Lessons in stupidity from the Middle East

[fccool]

Being stupid ... Hamas style

» Refuse to recognize Israel. Remind the world that the establishment of Israel in 1948 was accompanied by the often violent displacement of 700,000 Palestinians, but ignore the fact that more than 60 years have gone by, making it a bit late for a do-over. Ignore the fact that most Israelis weren't even born in 1948, and that Israel is recognized as legitimate by an overwhelming majority of the world's states. Keep insisting on its destruction.

» Use suicide bombings and rocket attacks on civilian targets as a method of warfare. Don't stick to military targets. Instead, blow up civilians on buses and in cafes. Adopting a deliberate policy of war crimes and crimes against humanity helps ensure that few of the world's governments will want to go anywhere near you.

» Get into vicious factional battles with fellow Palestinians. Why present a united front when you can fight with each other? Constant infighting gives the Israelis yet another reason to consider you a worthless interlocutor. And by driving rival party Fatah out of town, you can drive a wedge between Palestinians and give many Arab governments another reason to hope you fail.

» Keep that cycle of violence going! The Israelis killed a Palestinian? Quick, fire a barrage of rockets toward Israel. You know they'll respond with even greater force. Be stubborn and keep up those rocket attacks! Israeli bombs can't tell the difference between your fighters and Gaza's schoolchildren. Let the civilians pay the price for your "brave" resistance.

Being stupid ... Israeli style

» Never pass up a chance to rub salt in open wounds. Keep on building settlements in occupied territory. Stuff like that. Ya know?

» Undermine and isolate potential interlocutors who might be able to represent the Palestinians. First, destroy Palestinian Authority infrastructure and withhold funds and supplies needed for critical social services, thus helping to push ordinary Palestinians into the arms of Hamas, with its ample social services programs funded by Iran and private Arab donors. Then, when Hamas wins Palestinian elections, isolate Gaza and undermine Hamas.

» Be trigger happy. A recent statistical analysis by three academics (one at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one at Harvard and one from Tel Aviv University) found that an overwhelming majority of lulls in violence since 2000 (when the second intifada began) ended when Israelis killed Palestinians, sparking renewed tit-for-tat violence. According to Nancy Kanwisher, Johannes Haushofer and Anat Biletzki, "79 percent of all conflict pauses were interrupted when Israel killed a Palestinian, while only 8 percent were interrupted by Palestinian attacks." The pattern was "more pronounced for longer conflict pauses. ... Of the 25 periods of nonviolence lasting longer than a week, Israel unilaterally interrupted 24, or 96 percent." Always give war a chance!

» Carry out intense aerial attacks on densely populated civilian areas. Civilians in the Gaza Strip are fenced in -- the sea on the west and heavily guarded borders on the land perimeter. As Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian surgeon working at a Gaza hospital, put it, the aerial bombardment of Gaza is like "bombing 1.5 million people in a cage."

Heavy civilian casualties are inevitable -- like those from the deadly Israeli strikes on Tuesday that damaged three United Nations schools, killing at least 48.

» Complain about unfair media coverage, but don't let any Israeli or foreign journalists into Gaza (in defiance of the Israeli Supreme Court, which has ordered that a limited number of journalists must be allowed in). That way, nearly all news coming out of Gaza will come from Palestinian journalists.

» Don't have a plan. Start bombing Gaza to eliminate the Hamas capacity to fire rockets and mortars at Israel. Realize, as the Palestinian death toll approaches 700, that Hamas rocket attacks on Israel are still ongoing, there's no obvious military solution short of leveling Gaza, international dismay is rising, and you don't really have a game plan. Continue to play it by ear -- it's just a war.

Being stupid ... Bush style

» Avoid opportunities to push for a rapid end to the conflict. Wring your hands every now and then, but don't engage seriously with European, Turkish or Arab actors eager to propose compromises that could end the conflict. Block a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a temporary cease-fire on the grounds that it doesn't offer a durable solution.

