Most American Jews are not that far removed from the old country. But the stories have been passed down, the experiences, that attitudes. The stories of why people fled eastern Europe, the fearful hiding from rampaging Cossacks and Christian peasants. The atrocities that were inflicted upon Jews during the various pogroms.
Those stories are baked into our DNA, the knowledge that, wherever Jews live, that someday, the legions of Nebuchadnezzar and his successors will arise and it will be necessary to flee, fight or die. That's why one elderly Jewish woman, when told that she would have to give up her driver's license, asked how would she flee.
It is why this:
The Israeli military has confirmed the murders of babies and young children by Hamas militants.
Israeli Defence Forces spokesman Jonathan Conricus said a coroner who visited a Kibbutz close to the Gaza Strip had seen the children’s bodies and confirmed they had been massacred.
“I admit it took us some time to really understand and to verify that report and it was hard to believe that even Hamas could perform such a barbaric act,” he said in comments to the BBC.
“I think we can now say, with relative confidence, that this is what Hamas did… there were bodies scattered everywhere, mutilated,” he added.
...resonates so strongly. The Cossacks came and slaughtered children. What Hamas did was tap into a primal memory, a primal fear, for Jews.
As for Israel's response, what did you expect?
9 comments:
Looks like the eye for an eye response will leave everyone blind. No wonder they can't see a way to a solution.
Maybe so, but the “Christian world“ expects Jews, to be reasonable, to not extract vengeance, to not resort to violence. And what has that gotten us?
Hamas called the tune. Now they have to pay the band.
Americans, who trashed a good part of the Middle East and South Asia after 9/11, have no standing to complain about Isreal’s actions here
There is a lot of truth in the hypocrisy you note, Comrade, however…
Hamas clearly knew how Israel would respond to this barbarity. Hamas also clearly understands how the international community will respond. The question you have to ask yourself is why did they do it if they knew what would happen?
I think it’s clear Hamas sees an advantage to what they did, and the images coming out of Gaza now with the numbers of children and civilians pictured injured and dead is certainly going to start chipping away at the support. All the Arab countries will now be fed a diet of people looking like them dying and being maimed by the Israeli military, possibly reversing years of movement to acceptance of Israel’s existence.
Quite probably the actions of Hamas will be played down or buried by their allies in the Arab world as this moves forward, in much the same way the Western media tends to minimize the brutality of the Israeli military and police forces in dealing with the Palestinians so often. And so this goes on…no end in sight.
Perhaps Israel could have simply locked down the Gaza border, eradicated the Hamas militants on Israeli soil, and announced that the Gaza border would remain shut until the civilian government in Gaza handed over all Hamas members involved in these crimes. It would financially cripple Gaza, but keep the electricity, water, and food flowing while only striking a verified, active Hamas location (launching rockets, firing into Israel, etc). It would have been remarkably difficult to do, but the idea of bringing just those responsible to justice would have increased support in the long-term while letting Israel hold on to the gains it has made in the Arab world. It might also cripple Hamas…but the moral fiber required to restrain themselves from a spittle-flecked tirade of almost Trumpian excess was well beyond Bibi and his cabinet.
To be clear, I don’t blame Israel for this response, I just regret that a better way couldn’t be found, somehow.
FINN: Your origins on Earth are from the American continent, are they not?
CRUSHER: North America.
FINN: Yes, I've read your history books. This is a war for independence, and I am no different than your own George Washington
CRUSHER: Washington was a military general, not a terrorist.
FINN: The difference between generals and terrorists, Doctor, is only the difference between winners and losers. You win, you're called a general. You lose
CRUSHER: You are killing innocent people! Can't you see the immorality of what you're doing or have you killed so much you've become blind to it?
FINN: How much innocent blood has been spilled for the cause of freedom in the history of your Federation, Doctor? How many good and noble societies have bombed civilians in war, have wiped out whole cities. And now that you enjoy the comfort that has come from their battles, their killing, you frown on my immorality? I am willing to die for my freedom, Doctor. And in the finest tradition of your own great civilisation, I'm willing to kill for it, too.
ST:TNG The High Ground
Holocaust, 1967, 1973.
Four Soviet diplomats were kidnapped in September 1985 by a fundamentalist group called the Islamic Liberation Organization. Russia quickly dispatched its Alpha group, tasked with counter-terrorism hostage-rescue operations, to Beirut. Once the team learned that Arkady Katkov, a consular attaché and one of the four hostages, was killed, they responded quickly by tracking down and locating one of the kidnappers’ leaders (or relative it’s not clear). In order to send a clear message to the terrorists, Alpha group members castrated the hostage, cut him down into pieces and sent him to the hostage takers. They also threatened to kill more of the kidnappers’ relatives if the Soviet diplomats were not free.
As a result, the 3 hostages were released and dropped off near the Soviet Embassy and no Russian officials were ever taken captive since then.
https://www.quora.com/Why-aren-t-there-any-stories-of-Soviet-or-Russian-hostage-situations-in-the-Middle-East
Road grader city that will make the battle for Mosul look like a walk in the park.
The battle at the time was the world's single largest military operation since the 2003 invasion of Iraq and was considered the toughest urban battle since World War II.[70][71][43]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mosul_(2016%E2%80%932017)
I've been wrong from time to time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLtQ9gu_NmA
The pogrom continues:
https://wifelyperson.blogspot.com/2023/10/there-is-no-yeah-but.html
Some questions.
1) Did Palestinians have a right to violently battle the terrorists of Lehi, Irgun, and Hagana in the 1940s, especially as those organizations implemented Plan Dalet and conducted mass murder to drive them out of their homes?
2) After those organizations merged into the IDF, and the IDF remained committed to sustaining the crimes committed by the terrorists, did Palestinians have a right to continue resisting Israel?
3) Israel made the leaders of all three terrorist groups into prime ministers: Ben Gurion of Hagana, Shamir of Lehi, and Begin of Irgun. As PMs, all were committed to maintaining the ethnic cleansing they committed as terrorist leaders. Did the Palestinians still have a right to resist?
4) One of the terrorist leaders, Begin, established the Likud Party, which runs the Israeli government, and is still committed to maintaining the ethnic cleansing committed in the 1940s. Do Palestinians have a right to resist a government set on maintaining what the terrorists set up?
5) Does this resistance give Palestinians the right to target Israeli civilians? The correct answer is NO.
6) You say, "but the “Christian world“ expects Jews, to be reasonable, to not extract vengeance, to not resort to violence." The Christian world wants us Jews to commit genocide against the Palestinians - the largest Zionist group is America is a Christian organization of 10 million led by Ted Hagee. The Christian World was just fine with terrorists coming to power in Israel. It's the Palestinians they want not to resort to violence.
Christian support of Israel is an American Evangelical phenomenon.
Let's be clear about this: They do not give a flying fuck about Jews. They never have. Their only reason for supporting Israel is that they believe that the return of Jews to the Holy Land is a predicate for the Second Coming of Their Dead God.
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