There is a word that is bandied about with extreme regularity in reports from the Middle East. This word makes it seem as though Israel and her Arab neighbors are engaging in a little game of "tit-for-tat" like a couple of seven-year-olds. The word is "retaliation".
There are a few problems with this conception, however. First of all, it just isn't true. Second of all, it makes it seem as though if we just do what the Arabs want, then they will stop "retaliating" against our citizens.
Nick Berg was not killed in retaliation for anything. Terrorists in the Middle East need no excuse to kill Americans, especially American Jews. Any American Jew unlucky enough to cross their path (and I sincerely hope that I'm never that unlucky, please G-d!) will find him/herself on the wrong end of a long knife, gun or other weapon. After they kill, excuse enough will present itself, from their perspective.
For example, there were atrocities committed by US soldiers. We all accept that. But what do they want us to do about it? We're doing what we can to prosecute the guilty parties and prevent it from ever happening again. By the way, in the midst of all these abuses, nobody was horribly butchered the way Nick Berg was.
Just about everything any of the terrorist groups do they say is retaliation for something. So tell me, please, what is the cold-blooded murder of a pregnant mother and her four little girls in retaliation for? Is it retaliation for her existence? Is it retaliation for trying to live a good life and raise a family in an area of the world where this is not all that easy? Is it retaliation for being a Jew? Is it retaliation for being a woman?
And please, tell me, what was the bomber on the bus (pick a blown up bus, any blown up bus), or the bomber in the disco, or the bomber at the hotel on Passover, or the bomber at the pizza place, or every other homicide bomber, retaliating for? What about the entire second intifada? What about the first intifada? What about the Yom Kippur War? What about the Six-Day War? What about the Sinai War? What about the 1948 War that Israel had to fight to gain the independence that the UN voted for her? What about the 1939 pogrom in Hevron? (Do I need to continue? Do you all get the point yet?)
Then, the same pundits who report about these terrorist "retaliations" (after all, the terrorists know how to play the game ? call it "retaliation" and the bend-over-backwards Westerners, with their "Zionism is racism" and "Sharon is a war criminal" mantras, will yell with them about "injustices" perpetrated against them) call Israel's surgical strikes "retaliation", as well. They will use that terminology even after Israeli sources insist that these strikes are not retaliation, but part of protecting Israeli citizenry and "guests" by eliminating the blood-thirsty leaders who plan the murders of little babies and grandmothers.
Be aware of this word "retaliation" now. Be aware of the Orwellian double-speak perpetrated with this word's use. Don't fall for it.
There are a few problems with this conception, however. First of all, it just isn't true. Second of all, it makes it seem as though if we just do what the Arabs want, then they will stop "retaliating" against our citizens.
Nick Berg was not killed in retaliation for anything. Terrorists in the Middle East need no excuse to kill Americans, especially American Jews. Any American Jew unlucky enough to cross their path (and I sincerely hope that I'm never that unlucky, please G-d!) will find him/herself on the wrong end of a long knife, gun or other weapon. After they kill, excuse enough will present itself, from their perspective.
For example, there were atrocities committed by US soldiers. We all accept that. But what do they want us to do about it? We're doing what we can to prosecute the guilty parties and prevent it from ever happening again. By the way, in the midst of all these abuses, nobody was horribly butchered the way Nick Berg was.
Just about everything any of the terrorist groups do they say is retaliation for something. So tell me, please, what is the cold-blooded murder of a pregnant mother and her four little girls in retaliation for? Is it retaliation for her existence? Is it retaliation for trying to live a good life and raise a family in an area of the world where this is not all that easy? Is it retaliation for being a Jew? Is it retaliation for being a woman?
And please, tell me, what was the bomber on the bus (pick a blown up bus, any blown up bus), or the bomber in the disco, or the bomber at the hotel on Passover, or the bomber at the pizza place, or every other homicide bomber, retaliating for? What about the entire second intifada? What about the first intifada? What about the Yom Kippur War? What about the Six-Day War? What about the Sinai War? What about the 1948 War that Israel had to fight to gain the independence that the UN voted for her? What about the 1939 pogrom in Hevron? (Do I need to continue? Do you all get the point yet?)
Then, the same pundits who report about these terrorist "retaliations" (after all, the terrorists know how to play the game ? call it "retaliation" and the bend-over-backwards Westerners, with their "Zionism is racism" and "Sharon is a war criminal" mantras, will yell with them about "injustices" perpetrated against them) call Israel's surgical strikes "retaliation", as well. They will use that terminology even after Israeli sources insist that these strikes are not retaliation, but part of protecting Israeli citizenry and "guests" by eliminating the blood-thirsty leaders who plan the murders of little babies and grandmothers.
Be aware of this word "retaliation" now. Be aware of the Orwellian double-speak perpetrated with this word's use. Don't fall for it.