» In general, sit back and relax. It's just the Middle East exploding again. It's just a harbinger of ongoing suffering, regional instability and global terrorism. No big deal. Let the new guy handle it.

Being stupid ... Palestinian civilian style

» Be born in Gaza. Well, that was dumb of you, wasn't it? Next time, try to be born in London or San Francisco.

Rosa Brooks , a regular columnist for the Los Angeles Times, is a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. E-mail:

rbrooks@latimescolumnists.com

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_11418442

[phkrause]

Good post, don't agree with all the comments, but pretty much right on.

pk

[Bravus]

It illustrates nicely that there are few good guys, and plenty of blame to go around... but that those bearing the consequences are those who least deserve to.

[Dr. Shane]

The article is a good example of SPIN, which is selective reporting. A couple of facts they left out:

Israel has forced Israelis to abandon settlements in Palestinian areas and even removed some of them by force.

Bush has made a separate homeland for Palestinians a requirement for any Middle East peace plan.

[fccool]

Israel has forced Israelis to abandon settlements in Palestinian areas and even removed some of them by force.

[phkrause]

I diffinetly agree that Israel needs to abandon expanding in any of the Palestinian areas. As a matter of fact they need to expand land for the palestinians. I think there are many violations on both sides. But until Hamas and Hezbollah and taken out of the picture there will not be any peace. The Jews have been persecuted there entire existence, except for a few years when Solomon was King. And they have been massacred where ever they have lived. This does not give them the right to do this to the Palestinians either.

pk

[Woody]

Would 200 - 300 rockets fired at them per day give them the right to protect themselves? Today a kindergarten was hit. Do they have NO values?

[phkrause]

Who hit the kindergarden Redwood? Israel or Hamas? Not that it matters, its not right either way. But if it was Israel we know that that is not what they wanted.

pk

[fccool]

The question is not whether they have a right to protect themselves. I think it's indisputable that any nation reserves that right and would not ask other for permission.

The question is the end goals and the way Israel achieving these. What is the end plan considering the circumstances? If constant war is the plan, then their actions make sense. The civilian bombings both create international condemnation... and populate Hamas ranks (not to mention kill civilians).

I can easily present you the case that more people died in car crashes in Israel than from the rockets lunched by Hamas past month. This statistics is not to justify the Hamas attacks, but to put these into perspective.

[Woody]

Who hit the kindergarden Redwood? Israel or Hamas? Not that it matters, its not right either way. But if it was Israel we know that that is not what they wanted.

pk

Hamas Hit Israel.

[Woody]

The point is ... Hamas has been hitting Israel with 200-300 rockets per day for over a month. At some point ... A country has to defend themselves. It is not a matter of who has killed the most. It is Hamas who WANTs the killings. It is about defending ones borders and civilians. How does one deal with terrorists?

[Dr. Shane]

Originally Posted By: Shane

Israel has forced Israelis to abandon settlements in Palestinian areas and even removed some of them by force.

Huh, since when? Can you provide some news sources to back up your claims?

My goodness, I guess I have to be the history teacher even when the history is only two years old.

Reverend Pat Robertson, founder of "The 700 Club," has unleashed another controversy with his words. In Robertson's eyes Israeli Prime Minister Arial Sharon was struck by God for giving up land to the Palestinians. In recent comments, he said, "but here he's [sharon] at the point of death. He was dividing God's land and I would say woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the European Union, the United Nations, or the United States of America. God says this land belongs to me. You'd better leave it alone." Robertson's view of God's will is often his own sheer presumptions. One must look at God's word line upon line. We can get in big trouble if we use scriptures to fit the headlines of the day.

[Bravus]

Quote:

Who hit the kindergarden Redwood? Israel or Hamas? Not that it matters, its not right either way. But if it was Israel we know that that is not what they wanted.

