Am I not shocked by images of dead Muslim children in Palestine and Lebanon? No, I am not. There is no commandment of compassion for an enemy population. Even in Christianity, compassion is qualified. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus defined a neighbor as one who does good to you (the priest and Levite who passed by the victim were no neighbors, but the despised Samaritan who helped him was a neighbor). Never in recent history has a Muslim community helped the Jews. We owe them no compassion.
With or without compassion, one should not inflict unnecessary suffering on others. Even food animals should be killed with the least possible suffering. So the proper question is, Do we the Israelis inflict unnecessary suffering on the Palestinians? The answer is an emphatic yes.
Israel gave Palestinians the illusion of possible coexistence. Absent that illusion, Muslims from the Israeli core—Judea, Samaria, Gaza—would have emigrated long ago to live comfortably elsewhere. We cannot coexist. As the Palestinians see it, the Jews took their land. Living on international welfare in their ridiculously small state, Palestinians will never forget the Israeli offense. In the familiar pattern, Arab university graduates without job opportunities will join the radicals and fan the anti-Israeli struggle. They see that inexpensive things like suicide bombers and fertilizer-filled rockets work and bring political benefits. The Palestinians have no reason to stop and every reason to continue the struggle.
American Indians do not fight their European occupiers today because the settlers decimated, suppressed, and stereotyped them as Red Indians, then brainwashed them with American media and educational programs, bribed them with extensive welfare programs. Great Britain failed to do the same with the Irish, and they fought for independence. Israel cannot influence education or the media in the Palestinian state. Palestinian universities and newspapers would seed or, at the very least, not oppose Palestinian nationalism which is necessarily anti-Israeli.
Would the Palestinians emigrate and spare their children if they were smarter? Decades ago, perhaps. Now the smart are ideologically motivated and stay and risk their children. Jews, too, risk their children. Land, honor, ideology, religion—they are way above lives.
The truth hurts, but it minimizes long-term suffering. Israel and a Palestinian state cannot coexist peacefully. One of them must be dismantled.
B"H I believe HaZa"L mentions that one who is kind to the cruel, will and being cruel to the righteous. In other words, lets not get confused about who (and what makes) a friend, and who is an enemy. And, unless I'm not mistaken they were discussing Jews! So, Qal we'Homer, we cannot afford to be confused about non-Jews…
Yep, you're right, the discussion was about the Jews, and then we apply a fortiori argument
I've been ill for the last several years and am just now trying to get caught up on things, so I hope you'll keep that in mind here. I'm so appalled at the news reports I hear on the radio every morning of the bombings and the insanity (although I tend to agree it's a reasoned insanity which those who care for nothing but their own power/agenda are behind).I've looked at the amount of land Israel holds, compared to that of the Palestinians-it's nothing. I just don't see how anyone can think this is about land. I know that having looked a bit at the history of the nomadic tribes of Palestine, there was a mentality that supported the total annihilation of enemies-it's what explains the actions of the Jews on entering Canaan, historically, since the children of your enemy not only grew up to kill you and yours, but to subject them to a horrific lifestyle if they let them live (which Israel seems to have been one of the few that did).I mention this because it seems to me we're looking at the last gasp of this kind of mentality with the Palestinians. I do not think their leaders believe this to be true-I think they're just opportunistic and power-hungry, and use this mentality and the fanning of fears in the general less educated populace to further their agendas. It's obvious they care nothing for the lives of their own people, or they wouldn't be sending them out strapped onto bombs.This may not be precisely the forum to discuss this, but, if so, I'd appreciate the input. If not, perhaps you could suggest an online forum or such where I could find out more about this and discuss it with others?Thanks.