So the Palestinians are just a bunch of hoodlums looking to kill and maim because their ritalin withdrawl is kicking in? Their criminal actions on peace loving people are just an example of primitive herdsmen going postal when they find dynamite and decide that they don't like some other group of guys who don't pray like they do every day? And Arabic and other Muslims who support them are just organized crime?
This can't be the case. It isn't the FLQ and it isn't the IRA and it is not like the two recent cases in Quebec where the perpetrators claimed their violence was aimed at foreigners settling and taking jobs. Now I have formed clear opinions on the FLQ and the IRA. Both are resurrecting 400 or more year old political divisions to justify a power grab where they can win a war of attrition. Of course if the tables were completely turned on them and random violence against them continued in the same way, but far more implacably it might be different a bit. Maybe. But the unwounded in a war can always be convinced to go over the top. So that might not work either. You always think you can threaten and bash and win but it does not work. It is just the Hatfields and the McCoys. But clubs and cliques will always rule and if you ain't in the club you bash the door down until they let you in.
So a few guys with dynamite might win? Tough to stop without making the country into a police state of putting the dissidents on reserves! How do you stop people from either objecting to marginalization or bring up old political non issues if they see a crack in the dam? So far war, massacre and authoritarian police states have been it. Give them all they can get, as in Quebec, and leave one thing to complain about, and they will bite the hand with a vengeance, whenever they can. Seems like Jim Morrison was right when he wrote in film school in the 70's that man's existence is about a will to power. It is about apes beating on chests.
Certainly no one likes powerlessness. I discovered long ago, if I may say this, that ideas are far more powerful than weapons. Weapons are more final, but they only lead to one response - more weapons - and so on it goes, until one side or both runs out of ammo. Ideas can live forever. Solutions everyone likes. Neither Hamas nor Sharon have solutions. Rhetoric of one policy or another is not a end to a problem. It is an extension of the problem and an exacerbation of it.
But a man with a hand grenade strapped to his uniform who goes to embrace Hitler on parade and detonate - (about 7 "nazi" officers separately planned this!) - has our tacit appoval, but not a German team who lands on British shores who intend to assassinate Churchill. I will not say that the extremity of the action shows justification. Extreme actions are taken wrong and right.
The suicide bombers are doing what they think is right. It certainly should send a message. It is not cruelty, it's sacrifice. It may not be 100% justified. It probably will not work. I don't think it is the royal road to freedom and prosperity for the Palestinians. I do not believe the Jews can unilaterally stop it. |
