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Originally Posted by DanaC
I would not like Halifax to experience what Israel is experiencing. But I would also be appalled if my Government and military were acting the way Israel is.
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What would you have them do?
Just smile, turn yet another cheek and be "tolerant and understanding of the plight of their adversaries"? Turn over yet more land? They've already said they won't rest until they have it all and the Jews are gone. At least when appeasing Hitler there was an
excuse for beleiving he'd be satisfied with each next demand he made. Here there is not even that.
The Israelis just want to be
left the hell alone, but that isn't in the cards; their very existence is overt anathema to their enemies. They are "non-competitive states" in the sense of
Ralph Peters essay. Israel's enemies are devoted to outdated cultures that simply do not function--by any objective measure you can name--and it is unnecessary to "understand them fully" to see this. So their response is to pronounce both Israel and those in the West (cultures I feel certain
they do not "understand fully") evil and condemn us to death in fatwas.
Perhaps we shall never find common ground on this; that much seems likely. i And perhaps suicide murders and random jihadist violence in the country towns nestled in the hills around Hallifax may remain only a disturbing hypothetical that you can push off the stage and into the back of your mind. In "
A View From The Eye Of The Storm", Haim Harari writes
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If part of the public supports it, others tolerate it, many are afraid of it and some try to explain it away by poverty or by a miserable childhood, organized crime will thrive and so will terrorism. The United States understands this now, after September 11. Russia is beginning to understand it. Turkey understands it well. I am very much afraid that most of Europe still does not understand it. Unfortunately, it seems that Europe will understand it only after suicide murders arrive in Europe in a big way. In my humble opinion, this will definitely happen. The Spanish trains and the Istanbul bombings are only the beginning. The unity of the Civilized World in fighting this horror is absolutely indispensable. Until Europe wakes up, this unity will not be achieved.
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But to most places in Israel these murders are not hypothetical. Nor on the streets of Manhattan. Nor the London Underground. I don't think blaming those victims is a viable strategy.