All this call for "proportional response" is making me damn sick.
What do you think the US would do if Canada were taken over by, say, Al-Qaida and people started firing rockets at the US from downtown Toronto or the Village or something? You think it wouldn't carpet-bomb Toronto into a sheet of glass, to the howls of praise of every last American?
And Israel, going after terrorists who are firing rockets NOT at military targets but at civilians, happens to kill a few civilians in doing so. Yes, that's tragic. But Israel, unlike Hezbollah, is not specifically targeting civilians. Has anyone stood up and said, "Excuse me, Hezbollah, would you please stop firing rockets at civilians?" No.
Has anyone said, "Excuse me, Hezbollah, would you mind not hanging out in densely populated civilian areas firing rockets at Israel, which you know will provoke a response and which you know will kill your own people?"
What on earth is Israel to do? Hang out while terrorists fire rockets behind human shields? What sovereign nation on earth would be expected to countenance that? The fact that civilians are being killed is because the terrorists specifically intend for them to be killed. If Hezbollah fired rockets from unpoluated areas, no civilians would be killed. Plain and simple.
No one is demanding "proportionality" from Hezbollah - no one is demanding that THEY stop risking civilian lives, that they stop targeting civilians.
Israel's a country surrounded on every side by enemies that take the form of state actors (Syria, Iran, Saudi) as well as nonstate actors (Hezbollah, Whatever-council-of-islamic-jihadi-whatever). It's surrounded by rabid anti-semites who think Jews eat children and drink blood and who believe The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, chapter and verse. And the people who attack it do so behind ramparts made not of defensive fortifications but of populated apartment blocks. And by our calls for "proportionality," we give them free rein to keep doing so.
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8 comments:
Nicely put. It's too bad many of those on the left don't see this the way you do.
please your a liberal it is all about power not morales.
Who cares about Israel the votes are to be neutral
Unfortunetly that is the Canadian mindset I'm, riding with Harper the hell with the poll numbers. I know canadian history.
But your a liberal, hum the course we are a neutral broker. It is about power for liberals.
You are so correct.
Too simplistic Dean. No one defends Hezbollah militia, but do some homework:
http://www.merip.org/mero/mero073106.html
In your example, yes, Im sure there would be howls of praise from America. Would Canadians be howling...probably, but not with pride nor happiness.
I'd bet they'd trade 2,000 rockets for equal propaganda time on CNN.
The most sense on this subject I have heard from a liblog.
Finally, a liberal minded blogger who gets the situation in the ME. kudos!
To the first anonymous--what? Is it about power for liberals, or is it about morales [sic] for liberals-I don't follow?
It isn't an issue of vote-seeking (keeping in mind there are more muslims in Canada than Jews), nor is it one of some sort of being a nice neutral broker. It's about exposing the vicious double standard: Hezbollah can fire rockets from behind civilian shields. Arab governments can be nasty totalitarian states. Militias can execute whom they want. But Israel gets all the flak.
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