Wednesday 14 January 2009

RED ZI DER WAND



I while ago one "Beth of use your brains for truth" left what she considered a provocative comment on one of my posts, and wondered if I'd allow it to remain there. I responded that of course I'd let it remain; indeed, I warned Ms. Brainsfortruth, I looked forward to her future comments which I might hold up to public scrutiny for their interesting patterns.


So she didn't walk into any trap unsuspecting. By continuing to comment, she accepted the terms of engagement.


In this post I claimed that Gideon Levy is a sick man, consumed with hatred. I don't think Ms. Brainsfortruth quite understood my thesis, and perhaps I didn't articulate it well enough. Then she goes on to say:


But surely the thought that "any attempt to disband it (Israel) would result in mass suffering of millions of people, and the disruptions of millions of lives." is alarmist and reveals an interesting aspect of your pathology. The Dissbanding of Israel is not a proposal in any UN resolution (nor was it in the minds of the majority of fellow humans across the globe - however recent untenable aggression by Israel (including Lebanon 2006) may be initializing the manifesting of this very paranoid fear).


Quick synopsis: The thought that anyone might want to disband the Jewish state is alarmist and pathological; no-one advocates it; Israeli's irrational fear of this possibility no-one is suggesting makes it unacceptably aggressive.


I don't have to answer her, do I? I'm beaming a light at her not to refute what, alas, needs no refuting, but to demonstrate that there are people out there who manage to have opinions with nary the slightest connections to the relevant facts. While this is not a surprising finding, it never-the-less is an important one which needs never to be forgotten: people don't set out to learn the facts of reality and then try to understand them; on the contrary, they often start out with the understanding and then blithely disregard any facts that don't fit.


Ms. Brainsfortruth also responded to this post, in which I noted that persecution need not necessarily call forth violent revenge, nor long-term hatred: victims make the decision to wallow in hatred, seek revenge, or get on with their lives. One thing she had to say was


A people oppressed are bound to resist. A people disscounted and bullied are bound to avenge their suffering. A people restored of their rightful dignity and sense of home are usually [...] less interested in violence and overblown rhetoric.


(I admit, I pruned her sentence a bit to make it clearer). This is a prefect example of deciding you know what the immutable laws of history are, and fitting reality into them (or not seeing reality at all).


Of course, there are no immutable laws of history, except perhaps that we'll all die and the taxman will help us on our way. History isn't physics, because history is the sum of the actions of people, and people make decisions. Sometimes they act rationally. Sometimes they don't. Sometimes it's impossible to know what rational is or isn't. I mean, look at Juan Cole and Ms. Brainsfortruth, and then look at me. We all live at the same time, but we see different realities and respond differently. How are you going to articulate a law that will explain all our decisions?


So Ms. Brainsfortruth has a weak grasp of historical (and contemporary) facts. She has a touching belief in neat explanations of human history that also serve as guideposts to a better world; behave as the laws indicate and the world will be all fixed. She also has a breathtaking lack of perception of human nature. I had mentioned how the survivors of the Shoah, the world's worst genocide, had jointly decided, hundreds of thousands of them simultaneously, to refrain from revenge and get on with their lives; within a few decades they and their children had even largely forged reasonable relations with the society of their tormentors. To which Ms. Brainsfortruth responded with


Do you think that perhaps the worldwide villification of the nazi regime (and their defeat and removal from power), plus the rightly conducted war crime trials at nuremberg had a hand in tempering the hate against the germans?


From 1945-49 those who had persecuted and inflicted great horrors on fellow human beings were arrested and charged as outrageous criminals, those who had supported them were made to see the error of their ways (and still are to this day), and the jewish people were dignified with the recognition of needing a homeland. (Tho admittedly the way in which this last item was achieved could have been handled much more intelligently)


Well, actually, Ms. Brainsfortruth, no, I don't think that way. Thee are lots of reasons I'm in disagreement with you on this, all of them stemming from knowledge of the facts, but I'll only point out a few of the more obvious.
1. The trials at Nurenberg had nothing to do with the Nazi crimes against the Jews. No one was indicted for murdering Jews, nor was anyone convicted for that particular crime. Go read the historical record. The first Nazi criminal ever put on trial for the Holocaust was Adolf Eichmann, in 1961... in Israel. Much of the world was furious at the time that the Israelis had kidnapped him from Argentina (contrary to international law). Honest.
2. All in all, from 1945 till 2009, the number of Nazi war criminal convicted for murdering Jews in Western countries is lower than 750. Few of them spent much time in jail. The number of Nazis estimated to have participated directly in the Holocaust is well over 100,000.
3. The international recognition of the Jewish right to a homeland, in 1947, was a stingy offer, for a state truncated into three separate sections, surrounded by countries determined to destroy it at day one. Most observers at the time, throughout the world, expected the Arabs wold destroy the Jewish State immediately. In other words, the "jewish people were dignified with the recognition of needing a homeland." as you put it, were being set up to be murdered. In the end they didn't allow that to happen, true, but not for lack of trying by the Arabs, and colusion by the rest of the world that embargoed arms shipments so the Jews woldn't be able to defend themselves. The exception was the almost-Soviet-controlled Czechoslovakia.
4. Read your assertion again. Can your mind hold the thought that hundreds of thousands of people whose entire world had been murdered, and they themselves had been tortured for years, would find solace in "worldwide vilification of the Nazi regime". Mine can't. I think this is because I have greater respect for human beings and their complexity than you do, which is why I took the time to point it out. Your positions regarding Israel, to get back to our original topic, are based on an extraordinary lack understanding of the human condition.


