I was listening on NPR to an interview with an Arab scholar, just back from Lebanon, reporting that, oh no, Arab kids are boycotting KFCs.<\/p>\n
Anyway, the interviewer pressed the scholar (very lightly) on the question of suicide bombers whether he thought they were morally justified. The interviewee countered that “suicide bomber” was the wrong term, that the preferred term on the street was “martyrdom operative” (which sounds like something the Kremlin would have newspeaked back in the day). <\/p>\n
He then justified such operatives by noting that Israel has a huge army, and is backed militarily by the most powerful country on Earth, the US. The Palestinians, he noted, have no choice but to strap on bombs …<\/p>\n
Missing the point altogether, once again.<\/p>\n
If you are fighting against the Israeli military, then you target the military. Blow yourself up at checkpoints. Seduce Israeli soldiers, then slit their throats. Snipe at IDF folks. That’s what war <\/i>is supposed to be about. Sure, maybe that’s a Western concept, but that’s what you keep trying to smear Israel about.<\/p>\n
If your battle is with the Israeli government, then target government officials, government installations, government property.<\/p>\n
If you target the average, random Israeli citizen, sitting down to Seder dinner at a resort or going out for pizza or getting married or shopping at the market — then you are declaring total war, red in tooth and nail, against the Israeli people as a whole.<\/p>\n
And if you do that, do not dare <\/i>come back and whine about anything <\/i>the IDF does to you, especially as you hide amidst other Palestinian civilians. Because you <\/i>declared this battle. You set the stakes. You decided that taking out soldiers, or police, or Knesset members or whatever was too difficult, too slow, too unterrifying. You decided that all Israelis were your enemies. Don’t cry when they decide the reverse is true.<\/p>\n
And consider this, before you do such a thing. <\/p>\n
When a Palestinian child is killed, or a Palestinian woman is injured, or even a Palestinian elder is buried in a bulldozed building, how do you, the Palestinians react. Do you flee in terror? Do you concede to Israeli demands? Do you decide that the price is too high, and you’ve no choice but to give up?<\/p>\n
No. You fight all the harder, all the more brutally, all the more vengefully. You swear you will never give up. You swear you’ll someday win, even if all those dirty bastards have to die.<\/p>\n
Now. What makes you think that the average Israeli is going to react any differently<\/i> when an Israeli child is shot, an Israeli woman is injured, an Israeli elder is blown to bits? Certainly the record of Israel in general, and folks like Sharon and Netanyahu in particular, don’t lend themselves to the proposition that the Israelis are meek little lambs. And if they are the murderous sorts you keep hearing that they are, they certainly aren’t going to be intimidated by a few bombings.<\/p>\n
And while you ponder that, consider this. If terror campaigns won’t work against the Israelis — since they won’t work against you, after all, and the Israelis are a hell of a lot better armed — then who <\/i>is orchestrating such campaigns? Who’s trying to convince you that this is a great idea? Who’s providing funding for bombs, for your families after you become a “martyrdom operative”?<\/p>\n
The Saudis. The Iraqis. The Iranians. The Syrians. <\/p>\n
Odd that they don’t join the armed struggle. Odd that they aren’t willing to die for the cause, like you and your children. Odd that they don’t pay to improve your homes, your businesses, your lives, your health care. Odd that they don’t welcome any of you into their countries, except as cheap migrant labor, to be thrown back out whenever they see fit.<\/p>\n
Now. Why do you suppose, then, that they’re so willing to pay to see you die, when they know it won’t do a damned bit of good?<\/p>\n
What’s their <\/i>motive?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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