Letters to the Editor
cardshark
Published Letters: 146 Editor's Choice: 18
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Wrong, Blackpaw
[Read the article: No to Israeli unilateralism]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Blackpaw wrote:
"Gotta love the wing nuts raving on about murderous Palestinians when the IDF & Settlers are way ahead of Hamas et al when it comes to murdering civilians and children - and that's by the official IDF count, god knows what the real figures are."
Even if your figures were accurate, which I doubt, someday, maybe you'll understand the difference between *deliberately* targeting innocents (which, by and large, only the Palestinians engage in), and collaterally damaging innocents, who are thus damaged because their leadership makes a point to put them at risk.
By making it a pure numbers game, you reject the basic moral principles involved. Funny how the Israelis are always expected to follow every UN resolution, but the Palestinians can completely ignore the Geneva convention, outfitting their soldiers in civilian clothing, hiding military equipment in civilian areas, etc.
The Israelis have to fight a guerilla war against an unknown enemy. Sound familiar? If not, go look up Vietnam and Operation Iraqi Freedom. How well did we do with those wars?
Is there a moral difference between putting on a uniform and engaging the enemy with your head held high, and planting a roadside bomb? I think so. Is there a difference between blowing yourself up in a cafe full of civilians, and sending a missile at the person who plotted that attack? Again, I say yes.
Many times, Israelis have taken out their *military* targets without loss of innocent life. Never have they targeted innocents as official state policy. Can you say the same for Hamas, IJ, PLO, etc?
I thought not.
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Case in point
[Read the article: No to Israeli unilateralism]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Patton writes: "Cardshark, right on. Damn those pesky Palestinians. Israel wouldn't be forced to kill so many of 'em if they'd just accept their ethnic cleansing willingly!"
How elegant your response to the legitimate questions I raised. Just paint me as a genocidal maniac. I must be in favor of "ethnic cleansing", if I'm against terrorism, right?
Taking out a leader of Hamas by shooting a missle at his car, and killing no one else in the process, is not "ethnic cleansing" (http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/04/17/mideast.violence/). It just makes good sense. If I could kill Bin Laden, or Atta, or Zarqawi (sp?), I'd do it, even if I had to kill a few innocent people. I'd try not to kill innocent people, but sometimes the evil people don't make that an option available to the moral people.
Can you argue with what I said in my previous letter? Palestinians TARGET innocent civilians. They kill people in cafes, on PURPOSE, as their STATED GOAL. How can you argue with what the terrorists themselves SAY?
Answer: you can't. So you'll take the only avenue available to you. Ad-hominem attack. Good job. You got a response out of me.
If Israel wanted to "cleanse" the "ethnicity" of palestine, they could have done so long before now. They could have done so in 1967, in fact, over which all of this argument is taking place. They instead took the high road, and allowed their mortal enemy to live, and even thrive. By the most conservative estimates, these people who you claim are being "cleansed" have multiplied their numbers by ten times in barely 40 years. That's pretty impressive, if things are as bad as you claim.
Why don't you educate us, as to the "ethnic cleansing" taking place in Israel? Then, after you've finished with that, why don't you speak for awhile about what's happening in Darfur?
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Joebuck writes.....
[Read the article: No to Israeli unilateralism]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"The US can veto any Security Council resolution, but if it does not, it is bound by such resolutions. It cannot bless Olmert's attempt to rip up Resolution 242 and unilaterally impose borders, keeping the most valuable land on the West Bank and dividing the rest into bantustans with Israeli troops on all sides. Turning the Palestinian territories into giant open-air jails tends to discredit any Palestinian leaders willing to cooperate with those seen as the jailers; Sharon's repeated humiliations of Fatah led to the Hamas victory."
Well, let's hear a solution. I'm so tired of hearing what Israel has done wrong. I'm very much interested to hear what they can do right.
Your factless assertions of "the most valuable land," and "open air jails" aside (is all of Iraq an open-air jail too?), your argument smacks of "why haven't you called me?"
You had my phone number, just as I had yours. Why was the onus on me to call you?
In fact, the Israelis have been down the negotiation road. They know where it leads. The Palestinians offer lots of promises, and deliver exactly nothing (except for a temporary cease-fire), while the Israelis deliver on at least some of their negotiated items (providing arms for policing, for example), with nothing in return.
No, they've finally figured out the game, and it doesn't involve sitting at a negotiating table with terrorists. That really burns people up inside, it seems (especially the UN). Oh well. Here the Israelis are actually doing the thing that everone has said they have to do to avoid being the evil little Zionists they are, and now it's a problem because they're doing it "unilaterally".
Give them a negotiating partner, and a populace willing to enter a partnership, and Palestine could be a democratic center of education, commerce, and liberalism, as Israel is, rather than a thug-ocracy/terrorist state. Instead they'd rather throw rocks at tanks. The American people know I'm right, and agree with me, in a large majority. That's why we support them.
Even if I believed that Israel was mostly in the wrong, I'd have a problem promoting the prerogatives of a terrorist state. That's the position you find yourself in now, and, I gotta tell you, we're still not buying it. Any poll you can name gives over 70% support to Israel. I suppose it's because we're all stupid.
Go Cheney yourself.