I usually agree with pk, but this is more of the same odd thinking Shane was exhibiting, whereby the *exact same actions* are righteous if done by the side we support and evil if done by the other guys. Israel has to know that it is blowing up schools, and it's continuing to do so, so presumably that is something it wants to do - if it didn't want to do it, it is entirely within its power to stop. It's a war, wars are to kill people. Hamas is wrong, Israel is wrong. Let's have no more of this 'Israel has only the purest motives' nonsense.

[Dr. Shane]

The Jews have been persecuted there entire existence, except for a few years when Solomon was King. And they have been massacred where ever they have lived. This does not give them the right to do this to the Palestinians either.

pk

Palestinians are Arabs just like Jordanians, Syrians, Lebanese, and most Egyptians. Arabs have land where they can live. Arabs don't need a homeland. The problem is that these Arab countries will not allow the Arabs born in Israel or Palestinian land to immigrate and nationalize into Arab countries. That forces the issue. Arab countries would open their doors to Palestinians than the conflict would go away.

The only place where Jews have been able to live without persecution in the US. That, of course, is why so many of them live here. The Arab countries desire all the Jews to leave Israel and go to Europe, the US or some other place. These Arab countries just hate Jews. They don't want peace. They have plenty of land. They have land from Turkey south to Saudi Arabia and Sudan. Israel is the only tiny little piece of land they don't have in the Middle East so they want to fight over it. The poor Palestinian people are the pawns stuck in this very distasteful chess game.

[Dr. Shane]

I can easily present you the case that more people died in car crashes in Israel than from the rockets lunched by Hamas past month. This statistics is not to justify the Hamas attacks, but to put these into perspective.

Gives us no perspective at all. More people died from drunk driving in the US in 2001 than in the terrorist attacks of 9/11 too.

The teeth of terrorist is in the word "terror" not the word "death". Terrorists cause fear. It becomes a psychological issue where people are afraid to ride a bus, go to the supermarket or send their children to school. That is why terrorist strike civilian targets. Their goal isn't so much to kill large numbers of people as it is to strike terror into the masses.

[Bravus]

Exactly. And you have repeatedly used the words 'teaching a lesson' about the Israeli attacks on Gaza. In other words, the use of violence to persuade people to act differently. Which is the usual definition of terrorism.

[Dr. Shane]

I have repeated what I heard on the news. I am not saying I agree with Israel's attacks. I do however, defend their right to fight back. I don't know what they should or shouldn't do. The Arabs hold the keys to peace over there and obviously are not interested in that option.

[phkrause]

I think the major goal is to live in peace. They are not interested in occupying Gaza. I think the way others see it it looks like that. But I think when its all over people will see that that is not what they want. I think they should allow the Palestinians to expand there area.

pk

[Bravus]

In other words, the diaspora, the dispersion of Jews from the Holy Land out into other countries, was perhaps the single deepest tragedy in Jewish tradition... but the Palestinians should just suck it up for the common good and undergo their own diaspora now? You are the same race as the people in Scotland - would you be willing to move back to Scotland, with nothing, to give the Native Americans back their land? The solution you seem to see as so simple is just not. And once again, it makes what was a terrible tragedy for the Jews out as something simple and obvious for the Arabs.

[Bravus]

Andplus the *exact* problem in the Middle East is the 'right to fight back'. Because Hamas also sees itself as 'fighting back', not as the aggressor. It's a highly charged environment with perceived slights and attacks going all the way back to Abraham. Much too late now to arbitrarily pick a point in time and assign one side the label of aggressors. So all those who keep so loudly defending Israel's 'right to fight back' are basically dooming the region to eternal war. What it needs is Mandela and Tutu and a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

[phkrause]

I think Bravus its a tuff situation all around. I try not to side with either side. But I guess its hard for me to not be bias for Israel. My father spent 2 years in german labor camp and than 5 years in 3 different concentration camps. And knowing that the PLO help Hitler with "the Jewish problem" as it was called. And of course if you go thru the history of the Jews you'll see that they have been persecuted everywhere they have lived. And to top it off when its the life ambition of the terrorists to finish what Hitler was unable to do, that gives me concern that the rest of the world can't see this. Again as I have said in posts before, I do not condone what Israel is doing but they have a right to be paranoid.

pk

[there buster]

Quote:

the use of violence to persuade people to act differently. Which is the usual definition of terrorism.

