Chris Sinnard: did you oppose American retaliation against al Qaida after 9/11 because it would just made them mad? Should Israelis refuse to defend themselves because some Americans think the US isn't able to protect its own citizens? If terrorists start shooting rockets into your neighborhood, will you demand that the US military let them keep doing it because if we stop them and the Canadians applaud our efforts then they might attack Canada next? Or are only American lives worth anything to you?

Islamist wackos don't hate me - or you - for what we do.

They hate us for what we *are*. Which is not Moslem.

Or are the Indians, Thais, Phillipinos, and all the other victims of Islamist terror as evil as you think Israel & the US are?

Save your garbage talking point propaganda for the scared and the brainless.

Don't mind Renegade Iconoclast, he doesn't care about American citizens, alive or dead, he only cares about Israel. When you mention blowback all he can think about are the poor Israelis being shelled by evil terrorists. Never once does it cross his mind that American support for this atrocity could lead to dead Americans in the form of terrorist retaliation. He doesn't care.

That's quite an analysis. Did you go to school to learn to be such a condescending p___k, or does it just come naturally?

As to your assertion that I care nothing for my fellow Americans, I'm not surprised that you have to resort to ad-hominem arguments to make your point, it's the first resort of imbeciles. (See? I can do it too! Yay! Are we done with that now?)

I will respond to your accusation, however, but perhaps not in the way you were expecting.

Assuming for the sake of argument that an action is justified, and rightful, it is completely craven and cowardly to back away from that action because you might get terrorized, and furthermore it reinforces the belief amongst terrorists that terror pays dividends. Terrorists don't just attack buildings, they also attack liberty itself, as seen when a newspaper in Denmark published cartoons of Mohammed. Should we censor all artists so that we don't get attacked, as well? Perhaps we should form an official Muslim censorship beaurau, and run everything by them first, to make sure that it won't offend any terrorists.

Thanks

Guess we

Can just dream

What's America got to do with it?

Everything. I'm not even going to bother going into the history of American support for Israeli war crimes. You'll just try and muck up the argument and turn it into a semantic debate anyway, complete with the usual talking points, like these:

did you oppose American retaliation against al Qaida after 9/11 because it would just made them mad? Should Israelis refuse to defend themselves because some Americans think the US isn't able to protect its own citizens? If terrorists start shooting rockets into your neighborhood, will you demand that the US military let them keep doing it because if we stop them and the Canadians applaud our efforts then they might attack Canada next?

Here we go. The same old framing techniques. The "what would you do?" scenario that is totally irrelevant. It seems to be a big propaganda point for the apologists lately. Doesn't your dishonesty in framing issues ever get tiring, or nag on your conscious? Let me answer that: Of course not because people like you have no conscious when it comes to Israel, just a blank slate to be filled with propaganda. Just the way the establishment likes it.

Or are only American lives worth anything to you?

Yes. As an AMERICAN, American lives come before Israeli lives, Palestinian lives, Australian lives, Canadian lives, and all live in between. But American lives are obviously worth nothing to you, as you dishonestly frame everything from am Israel-first perspective with no regard for how such dishonestly will affect worldwide perceptions of the citizens of the United States. Why do you have such contempt for American citizens?

The enemy of your enemy is obviously your second cousin's sister's former roomate's high school bully-best friend...

You're one big bright

Light bulb of a guy

How I envy your ethos

Of live and let die

Yes, you're smart

Very clear thinking

Keep a clever

Sharp eye out

On the patch of soft ground

On which you are standing

And sinking...

Dear Editor:

I must take exception with Benn's notion, typical of Israel's American-idealizing liberal intellegensia, that "the perceived legitimacy of using force" is weaker in the United States of American than it is in Israel. As in Israel, the U.S. Congress is more inclined to authorize war, rather than ratify treaties with other nations. The difference is, however, that the issues which confront Israel are more immediate and affect its own territory and civillians far more than in the USA where most of its perceived enemies, are based far away in the Eastern Hemisphere.

I believe that what binds the two countries together is an unwaivering belief in the effeciveness of military action, in spite of all evidence to the contrary and its often objective failure.

Sincerely yours,

Arthur C. Hurwitz

Violence is interesting theater, at least. Politically it works in small neighborhoods surrounded by a greater metropolity. Israel elbows its way around its neighborhood because, on occasion, it has worked. It's difficult to see any difference between this primal unreasoning and that of many nations, among them our own beleaguered Republic (and that beleaguerment self-inflicted for the most part).

Mr. Benn spells out without guile exactly what's going on -- again -- along the Strip, and it is a psychological and political "war", one to "make us feel better about ourselves", and a tactic which has universally outlived its usefulness.

Further, when a relatively powerful (on paper at least) entity pounds a relatively helpless (again, on paper) "enemy", terrorism as a reactive tactic is going to gain more and more legitimacy; at the same time when terrorists rise to the aid and leadership of a people they then become elevated not only in the eyes of those they are supposedly protecting but also in the eyes of the world.

Even as Israel "makes itself feel better" by running up another lopsided score in terms of body count ("flies" I believe was the term used by the late Mr. Arafat) it inevitably loses the greater P.R. war, and the more powerful Hamas becomes, even if its constituency dwindles due to overwhelmingly more sophisticated weapons coming at them (not to mention sheer force of numbers).

Meanwhile Israel begins to look more like an internally ungovernable state with multiple personalities and what's left of Gaza starts to look more like Masada, thanks to superior manipulation of public perception. What Hamas lacks in military might it more than makes up for with artful provocation.

The bottom line? Violence makes for very interesting political theater, but someone always gets hurt. After 60 years of this, the Champions of Ethical Behavior are starting to look like the neighborhood bully, and while this isn't a greater tragedy than the sum total loss of life, time, energy and respect on both sides of that line in the sand, it is a net loss to Israel and the world.

That's a pretty high price for boosting self-esteem.