A response by Con George –Kotzabasis to:
To the American pro-Israel pro-Peace activist group J Street
J Street Statement on Gaza Attack
Washington Note, December 27, 2008
This is political frolicking at its best by J Street. And for Clemons to give it the political prominence it does not deserve on his Site shows him to be also susceptible to this frolicking. It asks for a political and diplomatic intervention by the U.S., the Quartet, and other allies to “negotiate a resumption of the ceasefire and hopes against hope that such intervention could bring an end to “new hostilities” and “a complete cessation of the rocket fire from Gaza.” But for more than forty years now a multiplicity of interventions and numerous ceasefires and truces have led nowhere and indeed have exacerbated the cycle of violence and the greater dangers emanating from this in the region.
The political savants involved intellectually in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict are as yet unable to realize that this conflict is fuelled by the unremitting hate of the Palestinians, and generally of most Muslims, for Israel as well as for being a Western cultural and political outpost hence doubling their hate. One cannot appease hate, especially when a generation of children are instructed in it. Anyone who has read the great playwrights from Aeschylus to Shakespeare knows quite well that the fierce passion of hate trumps all other passions and beyond, even the faculty of reason. A recent example of this was the ascension of Obama to the presidency that was fuelled by the hate many Americans had for Bush-Cheney and by association the Republicans and which neutralized even the strong passion of racism that furtively hides in the hearts of a majority of Americans.
So to believe as J Street does that the Palestinian –Israeli conflict can only be resolved by political and diplomatic means and not military, is childishly delusional. Hate, fanaticism, irrationality, are insensitive to the gentle touch of reason and to the suave practitioners of diplomacy. The architects of peace in the Middle East must realize that only by breaking their intellectual bondage to futile Quartets and barren negotiations and routing the irrational forces of the Palestinians in the field of battle can bring an end to war. This festering “chronic ulcer” to quote Clemons, must be cut by the surgeon’s knife. Thus it’s through the ashes of war that the Phoenix of peace will lastingly rise in the land of Moses, Christ, and Mohammed.
I rest on my oars: Your turn now...
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GaryBaumgarten
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Comments
There are several threads on this issue. Your humble correspondent has two. There are others that go on and on and say everything and nothing. You have managed to nail it with precision and eloquence.
I hope your post gets the readership it deserves, but I wouldn't count on it.
Cheers.
I agree, the behavior of the participants is occasionally barbaric but that almost always happens in war. If you want to determine who is more barbaric, that is done by body count. The Germans were more morally reprehensible than we were because they killed their scapegoats, we just put ours in prison camps out in the desert (they were nice prison camps too, and still, the Japanese Americans we interned weren't grateful at all! They must be related to the Palestinians, huh?).
On body count, Israel is the bad guy, by a factor of about 10 I think.
In this case body count isn't an accurate measure, though. Israel is a modern army, their combat operations generate more casualties. We need another measure.
Since developing rocket capability Hamas has launched about 10,000 rockets at Israel. A lot of them blow up before they get out of Gaza but let's be fair, they tried to kill civilians.
How much ordinance do you think was dropped on Gaza over the same period? You think we should weigh it up or count the detonations? Will we find the bad guy that way?
You can claim your trying to kill a person with a five hundred pound bomb, but everybody knows you're going to kill a building. Besides, Hamas could easily claim they were firing those rockets at two army privates eating ice cream on the corner of fifth and main, in Sderot and they just...missed.
"Collateral damage, no harm no foul. If you let us have better rockets we wouldn't hit your civis so often but what can I say, your holding us down. No worries, we'll take another shot at one of your troopers tomorrow, we make these missiles, we got lots of 'em."
This may make you feel better though. They aren't shooting at the civilians, Qassams don't posses the level of accuracy to even begin to shoot at a person, they're just shooting at the city and the people were standing too close to it.
They hit the city, right? At least they didn't miss. Now they're just like the Israelis. They shot at a target, didn't miss and killed people entirely by accident.
Just trying to be objective, don't mean to offend.
You
The Palestinians are just more bold in their speech, their reverence for human life is neither greater nor less than the current Israeli administration, they just don't lie about why they kill people.
As always I admire your doughty independent thinking and I am most grateful for your generous remarks to me.
Libertarius
You have hawk’s eyes as you are the ONLY ONE to have seen the ‘slip’ of my pen in making an “analysis of drama” in this solely political analysis of the conflict.
dijetlo
Looking at your nickname and your picture you must be a comedian by nature always in the mood of making fun of serious things by means of sarcasm. By cranking up your sarcasm and cheap irony on this issue you are making a farce out of a tragic situation
Since I’ve no mood for comedy on this issue, I’ve no more to say to your post.