PS. red zi der wand means talk to the wall.


taken from : Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations (http://yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com/)

FOUR INTERPRETATIONS OF HAMAS




I've organized them by seriousness, stating with the fourth best.


Basim Naim is the Hamas minister of health in Gaza. Since our troops are arguing right now with the thugs of his side, I don't feel the need to argue with him nor to point out the various factual, chronological and logical weak spots of his argument. I'm mentioning it mostly to index for future use that the Guardian hosted him and its readers seem to have welcomed him, and also because youmight want to compare what he says with the next interpretations.


Jonathan Freedland is one of the less worst of the Guardian crop, generally speaking, and today's column fits the pattern. It's fundamentally wrong, it's informed by the man's understanding of the world not the facts, but it's neither as bad as Minister Naim nor as some of his own colleagues at the Guardian. Again, I'm indexing, not engaging. Life is too short to spend it arguing with the Guardian.


So, we move on to the New York Times. Some people I know can't stand them and get all worked up when they don't support Israeli ways of understanding reality; I also argue with them from time to time. But these arguments mostly fall deep within the lines of reasonable differences of opinion. The two columns from today's edition disagree with one another on the basics, but they're both interesting and thoughtful.


Thomas Friedman explains that the war really is (or should be) about the day after the day after the end of the shooting: what each side will have learned, and especially, if Hamas will be detered as Hezbollah has been:


That was the education of Hezbollah. Has Israel seen its last conflict with Hezbollah? I doubt it. But Hezbollah, which has done nothing for Hamas, will think three times next time. That is probably all Israel can achieve with a nonstate actor.


In Gaza, I still can’t tell if Israel is trying to eradicate Hamas or trying to “educate” Hamas, by inflicting a heavy death toll on Hamas militants and heavy pain on the Gaza population. If it is out to destroy Hamas, casualties will be horrific and the aftermath could be Somalia-like chaos. If it is out to educate Hamas, Israel may have achieved its aims. Now its focus, and the Obama team’s focus, should be on creating a clear choice for Hamas for the world to see: Are you about destroying Israel or building Gaza?


Finally, we've got Jeffrey Goldberg. I admit that for the moment I'm precariously close to becoming a Goldberg Fan, which would be bad: I've managed to get through decades of adulthood without long-term membership in anyone's fan club. So next week I'll have to make sure I find something he writes that really aggravates me. But that's next week.


Goldberg speaks Arabic, unlike Freedland and Friedman. Unlike Freedamn, he takes Hamas seriously, and probably unlike Freidman, he really wants to understand them by their own terms. That's why you need to read his findings:


There is a fixed idea among some Israeli leaders that Hamas can be bombed into moderation. This is a false and dangerous notion. It is true that Hamas can be deterred militarily for a time, but tanks cannot defeat deeply felt belief.


The reverse is also true: Hamas cannot be cajoled into moderation. Neither position credits Hamas with sincerity, or seriousness.


The only small chance for peace today is the same chance that existed before the Gaza invasion: The moderate Arab states, Europe, the United States and, mainly, Israel, must help Hamas’s enemy, Fatah, prepare the West Bank for real freedom, and then hope that the people of Gaza, vast numbers of whom are unsympathetic to Hamas, see the West Bank as an alternative to the squalid vision of Hassan Nasrallah and Nizar Rayyan.