No, it is not. Terrorism is the intentional targeting of non-combatant civilians.

If the use of violence to persuade people to act differently was a definition of terrorism, then every police force would be terrorists.

In this case Hamas is acting as a terrorist entity in both directions. Their missiles are targeted at Israeli civilians, and Hamas uses schools and hospitals to fire their mortars and rockets from, for the purpose of turning their own civilians into targets and getting sympathy from thoughtless observers.

Hamas builds tunnels for smuggling weapons, but not bomb shelters for their own civilians. Palestinian civilian casualties are part of Hamas strategy. It is perfidious, and evidence of their moral bankruptcy.

[Dr. Shane]

the Palestinians should just suck it up for the common good and undergo their own diaspora now?

That is not what I have said. What I have said is that Arab countries should allow Palestinians to immigrate and nationalize. This happens all over the world. Americans move to Canada and nationalize. Russians move to Italy and nationalize. Palestinians, Jordanians and Syrians are all the same race, same religion and same culture. The nation of Israel actually sits on a very small piece of real estate in the Middle East. If allowed to do so, many Palestinians would voluntarily relocate and nationalize in other Arab nations. They are sucking it up now, being trapped in Palestinian territory with terrorist groups like Hamas using them as pawns.

[fccool]

Quote:

No, it is not. Terrorism is the intentional targeting of non-combatant civilians.

If the use of violence to persuade people to act differently was a definition of terrorism, then every police force would be terrorists.

How about we'll let the dictionary sort it out.

1. the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, esp. for political purposes.

2. the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization.

3. a terroristic method of governing or of resisting a government.

A couple things I'd like to observe. The definition leaves out "civilian target", and I agree with it... simply because everyone is a "civilian target".

I'm amazed how much CHRISTIANS are totally desensitized when it comes to this issue. We view war as "normal" way of resolving conflicts on state level. Ahhh.... a couple hundred thousands of civilian death... so what, right? A couple of thousand of soldiers who died... it's normal.

Everyone of these people has a mother, a father, a possible wife and children. They have dreams and inspired just like we are. Yet we view all of them as some disposable waste of war. .. and the argument is usually the STATE VS TERRORISTS, in which case the deaths of non-terrorists justify the death of terrorists.

So, here's a question to you guys... especially the ones with wives and kids. Would it be worth it in your case to loose everything that you work hard your families who you love so much over a death of a couple radicals? What would you do?

Now, keeping that in mind. Who would you consider to be an enemy. The guys who bombed your family, or the guys who attack the guys who bombed your family?

Please, put yourself in shoes of other before making radical conclusions. People are the same all over the world... no matter how radical ideologies are. They all want the same things, they just use different means of achieving these things.

No person would hate other for no apparent reason. There has to be a reason. Yet we are trained to believe in the "comic book" style villains that just born hating and thirsting for blood. Come on, surely you can see through that nonsense. There are causes behind every effects. Eliminate the causes and there will be no effect.

In this case, Israel does nothing to remove the cause. It just perpetuates the effects. If I can't prove my wife that I'm correct, I concede to preserve the relationship... even if I was wrong. Especially if the argument is over trivial matter.

In this case nothing is more important than human life. It's ironic that the same people would condemn abortion... are turning back on this issue.

[there buster]

Quote:

A couple things I'd like to observe. The definition leaves out "civilian target", and I agree with it... simply because everyone is a "civilian target".

Uh, no. A man in uniform serving with an armed force is not a civilian.

Frankly, I couldn't make sense out of the rest of your post, so I'll have to let it go.

But anyone who does not realize there is a difference between a man on a killing spree, and the policeman trying to stop the killer with deadly force is morally bankrupt.