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Subject: 
Re: Sheikh Yassin
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date: 
Fri, 26 Mar 2004 07:03:50 GMT
Viewed: 
579 times
  
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Richard Parsons wrote:

(snip)
  
Mmmmm. I have no doubt that there were radical elements in all these groups who had just those goals.

So what? Doesn’t mean anything.

   There were those in the American administration who fervently argued for an unavoidable need to duke it out with the Russians at the earliest opportunity on numerous occasions in the past. Thankfully, there were cooler heads who recognised in the Russians a common humanity.

Say again? We “fought” them on every front imaginable- Korea, Viet Nam, the Cold War. Nobody recognized any “common humanity” in the USSR, only the evils of Communism. Further, we didn’t alter our Constitution to reflect our desire to obliterate the Soviets. Only after the collapse of Communism have we embraced the humanity of (now) the Russians. But notice-- it took a radical change on their part, as will it take a radical change on the part of Hamas (basically dismantling it).

  
   Let’s cut to the chase, and let me ask you straight on

Just give me a second to assume a similarly belligerent posture.

Look, I just want to clarify positions as quickly as possible.

   Ok, ready...

   Would Hamas still be terrorizing Israel if Israel returned to ‘48 borders and ceased any/all military interventions?

Would Hamas still be terrorizing Israel if each and every Palestinian in a country called Palestine were a millionaire?

If you answered “no” to either of these questions, you don’t get it.

chuckle

And you do.

Its so temptingly easy and self-gratifying to hate and hold someone else responsible when you’re in pain or can’t be bothered to think too hard. Its a kind of mental masturbation, only with real (not illusory) negative consequences.

They were 2 simple “yes” or “no” questions. Not too much mental masturbation necessary.

I beg you to read a translation of the Hamas Covenant. It is so painful to see you so blatantly disregard facts that are as plain as day. The fact is that nothing Israel does short of disappearing will be enough to appease them. Why is that so difficult for you to accept? But don’t take my word for it. Take theirs!

   Messages in that for both you and Hamas on different levels.

Its equally easy and unhelpful to respond to hatred in kind.

And before Bruce starts tearing his hair out agin thinking I’m preaching universal love or harping on the need for hope, my point is only that historically, attractive and enjoyable as some find hate, the hateful inevitably lose.

Only because somebody stood up and fought the hateful! They don’t just go away on their own! Pull your head out of the sand!

   These issues need thinking and building, not killing and destroying.

But what if one side categorically rejects that assertion? What does one do then? Call for more love and peace? It is meaningless blather.

   In the Israeli case here, there’s some talk that the strategy is to reduce the settlement activity, and in order to sell that to the settlers, the Israeli administration needs to come to it from a position of strength, and that means killing some more Hamas leadership and demonstrating that the iron fist has delivered a new platform. An admirable goal with and ugly to do list.

You speak as if this is some kind of game to the Israelis.

   I guess if the Israelis can move to the cessation of the settlement activity, and maybe even a winding back, it needs to come soon. That activity holds out something for the Palestinians, and goes to reduce their enthusiasm for violence. But if it doesn’t come soon (before the Palestinians can properly respond, and they will, its only a matter of time) then we have only plumbed new depths of terrorism (for both sides).

Again, you don’t grasp the situation. Do not equate the Palestinians with the Hamas. Even if the Palestinians want peace, there will be none because of Hamas, because Israel will still exist! Hamas will kill Palestinians and Israelis alike! That’s how much they hate Jews! There will never be peace as long as terrorist organizations like Hamas and al-Qaida still exist. Never.

JOHN



Message has 2 Replies:
  Re: Sheikh Yassin
 
(...) What do you mean "if"? (...) So why did Israel help establish Hamas? What about the right-wing Israeli terrorist groups? (...) There will never be peace as long as the killing persists on both sides. Your one sided view of this situation is (...) (21 years ago, 26-Mar-04, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)
  subtleties of diplomatic language (was Re: Sheikh Yassin)
 
(...) (URL) 50 retired US diplomats> think Bush and Sharon are part of the problem; On Bush: "Your unabashed support of Sharon's extra-judicial assassinations, Israel's Berlin-Wall-like barrier, its harsh military measures in occupied territories (...) (21 years ago, 4-May-04, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Sheikh Yassin
 
(...) I wasn't actually saying that at all, although I'd happily agree that you could a sense of moral equivalence. But I wasn't commenting on your odd morality, or even the American revived doctrine of pre-emptive self-defense. I was simply (...) (21 years ago, 25-Mar-04, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

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