Posted by
TheBean on Monday, January 05, 2009 1:59:53 PM
A friend of mine sent me a
Glenn Greenwald article that put the Israelis and Palestinians in the same moral box and characterized adherence to one side or the other as tribalism. My response sounded very bloggish, so here it is...
Palestine
has very old claims to it from both sides. At this point, the business of who
deserves to be there based on these claims seems borderline irrelevant. The
Palestinians have claim to lay on that spot if anyone does, but (a.) there is
already a reasonably functional Palestinian state (Jordan) and (b.) They've been given
the vacation spot of Israel
to build another one.
They have built nothing. Gaza
and the West Bank together have a -8% growth
rate.
Instead, the Gazans shoot at Israelis. Unceasing rocket fire
rains on every civilian target within range of Gaza. The Israelis are fighting for the
survival of their nation. The Gazans have shown themselves to be constant
aggressors while the Israelis have shown restraint well beyond the point of
reasonable tolerance in not attacking until now. Attacks have been coming
across the border for months.
The Gazans have instituted a set of laws that, among other
things, legalizes crucifixion. That is barbarism, pure and simple. The
Palestinians are famous for putting explosives in toys for children to find and
blow off their limbs with. The Israelis practice selective terrorism; the
Palestinians practice random terrorism. The Israelis shoot at targets
(sometimes civilian targets) with military significance. The Palestinians just
kill whatever civilians are in rocket range.
The people involved are the concern, not the tribes
involved. The people who inhabit territory A attack the people in territory B.
The people in territory B retaliate while seeking peace settlements.
Furthermore, we can reasonably guess that the territory B people have every
desire to stop fighting and will do so when the people in territory A do so.
Blowing people up (the aforementioned X) is more justified on the Israeli side
because they have no other route; if they do not fight the Palestinians, the
Palestinians will kill them all.
Yes, an intentional Israeli strike on a civilian target is
absolutely unacceptable. Every time this is done, very excited folks point to
it and draw broad moral equivalences. Civilian attacks are the exception for
Israelis and the rule for Palestinians. The continuous aggression on the
Palestinian side is so far beyond the pale that they have forfeited any right
they had to the whole of Palestine.
The Israelis hit Gaza
defensively; they want a peaceful setup in the region, and it's about time the
Palestinians dropped their land claims (since long-term land claims are part
and parcel of tribalism) and built a responsible, viable state.