Israel and Peace - Or the Consequences of a lack of ruthlessness
Israel lacks, has lack, and will always lack one thing. Ruthlessness. It is what separates them from AMerica. And it is also what separates America from everyone else in the world, except for our enemies of course. Israel has always had compassion, but compassion will not bring peace. Israel now is going isolationist, and while I would not advocate such a solution for America, it is the only solution available to the Israelis.
Unfortunately for the Israelis, they do not have the philosophy "peace through superior firepower". Their will has been sapped by countless suicide bombings. Americans would never have tolerated the existence of such a threat to our women and children. Yet Israel has tolerated it for 50 years. Israel has given and still continues to give money to the Palestinian Authority, inspite of the casualties they suffer because of this policy. This policy is Israel's compassion, and it has killed more Israelis than any Palestinian suicide bomber ever will.
Compassion kills. It has killed Europe, and it will continue to kill Americans until we kill compassion ourselves.
posted by Ymarsakar at 3/28/2006 09:51:00 PM
2 Comments:
I dunno about killing compassion. I think it merely needs to be tempered. There must be a certain amount of pragmatic self-interest.
I cannot imagine the Israelis sending so much as a shekel to the Palestinians. That's one of the silliest things I have ever heard. We're nearly as foolish with all the money we ship out to crummy little mudpuddles pretending to be Nations.
I've always been impressed with Israel's ruthlesness, myself. The Osirak Nuclear Reactor attack was brilliant! I applauded, even though the US MSM was uniformly horrified. The Entebbe Raid? Again, brilliant! I think you may be just a tad off, here.
But I do wish the US Government would give Israel the greenlight to bust chops in the Middle East. No more "Road Maps" or any other "Peace Plan" nonsense! Take it to 'em, Israel! Give 'em Hell! And let us cover your back!
Thanks for commenting.
As to your remark about Israel not giving Palestine any money. Here's some info.
The Palestinian Authority is dependent on foreign aid and on tax revenues collected on its behalf by Israel to pay its 140,000 employees and keep its ministries and institutions functioning.
Washington has won commitments from major powers such as the European Union and Russia to demand that Hamas renounce violence and recognise Israel.
"The world is waiting to see what choice Hamas makes"
George Bush,
US president
But Moscow and others have agreed to meet Hamas leaders and few countries have pledged to end assistance to the aid-dependent Palestinian Authority.
Israel has decided to stop handing over the tax revenues, worth between $50-$55 million a month.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/0AF024C3-3A16-4315-9D68-F0746C4FC4C7.htm
The original link came off of bookworm and it would take too long to find it. Al Jazeera did make some remarks about Israel ceasing to give the PLO funds.
You may not imagine the Israelis sending money to the Palestinians, but that doesn't really change reality.
There is a difference between desperate, which is Israel, and ruthless, which is dropping two bombs on Japan. When you're desperate and you do violent things, that's not ruthlessness but rather desperation. Ruthlessness is when you do violent things when you aren't personally at risk of being annihilated. It's a choice.
Israel doesn't want the US to fight alongside Israelis. Israel thinks it is a very bad thing if an American soldier dies in their land or in Palestine, because Israelis believe their fight is their fight, and they don't need us.
IN so far as Israel doesn't need the green light to do anything, Israel will only get the aid that they request. They do not request any military help or "authority" from the US, and they therefore get none. They, like others, like money, and so we give them money.
Compassion and pragmatic self-interest, while not being mutually exclusive, are still different things. For one thing, compassion comes after pragmatism. Bombing Japan was pragmatic, not compassionate. Compassion comes after a war is won, not before. If it comes before, then it gets in the way of pragmatism.
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