Good Palestinians kill good Jews

A self-serving moralizing serves badly. A soldier crosses the enemy’s lines at night on a glider, enters the enemy army’s camp, and shoots several enemies before being gunned down himself. A hero? No, a cowardly Palestinian terrorist, according to the Israeli media.
Hamas’ and Hezbollah’s kidnapping of Israeli soldiers during the truce was treacherous, immoral? Young Sharon had similarly kidnapped Jordanian officers to exchange them for Israeli POWs.

Surely a decent human being doesn’t hijack civilian airliners? Israelis did hijack a Syrian passenger jet to get hostages for exchange.

Warriors don’t target civilians, only terrorists do? Then why had Israel bombed civilian enclaves from Port Said to Beirut?

Arab bombers must be mad to commit suicide? Many Israeli soldiers undertook clearly suicidal missions.

Arabs are bad because they kill Jews? Jews have likewise killed Arabs in many wars. Arabs fight to get their land back; Jews fight for that same reason.

All nations at war denigrate their enemies, and accuse them of immorality. It is easier to kill or persecute immoral people than honest and rational ones. If they are honest, perhaps they are also right? That reasoning led to Christian persecution of the Jews. The Church, evolved from Judaism, could not proclaim Judaism wrong. At the same time, Judaism – in the Christian outlook – could not be right. The Church, accordingly, substantially avoided theological dispute with Jews and proclaimed them evil and immoral people. Israel follows a similar approach with the Palestinians.

They are not bad. Palestinian Arabs are somewhat smarter and harder working than any other Arabs except the Egyptians. Of all Arabs, only Palestinians and Egyptians lived in arable lands and developed at least rudimentary work ethics. Palestinians are braver and more warlike than any other Arabs; the Lebanese voted for Hezbollah to obtain security and welfare, but Palestinians voted for Hamas specifically because of its hard-line policy toward Israel. Hamas is refreshingly honest compared to Israeli politicians; it refuses to nominally renounce violence and accept Israel in order to get huge international aid.

Israeli leftists vociferously stamp Palestinians as wicked supporters of the evil Hamas. That’s an easy way out for the intellectual cowards. Otherwise, if the Hamas soldiers are decent and brave on par with Israeli soldiers, then either the Israelis are wrong or the two sides face irreconcilable differences. The Israeli ultra-left accepts that the Jews are wrong; the peaceniks laud Arab guerillas and go after Jewish soldiers. Most leftists refuse to go that far, and assert that it is the wickedness of some Arabs that fans the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Wicked people need to be reproved or punished; they are an exception. The few wicked Arabs of Hamas origin are treated as criminals: jailed or refused aid. No, they won’t reform themselves or betray their voters.

How does one condemn people of demonstrable moral integrity, like the Hamas? By declaring their methods immoral. As if there are moral methods of warfare! As if the Palestinians could have received anything from Israel without violence! The Intifada started the concessions. Foreign powers started pushing Israel to settle with the Palestinians only after the TV screens became soaked with blood. The peace process started only when Arafat made the status quo untenable for the Western guardians of international tranquility.

Terrorism is more moral than war because terrorism is more cost-efficient. Israel was more inclined to make peace with powerful Egypt than with the Palestinian trifle. Logically then, the Palestinians needed to fight harder than the Egyptians to reach an acceptable peace with Israel. The Palestinians, however, killed half the number of Jews that Egypt has killed. The Palestinians killed “only” about 1,500 Jews to get a state of their own; the Jews have killed many more Arabs to establish Israel. The Jews have rejected a Palestinian state with no less vigor than the Arabs have rejected Israel. Palestinian terrorism is a relatively low-casualty means to a political end. The Israeli government condemns Palestinian terrorism for the same reason the Palestinians condemn Israeli air strikes: both condemn the weapons they cannot counter.

The moralizing has backfired. The Arabs remain immune to Israeli philippics. The West, used to the daily violence in Iraq, treats terrorism as a given, not as a something unusually evil. The virus of moralizing infected its inventor, Israel. Now the leftists accuse the Israeli army of terrorist tactics in Gaza and Lebanon, sue the Israeli police for indiscriminate killing of likely insurgents, and demand better conditions for jailed terrorists.

The Palestinians are good people who will fight Israel until she utterly destroys them and expels the remnants.

Danny the Admin 2007 May 10

To Beta: Is acting honestly upon one’s reasonable beliefs not a sign of goodness?

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Danny the Admin 2007 May 14

Frankly, I don’t remember the year when IAF forced down a Syrian passenger jet. Will check it and come back to you, but could be a few days.
There is no such thing as purely civilian airport. Remember that in the 1973 war, Egyptians used specially made highways as landing strips.
Well, of course there is a huge difference between Israel bombing Beirut during the war and Arabs blowing a disco: blowing disco if more economical in terms of lives. Just try for a moment to see the things from a distance. Imagine it’s Arabs blowing the Blacks in Darfur, or Blacks blowing each other in Bantustans.
Israel, of course, acted plain stupid warning the enemies to flee in the Lebabon war. Jewish soldiers died because of that political correctness. That’s exactly the thing Obadiah decries. He calls to accept the Arab cruelty as legitimate and answer in kind, crushing the Arab insurgency instead of provoking it with lenient response.
Peaceful solution is great. Unfortunately, it’s great only in novels. Peaceful intentions never brough peace with determined enemies in human history.
Palestinian Arabs would definitely annihilate Israel if they could. Terrorism is definitely a mode of war efficient in cost/benefit terms. The two notions don’t contradict each other.

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Israel hijacked Syrian airplane in 1954. See, for example, here http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1075212,00.html

Danny the Admin 2007 June 09

Assad interview was simply the first link that popped up in Google. “Curious Israeli” asked for reference and I searched it.

Danny the Admin 2009 March 11

Would you point me to any nation which only attacked the other side’s soldiers and weapon caches during the war rather than civilians?

Danny the Admin 2009 June 20

Israel does not send suicide bombers, right, just bombers.
There are such places as Kfar Qasem and Ayn al-Hulwah, and so many between those dates.
And what wrong is there to target women and children? Think of Dresden or Tokyo.
Israel might not call for destroying Palestinians, but any honest rabbi will tell you this is our religious duty.
There’s no equation between Israel and Hamas. Hamas is honest, Israel silly. That doesn’t change a fact that killing out Fatah and Hamas is the optimal strategy.