Question Four: The end justifies the means, so why are you complaining about a few civilians killed if in the long run many more lives will be saved?
Question Five: The number would be unnoticed if the victims had died at the hands of an Arab government. Israel is far more moral than its enemies so [...]
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Question: Terrorists only understand force and nothing will stop them except their destruction. How can we negotiate with terrorists?
Answer: The underlying thinking behind this world-view (now embodied in the US by the neo-cons) is so simplistic, one wonders how otherwise intelligent people can spout such nonsense.
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Nicholas Kristof column today addresses a more sophisticated variant of the first question I raised. Obviously his mild criticism of Israel’s approach made all the “pro-Israel” types flood his mailbox. Here’s how he phrases the question he received from his readers:
“What else can a country do when it is subjected to rocket attacks and cross-border [...]
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When I was young, one of my favorite magazines was William Gaines’ Mad Magazine. In the tradition of great Jewish subversives, Gaines poked fun at all the pieties of middle class American society, provoking young minds to think differently than their elders. One of my favorite sections of the magazine was called “Snappy Answers to [...]
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What follows is an article written by Patrick O’Connor, an International Solidarity Movement activist, which records his interrogation by a Shin Bet agent. Based on my own personal knowledge of Israelis who served in the Shin Bet, it strikes me as a 100% accurate characterization of Shin Bet thinking and behavior.
I found it particularly striking [...]
Stephen R. Shalom writes about about the origin of the conflict from it’s inception to the present. A presentation most ardent Zionist will find very challenging. It seems mostly accurate, as far as it goes, but he does leave out some important facts (such as the fascist connections of Mohammad Amin al-Husayni, the Mufti of Jerusalem [...]
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