this post, namely that most of the world condemns Israeli actions too quickly and rarely looks at both sides of the conflict in a balanced fashion. His conservative brethren I am less inclined to cozy up to. I suspect they harbor crackpot notions about apocalypses and second comings.
To answer Dr. J’s question:
Halting settlements would be first on my list, but I wouldn’t discourage him from taking the military actions he’s taking. Here’s why: that region of the world has gone through far worse violence. As the Mediterranean Arab world, the anti-Semitic one, moves steadily towards democracy there is going to be less wiggle room for the Israelis. Jerusalem has already lost Turkey. Settlements needlessly provoke hostility. If Jerusalem takes the settlements issue off the table, the Arabs are going to have a tougher time justifying their hardline, blatantly anti-Semitic tactics towards the Israeli state.
Contrary to some beliefs, the rest of the world is not instinctively anti-Semitic. National interests will prevail and nobody wants another regional war in the Middle East. Halting settlements will show everybody that Israel is serious about peace and put the ball in the court of the Islamist states of the Mediterranean.
Israel needs to end this and the United States needs to act like an ally. The only element of negotiations those opposed to Israel understand is power and force; so let’s deliver a powerful and forceful message to Hamas, Iran, Egypt, et. al and wipe out all terrorist groups regardless of civilian casualties. Had this concern for collateral damage existed during WWII, we’d all be living under German or Japanese control..
–Rick,
What happened to your characteristic logic and reasoned analysis of the world?
I still possess it my logical and reasoned analysis of situations, however, there comes a time where doing the same things over and over and over again only confirms the lunacy of sticking to policies and actions that are repeated failures. This has been the history of the West in dealing with these misogynistic whim worshipers. This insanity and anti-logic has been ongoing since 1967 and needs to transform into a policy that can have a positive effect. This violent jihad must come to an end before these savages get their hands on any more nuclear weapons than they already possess, e.g. Pakistan and touch off a massive nuclear holocaust.
As I said, savages have no respect for negotiations because they are not rational thinkers. These people live in a world of whim worshiping mysticism and violence and because their theology contains violent acts against others in its core message. They will not change until a boot is pressed against their necks and they are forced to adopt civilized norms and a respect for peace. While they possess only conventional weapons, the best tactic would be use WWII tactics that spare no one in enemy held territories to encourage them to give up and to surrender the villains who have been perpetrating these crimes against humanity in the name of some theology be it Muslim, Christian, or some variant, etc.
Korea and Vietnam demonstrated clearly that no wars are won when fought in less than an all out manner – the Jihadists understand that and have no respect for innocent lives. The consequence has been that more innocent civilian lives have been lost during the decade plus of fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq than would have been the case with an all out assault on the enemies of liberty and human dignity. As General William Tecumseh Sherman is quoted as saying, “War is Hell” and that the only way to wage war is to wage a “Hard War” leaving nothing behind for the enemy to use to reinforce its cause to to strengthen its will and resolve.
I believe in that strategy as well. We keep trying to make our wars “pretty” but relying on “surgical strikes” and “smart” weapons that are really no smarter than the persons who invented or modified them. The smartest strategy in a war is to avoid it at all costs, but once drawn into one by the savage behavior of others, such as Iran, then the strategy should be to end it as quickly as possible – that is the only criteria to be considered with respect to reducing casualties. Imagine fighting WWII with the methods and battlefield strategies employed currently in Afghanistan and Iraq. Do you think a General Patton, MacArthur, or Eisenhower would have left someone like President Karzi sitting as the head of an alleged allied government whose agents were shooting America servicemen in the back?
It is my view that the United States needs to end all ties with the United Nations, boot them off of our soil and rescind all treaties made, including the Geneva Convention and to govern constitutionally and to do whatever it takes to protect our national interests and the interest of liberty throughout the world.
What would you propose…continuing to do the same thing over and over again expecting a different result? Or would you capitulate to terror and force Israel to stand alone in an existential battle for survival surrounded by a pack of vicious dogs, while simultaneously giving Iran the time needed to complete its development of nuclear weapons and delivery systems? Israel may not have a name that implies an affinity for democracy and individual liberty, but it clearly stand far ahead of all others in the region in that regard. It is my view that should Israel’s existence face a real threat to its very existence; the next step will come quickly threatening the existence of much of the world.
I should explain that as an Objectivist, I believe that no one has the authority to use force against another except that force ceded to the government to provide for the public safety and the common defense and force in retaliation to an unjust or unwarranted application of force by criminals or enemy nations. When force is retaliatory, then it should be overwhelming, swift and sure – just as the application of justice should be in the courts. Once the threat is ended and peace is secured, then, I think we have an obligation to do whatever we can to resolve our philosophical differences to avert future wars.
War is ugly and to imply that it can be made less so by “surgical strikes” is both immoral and obscene because it has no validity in reality. War is ugly and everyone who lives on this planet should know how ugly it truly is and would be if waged without restraint if for no other reason than to limit its use as a diplomatic tool.
Rick: What do you want to do about the millions of Muslims who do not correspond at all to your diabolical description and who have suffered more than we have from the violent jihadists? Throw them under the bus also?
http://factsmatter.wordpress.com/2012/11/24/arab-democracies-arab-democrats/