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 Posted by Aron on January 05 2003 (Sunday) : 10:52 PMA few days ago, in a different context, I was commenting on a report how the Israeli army brass are feeling confident they have terror under control. "Only three deaths in December," they boasted. At the time, I didn't mention it, but I had a deep forboding when I read that. Over the past two years, the pattern repeats itself: just when the army says it "has things under control," Palestinian terrorist commit some horrific attack. The Israeli right has always contended that the Israel/Palestine conflict is a cultural one. This is an extension of Jabotinsky's Iron Wall ideology. This is a war between two tribal cultures who believe this land belongs to them. The Jewish side is morally right, they say. Hence the Arab side must capitulate to our ownership, since a compromise is a betrayel of our cultural heritage. The Israeli left contends that the conflict must be moved into the realm of interests, not culture. Interests, unlike culture, can be compromised. Unfortunately the view of the right has become ascendant in Israeli society over the past 35 years. As Danny Rubenstein points out, Israel's Iron Wall, is ensuring that the conflict stays in the realm of culture. And that guarantees an endless cycle of death and revenge. "'Nobody commits suicide for interests,' says [Hebrew University Professor Avishai] Margalit. 'Even when the suicide bomber's family receives money, it doesn't help the youth who died. The fact is that many are ready to commit suicide even if the family home will be destroyed. It's also impossible to portray suicide bombing as some new weapon discovered by the Palestinians. Suicide is not a rifle or smart bomb, that the Palestinians chose to use because they rationally chose its effectiveness. The main motive for the suicide bombers is revenge,' says Margalit, 'and much of the research on the subject proves that. Vengeance is a matter of culture, a search for justice, a value. The suicide bomber pays with his most supreme interest, his life, so the other will suffer.'" In fact, Israel's violence against the Palestinians is justified by the same cultural value - "a search for justice." Israel demand its young people pay with their most supreme interest, their lives, so the Palestinians will suffer until they surrender. The distorted "moral equivalence" in the use of violence by both sides, continues to play out. And the streets continue to flow with blood. < | >
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  Cost of the War in Iraq
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"Entre los individuos, como entre las naciones, el respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz -- Among individuals, as among nations, respect for the rights of others is peace" -Benito Juárez
"It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it." -Eleanor Roosevelt "Let them call me a rebel and welcome. I feel no concern from it. But should I suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul" -Thomas Paine | |
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Humiliation and Revenge