Amen.
taken from :Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations (http://yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com/)

MORE TRAGI-COMIC RELIEF







This is coursing round cyberspace these days. I don't know its provenance, but see no reason to think it's faked. Hating Jews is not an activity only ignoramuses engage in, on the contrary, but also they. Moreover, they are sometimes helpful because their lack of sophistication makes clear what the issues really are.
taken from : Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations (http://yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com/)

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For Zion's Sake - My Letter to Canadian PM Stephen Harper




Canada was the only country in the UN to oppose the unfair and unbalanced anti-Israel resolution. Stephen Harper has shown himself to be a great friend of Israel. He can be contact at pm@pm.gc.ca. Here is the e-mail that I sent him:


Dear Prime Minister Harper,


Once again, you have shown yourself to be a man of incredible courage and moral strength by standing up for the right of Israel to defend herself. While most of the world has been very forceful of in their condemnation of Israel, Canada was the only country at the UN to oppose the unbalanced and unfair resolution targeted at Israel. Canada and Israel face the same enemies, the forces of Islamic fascism, whether they are in Afghanistan or in Gaza. Under a constant barrage of over 4000 missiles on southern Israel since 2005, Israel cannot allow such attacks to go unanswered. No other country would have waited for so long to defend its sovereignty and citizens. Mr Harper, your support for Israel makes me incredible proud to be a Canadian.


On June 25, 2006, an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists. He has been held, in unknown conditions, in Gaza for over 3 years, denied Red Cross access and the most basic human rights. Hamas's refusal to allow access to Shalit is a war crime and a violation of international law. As a friend and supporter of Israel and the Jewish people, please do not allow Gilad Shalit to be forgotten. Please do everything in your diplomatic power to ensure that Gilad Shalit comes home. I hope that Canada will raise this issue before the United Nations.


The attacks on Sderot and southern Israel come as a direct result of the Israeli Disengagement from Gaza in 2005, in which 10 000 Jews were expelled from their homes. Learning from this tragic mistake, it is time to bury the so-called "two-state solution". If an Arab terror state was created in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), every major Israeli city would come under rocket range. One single attack at Israel's international airport would effectively end Israeli tourism, trade and immigration. No friend of Israel can allow such a plan to come about. Judea and Samaria are the ancestral Jewish homeland and belong to the Jewish people by every conceivable religious, historic and political right. Israel cannot survive a terror state carved into its belly. The war in Gaza hopefully will put this terrible plan to rest.


Mr. Harper, you have shown the moral clarity to differentiate between a democratic state and a terror group. Israel is dedicated to peace and freedom while Hamas and the Islamic society which spawned it worships deaths and hatred. This hatred has manifested itself time and time again in NY, the London Tube, in Kabul or in Mumbai. Anti-Israel protesters in Canadian cities such as Montreal and Toronto have screamed such obscenities as "Jews to the ovens" and "Hitler didn't finish the job". This sort of anti-semitic behaviour cannot be tolerated in as civilized a country as Canada. Israel is the canary in the coal mine. It always begins with the Jews but it never ends with the Jews.


Sincerely,


xxx BK


taken from : For Zion's Sake (http://masada1234.blogspot.com/)

Stop Raping Israel: Arabs Live Better under Israeli Rule

Stop Raping Israel: Arabs Live Better under Israeli Rule

IAF Avoids Civilian Casualties

My thanks to Israelgirl67 for recommending me this video

SHOWING ETERNAL HATRED



Earlier this afternoon I was at a meeting connected to the previous chapter of my career, which had to do with history of the Holocaust. During the discussion a thought crossed my mind.


Lots of reporters and pundits are bewailing the fact that Israel's actions in Gaza right now are necessarily going to sow a hatred amongst the Palestinians that will be implacable and eternal: this being a rule of human nature, we're to understand. And also, probably, a reflection at least in some cases of the emotions the pundits themselves harbor.


It ain't necessarily so. You might want to reflect for a moment on the Jews of 1945, who then lived to be the Jews of 1965, some lived until 1985, and some are still with us till this very day. I assure you that the survivors of the Holocaust had more reason to hate the Germans forever than the Palestinians ever will have reason to hate us. I could detail how I know this, but if you need me to it's hopeless anyway, so I'll merely state it and leave it at that.


In spite of all the perfectly rational and reasonable and plausible reasons for hating the Germans forever, it didn't happen. First, in 1945-49, with hundreds of thousands of survivors in Germany itself, there were no suicide bombers, and no blind acts of revenge against the German populace at all. None.


Then, a decade later, the Jewish State already had some relations with the German one (West German one, to be precise). 20 years ofter the Holocaust, West Germany and Israel had full diplomatic relations, and many other relations also. 30 years after the event, one can argue that the relations between Germany and Israel were better than those between Israel and any other European country (which doesn't say too much, does it). By which time the relations between normal Germans and normal Israelis had long since become significantly more normal than it would have been to expect, back in 1945.


Eternal hatred is something one must decide to have, eternally. It isn't a law of nature. It's a decision. Eventually, the decision to bear hate becomes immoral, no matter how it originated.
taken from : Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations (http://yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com/)

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Stop Raping Israel: HAMAS' Last Stand?

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