Child Soldiers
Here's a photo of a lovely young Israeli schoolgirl signing a bomb to be sent to Lebanon, to, you know, kill people.
Man, talk about acting like children. In the past, I've been highly sympathetic to Israel. The hatred evinced against the Jews in the Muslim world only makes you want to stand up for them. But this is getting ridiculous. They may be the only functioning democracy in the Middle East, but they are acting more and more every day like a rogue state. Israel has a right to exist, but they have kept a captive population imprisoned for generations now, and this latest round of attacks on civilian targets in Lebanon stinks of nothing so much as collective punishment. If there are any supporters of Israel out there, please tell me how Israel's current course of behavior is making the world safer for Jews? That's what most of the Jews that I know want, a safer world. That is a reasonable goal that Israelis can agree on, except if you are one of those crazy-eyed orthodox settlers with the mandate direct from Jahweh, in which case, have at it. Just don't expect me to care what happens to you. So if the goal is a safer world for Jews, how are we getting there from here?
I've joked in the past that Israelis need to realize that the real promised land is the Fairfax District, but I'm starting to think that if I were an Israeli, I might believe the same thing. When you are a minority, it is always necessary to maintain at least some sympathy from the majority to survive. That's a sad fact of life. Israel is spoiling the goodwill of the world towards their state and their people, making it easier to dismiss them, as the French ambassador to the U.S. famously did a few years ago, as "that shitty little state". I don't want this to happen to Israel, but it seems ever more likely, one dead civilian at a time. Pretty soon only the crazy-eyed evangelicals who misread Revelations will support them. And unless they are planning on moving their entire nation to Alabama, well...
Then again, it's not like we are a lot better in that whole "missile message" department...
Thanks to Joe.My.God for the photo.
Man, talk about acting like children. In the past, I've been highly sympathetic to Israel. The hatred evinced against the Jews in the Muslim world only makes you want to stand up for them. But this is getting ridiculous. They may be the only functioning democracy in the Middle East, but they are acting more and more every day like a rogue state. Israel has a right to exist, but they have kept a captive population imprisoned for generations now, and this latest round of attacks on civilian targets in Lebanon stinks of nothing so much as collective punishment. If there are any supporters of Israel out there, please tell me how Israel's current course of behavior is making the world safer for Jews? That's what most of the Jews that I know want, a safer world. That is a reasonable goal that Israelis can agree on, except if you are one of those crazy-eyed orthodox settlers with the mandate direct from Jahweh, in which case, have at it. Just don't expect me to care what happens to you. So if the goal is a safer world for Jews, how are we getting there from here?
I've joked in the past that Israelis need to realize that the real promised land is the Fairfax District, but I'm starting to think that if I were an Israeli, I might believe the same thing. When you are a minority, it is always necessary to maintain at least some sympathy from the majority to survive. That's a sad fact of life. Israel is spoiling the goodwill of the world towards their state and their people, making it easier to dismiss them, as the French ambassador to the U.S. famously did a few years ago, as "that shitty little state". I don't want this to happen to Israel, but it seems ever more likely, one dead civilian at a time. Pretty soon only the crazy-eyed evangelicals who misread Revelations will support them. And unless they are planning on moving their entire nation to Alabama, well...
Then again, it's not like we are a lot better in that whole "missile message" department...
Thanks to Joe.My.God for the photo.
posted by leftcoastbreakdown.com at 11:15 AM
2 Comments:
This may be the only time in history that anyone could quote Newt Gingrich and not gag, but here goes nothing. On Meet the Press last Sunday, defending Israel's response, he pointed out that the 8 killed by rockets (in the original salvo) are the proportional population equivalent of 500 in America, and then asked, what would you have America do if this were Cuba firing on Miami? Would you demand a "proportionate response" as some do, or would you be all for America taking out as much military infrastructure as possible to prevent future terror? That's what the Israelis are doing. They're eliminating as much Hezbollah infrastructure as possible. Yes, some of that is Lebanese public property, but then, Hezbollah is part of the government, no? You can't support terrorism and then be surprised when those you inflict damage on fight back -- it's your own damn fault.
I'll also quote Bibi Netanyahu, someone else I'm not particularly fond of, who said the other day that the Hezbollah and Hamas problems aren't with prisoners nor soldiers nor borders, but the fact that Jews like him live and breathe and exist and give interviews to news programs. That you're dealing with people who applaud deliberately murdering innocents in pizza parlors, yet claim that any civilians dying in a war that was started by their own is an outrage.
I'm sorry, Spence, but you're wrong here. Israel has every right to destroy as much Hezbollah capability as possible when Hezbollah starts the aggression. If you recall, Isreal just pulled out of Lebanon and Gaza, yet were attacked again anyway. The bottom line is, these are people will not ever stop killing Jews, no matter how many international agreements, no matter what borders are pulled back to, no matter what, period. There is never going to be peace, ever, no matter how much most people want it. For all of history, people have killed Jews, and that's not going to change -- and somehow, I doubt the first 5000 years or so of Jew persecution had to do with pulling back to pre-1967 borders.
So every once in a while, when attacked, you can't blame Israel for targeting the terrorist infrastructure, even if it means civilian casualties, as long as they do their best to avoid them. It's the only move they have.
Response?
- Dave F.
p.s. wanna get brunch this Saturday? The missus and I are going to be in your hood -- you should come. Email me.
The second photo is hysterical.
I certainly don't like to see schoolgirls making light of bombs that kill people. On the other hand, the Hezbollah are just another variation of Al-Qaeda. Some of the moderate Palestinian leaders are reasonable, but Hezbollah = extremist.
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