January 30th, '04
The Grief and the Anger

An anonymous poster wrote the following about the Israel-Hizballa prisoner-corpse swap today. Together with the respose below, I think it sums up the Israeli debate pretty well.

I don't know how the people of Israel are so passive that they haven't demanded that their elected officials wage total war on the "Palestinians." This video shows the results of being more concerned with world opinion than with protecting Israeli children and parents. Never again, my ass. It is happening again. Why are Israelis not in the streets by the million demanding that total war be fought to make sure that this never happens again. And on the day that they release hundreds of prisoners. I don't get it.

Does Israel have a latent death wish almost as powerful as the overt Pali one? I'm sorry if this sounds callous or disrespectful to my Israelis friends, but how is it that the Israeli public is not taking their leaders to task? The means to prevent most of these attacks is there, why not the will? I don't understand. Wasn't the whole idea behind Zionism and the establishment of the state of Israel to not be at the mercy of other nations and peoples, to be in control of their own security and well-being. If that was the whole point, why is this being allowed to happen. Do the Israelis really care more about what Russian, French, Malaysian, Colombian, American, Syrian, English, Sudanese, and Latvians think than they do that Shmuel is blown apart, Alex is shredded into hundred of pieces, Elad is blinded and paralyzed, Anna is burned over more of her body than not, puncture holes from shrapnel cover Idan's body, the last breath is drawn by David's lungs and Vitslav is shot in the face. Where's the fucking outrage? Why are there no protests of millions in the streets?

And this response came soon after...

I'm Joe Israeli. I take the number 19 bus sometimes to the Hebrew University. Another day, another time I could have been in the place of one of the dead or mutilated. Now I can see the sirens from my balcony. No, I don't have a death wish and yes, I am furious and outraged. But what the hell can I do? 3 and a half years ago I was for Meretz and Peace Now, now I'm for Sharon. Thanks to me and hundreds of thousands like me the right has a majority in the Knesset. And so what? The simple fact remains that we cannot answer the fuckers measure for measure. Not because we're too good for that. We're not. And not because we don't want to. We do. But because we live in a democracy.

If a commander orders his tanks to level a building where terrorists are hiding and kills a few dozen civilians, he will be burned at the stake by the cynical, backstabbing politicians of the left with the silent acquiescence of the spineless politicians of the right. If the defense minister decides to fight this war like the Americans in Iraq or the Russians in Chechnya, he will end up in jail and the Prime Minister will be out on the street before the smoke clears. Add to this the fact that America wants us to be a puppet, the EU wants us to be a pariah, and the Arabs want us dead.

Israelis are not suicidal and we haven't lost our will to live. Don't listen to our politicians and extremists, we're actually very normal. We care for our children just the same as any other people. But we're caught between a rock and a hard place. Let's be frank. What we need to do to win this war is against international and Israeli law, and borders on genocide. There is no other way to win a war against a population of Islamikazees. Traitors in other words. If the men, women and children are blowing themselves up to kill you, that means that you have to fight and kill the men, women and children. And believe me, everyone here understands this. There are very few pro-Oslo idealists left. The Israelis who walk with Peace Now are people who are willing to sacrifice their countrymen (literally) for their idea of what a fair solution should be like. Our democracy isn't capable of winning against the Arab culture of suicide and racist hate.

I better stop now because I'm very tired and pissed off, but here's just one final thought for you to consider. Try to look at the situation this way: start from the premise that Israel does want to destroy the terrorists, that she does has the will and the strength. Then work backwards and ask yourself why she cannot achieve that objective.

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