Terror attacks carried out by Israeli Jews are the real isolated incidents. While not discounting the loss of innocent life they wreak, it should be acknowledged that, given the insane, unenviable situation Israel is in, two murderous terrorists in eleven years is a vanishingly small number. Other Western nations should pray that they will be able to at least match Israel's record on this count.
On the rare occasion that it happens, Israelis don't make excuses for terror. They don't ask for the world to try to understand the "root cause" and they certainly don't glorify such barbarism. Israelis own up to their hateful lunatics, as any civilized society would do, and they mete out civilized justice to them when they are caught.
And the leftist moral equivalence canard of calling the soldiers of the IDF "terrorists" and Israel a "terror state" doesn't wash. As we have seen, the IDF has a distinctly non-Islamic code of ethics. The violation of the spirit of the IDF results in charges being brought and the soldier being tried in a court of law (as opposed to the Hamas "drag the collaborator into the street and shoot him in front of a cheering mob" method of medieval justice). Furthermore, IDF servicemembers do not deliberately target unarmed noncombatants. One cannot emphasize this point enough. These young men and women put their lives on the line to protect the civilian population of their enemy.
In addition to the spurious "state terror" accusation, the rationally challenged anti-Israel antagonists love to play the death count game9, wherein a larger number of dead Palestinian Arabs than Israelis is presented as proof of Israeli malice and heavy-handedness. This feeble claim does not take into account such factors as:
The bottom line is that Israel's enemies (and many of her "friends") do not feel that Jews have the right to live in peace and security on the tiny scrap of land that they have always called home. Israel's enemies operate from an inveterate position of insensate hatred, arrogant entitlement and immovable intransigence. They are willing to pursue all means of vile and horrific behavior to drive Israel into the Mediterranean, including sacrificing their own children. Israelis are not willing to do the same, and they despise when one of their own steps out of line and does so. It is the same with Americans, and all other freedom- and justice-loving people. Deliberately immoral and hurtful behavior cannot be tolerated and can never never be justified. This is the difference.
It's not about race, although it is certainly about religion and culture. Palestinian Arabs are born the same as anyone else - with the choice to celebrate or to revile the monsters who arise among them.
[Part 2 of 2]
Footnotes:
9The Case for Israel, Alan Dershowitz, published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2003
[Originally posted at Clarity & Resolve]
copyright ©2005 Patrick D. O'Brien cannot be copied, published, or otherwise used (except for quotes) without express permission of author
On the rare occasion that it happens, Israelis don't make excuses for terror. They don't ask for the world to try to understand the "root cause" and they certainly don't glorify such barbarism. Israelis own up to their hateful lunatics, as any civilized society would do, and they mete out civilized justice to them when they are caught.
And the leftist moral equivalence canard of calling the soldiers of the IDF "terrorists" and Israel a "terror state" doesn't wash. As we have seen, the IDF has a distinctly non-Islamic code of ethics. The violation of the spirit of the IDF results in charges being brought and the soldier being tried in a court of law (as opposed to the Hamas "drag the collaborator into the street and shoot him in front of a cheering mob" method of medieval justice). Furthermore, IDF servicemembers do not deliberately target unarmed noncombatants. One cannot emphasize this point enough. These young men and women put their lives on the line to protect the civilian population of their enemy.
In addition to the spurious "state terror" accusation, the rationally challenged anti-Israel antagonists love to play the death count game9, wherein a larger number of dead Palestinian Arabs than Israelis is presented as proof of Israeli malice and heavy-handedness. This feeble claim does not take into account such factors as:
- dead terrorists, victims of "work accidents," and innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire used to inflate the number;
- Israeli security has elevated terror prevention to an art and a science, thus drastically lowering the number of dead Israelis;
- superior Israeli medical facilities and practices;
- the vast majority of Palestinian Arabs killed by the IDF are adult men killed in legitimate Israeli defensive operations;
- Palestinian Arab/Islamic terrorists deliberately operate in densely populated civilian centers; and
- Palestinian Authority media organs exhort the populace to aspire to "martyrdom".
The bottom line is that Israel's enemies (and many of her "friends") do not feel that Jews have the right to live in peace and security on the tiny scrap of land that they have always called home. Israel's enemies operate from an inveterate position of insensate hatred, arrogant entitlement and immovable intransigence. They are willing to pursue all means of vile and horrific behavior to drive Israel into the Mediterranean, including sacrificing their own children. Israelis are not willing to do the same, and they despise when one of their own steps out of line and does so. It is the same with Americans, and all other freedom- and justice-loving people. Deliberately immoral and hurtful behavior cannot be tolerated and can never never be justified. This is the difference.
It's not about race, although it is certainly about religion and culture. Palestinian Arabs are born the same as anyone else - with the choice to celebrate or to revile the monsters who arise among them.
[Part 2 of 2]
Footnotes:
9The Case for Israel, Alan Dershowitz, published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2003
[Originally posted at Clarity & Resolve]
copyright ©2005 Patrick D. O'Brien cannot be copied, published, or otherwise used (except for quotes) without express permission of author