Hi Nadine Carroll; Re: "so basically you're saying that Israel's mistake was in not leveling Jenin with heavy artillery?"
No, go back and reread what I wrote. What I'm saying is that Israel can't level Jenin with heavy artillery. They're a weak nation and can't pull off holocaust sized massacres.
Israel is too small and easy to punish. By contrast, Germany is what, 10 or 20x bigger but even they got punished for their actions against their neighboring little countries / nations. (I.e. Poles, Jews, etc.)
Israel is so small that they can't even think of operating like Germany (think Hitler) France (think Napoleon), Russia (think Stalin), China (think Mao), or the United States (think Roosevelt) or even Turkey.
Big countries can pull off incredibly large massacres and then remain in denial, or even continue to brag about their victory. The reason for this is that truly big countries have no one to punish them, except coalitions of other big countries. Even a 2nd rate power like today's France, Britain or Germany can knock out a little country like Israel or, for that matter, Argentina or Iraq.
Since big countries have no one to punish them, they can get away with nuking, slaughtering or genocide against their enemies. Small countries, and individuals for that matter, get punished.
I'm not trying to describe the way things should be (morality), I'm simply trying to accurately describe the way things are. The United States will be inconvenienced by the illegal and immoral war in Iraq, but we will not be directly punished for it.
By comparison, when Iraq (a weak nation) invades Kuwait (an even weaker nation) they get slapped down by the US (a strong nation). When Germany (a 2nd class power) invades Poland (a weak nation), they got slapped down by the US (a strong nation).
When Russia (a world power) invades Afghanistan (a weak nation), they are not directly punished. When the United States (a world power) drops a nuke on Japan (a 2nd class power) despite misgivings by their own scientists, they are not directly punished. When Great Britain (then a world power) invades and occupies part of China (a weak power) in order to get their citizens hooked on drugs, they are not directly punished. When the United States (a world power) gets sucked into an immoral war against Vietnam (a weak power) the US does not get directly punished. When the United States (a world power) invades and occupies Native American (not even powerful enough to be called a power), the US does not get directly punished. When China (a world power) suppresses its Tibetan (a nonexistent power) minorities, they do not get punished for it.
But when Rwanda (a 4th rate power) massacres one of its minorities (an even smaller force), international forces topple their government. When South Africa (then a 3rd rate power) invades and occupies SW Africa (a 5th rate power at best), they end up subjected to international sanctions that eventually destroy their apartheid government.
I'm not saying that all violent acts by 3rd rate powers end up being punished. A lot of the time the world just doesn't give a darn. But the Middle East is the focus of too much of the world's attention. So things that are ignored in the dark recesses of Africa or obscure islands in the Pacific are not ignored when Israel does them.
The world is not a fair place, and that is to Israel's disadvantage.
-- Carl |
