Israel's Rage?
What Israelis must take seriously is the fact that along the way to defending itself Israel has brutalized those over whom it has had power and within range of its weapons.
I recall my first apprehensions while a member of the Columbia University Faculty Seminar on human rights back at the time when Israel bombed the Iraqi nuclear plant. I was one of the few who had approved that aggressive action as a necessary preventive measure -- and Israel had done it in such a way as to prevent any loss of life (a late night weekend bombing when no one was there). However, I was at the same time bothered by the practice of preventive detention then being introduced by Israel, which was defended by a visiting Israeli scholar. He maintained that only a handful of Palestinians would be affected and sources could not be disclosed so as to carry out a normal prosecution. I suggested that perhaps, since this practice echoed that of Apartheid South Africa, it was setting a bad precedent and also that the families at least of those so detained should be compensated. He was outraged. The label "terrorist" -- proved or not -- justified anything. Now some 9,000 such 'terrorists' -- including 900 not charged, women, juveniles -- are confined in Israeli jails.
If you check out the kill ratio, you will find that it is 3 Palestinians for each Israeli -- something like that now developing in Lebanon. What we seem to be seeing there is the willingness to take out innocent people in order to get at enemies. From the perspective of outsiders these innocent people are still fellow human beings. I have previously mentioned the thesis that the Israeli military had settled on an ultimate plan to deal with a major attack on Israel which entailed a scorched earth approach to enemy states:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorched_earth
"Scorched Earth" is the title of one of those current computer killing games, ironically enough. It looks as though scorched earth was launched against Gaza in response to the rockets emanating from there. It has been extended to Lebanon so far as we can see from the daily reports. The attack on the UN outpost was horrendous. I heard the Israeli Counsel General here in NYC angrily accuse the UN observers with being "in cahoots with Hezbollah" when he was questioned shortly after the first reports. I take it that this is an attitude in Israel that could have encouraged some of its military to target the post? It looks as though Israel's military are now running things and, perhaps, blowing it as ours have done in Afghanistan and Iraq?
I have to remind myself and others constantly that the Holocaust was carried out by Nazi Germany, not the Arabs or other Muslims. Thus, I read the rage and self-justification of Israeli attacks on same as being a redirection of rage for a crime committed in EUROPE, not the Middle East.
I fear now that the bumbling Bush administration is setting up Israel to take the brunt of the chaos that it has created in the Middle East and if I had family living in Israel, I would invite them to come to the U.S. as refugees while there is still time. Unless the rush to hell is not halted over there, we shall be seeing a fire fight with WMD -- and Israel is a very small nation and obviously totally vulnerable to such being delivered by rockets from long distance. Hezbollah seems to be intimating some such.
Bottom line: by indiscriminately attacking the people of Gaza (and the West Bank) and Lebanon, Israel is just increasing support for Hamas and Hezbollah. This is not a wise way to go.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is
legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Israel_Palestine
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
I recall my first apprehensions while a member of the Columbia University Faculty Seminar on human rights back at the time when Israel bombed the Iraqi nuclear plant. I was one of the few who had approved that aggressive action as a necessary preventive measure -- and Israel had done it in such a way as to prevent any loss of life (a late night weekend bombing when no one was there). However, I was at the same time bothered by the practice of preventive detention then being introduced by Israel, which was defended by a visiting Israeli scholar. He maintained that only a handful of Palestinians would be affected and sources could not be disclosed so as to carry out a normal prosecution. I suggested that perhaps, since this practice echoed that of Apartheid South Africa, it was setting a bad precedent and also that the families at least of those so detained should be compensated. He was outraged. The label "terrorist" -- proved or not -- justified anything. Now some 9,000 such 'terrorists' -- including 900 not charged, women, juveniles -- are confined in Israeli jails.
If you check out the kill ratio, you will find that it is 3 Palestinians for each Israeli -- something like that now developing in Lebanon. What we seem to be seeing there is the willingness to take out innocent people in order to get at enemies. From the perspective of outsiders these innocent people are still fellow human beings. I have previously mentioned the thesis that the Israeli military had settled on an ultimate plan to deal with a major attack on Israel which entailed a scorched earth approach to enemy states:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorched_earth
"Scorched Earth" is the title of one of those current computer killing games, ironically enough. It looks as though scorched earth was launched against Gaza in response to the rockets emanating from there. It has been extended to Lebanon so far as we can see from the daily reports. The attack on the UN outpost was horrendous. I heard the Israeli Counsel General here in NYC angrily accuse the UN observers with being "in cahoots with Hezbollah" when he was questioned shortly after the first reports. I take it that this is an attitude in Israel that could have encouraged some of its military to target the post? It looks as though Israel's military are now running things and, perhaps, blowing it as ours have done in Afghanistan and Iraq?
I have to remind myself and others constantly that the Holocaust was carried out by Nazi Germany, not the Arabs or other Muslims. Thus, I read the rage and self-justification of Israeli attacks on same as being a redirection of rage for a crime committed in EUROPE, not the Middle East.
I fear now that the bumbling Bush administration is setting up Israel to take the brunt of the chaos that it has created in the Middle East and if I had family living in Israel, I would invite them to come to the U.S. as refugees while there is still time. Unless the rush to hell is not halted over there, we shall be seeing a fire fight with WMD -- and Israel is a very small nation and obviously totally vulnerable to such being delivered by rockets from long distance. Hezbollah seems to be intimating some such.
Bottom line: by indiscriminately attacking the people of Gaza (and the West Bank) and Lebanon, Israel is just increasing support for Hamas and Hezbollah. This is not a wise way to go.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is
legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Israel_Palestine
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
posted by Ed Kent at 9:07 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home