Thanks for that Ben Franklin quote. In my quote collection, I have almost as much Franklin as Gandhi.
The only thing that keeps Sharon from expelling the entire Palestinian population to the other side of the Jordan (or further, since the Irgun claimed both banks, and more), is Israel's reliance on the U.S., and U.S. intolerance for that level of savagery. America will tolerate a "ethnic cleansing by degrees", done incrementally (this gives us "plausible deniability", so we can pretend it isn't happening, and pretend we aren't supporting it). The Wall is the latest stage in this process. We will tolerate razing the refugee camps one at a time (like in Jenin), one house at a time (as in Rafah), but not all at once.
Begin's methods worked, and Hamas is using those same methods today. You or I could make a long list of terrorists who later became respected statesmen, leaders of nations they founded using terrorism. In fact, it's been a favorite method for creating new states, for several generations now.
Israel no longer uses Begin's methods (well, not usually; they do still use the occasional car bomb to kill their opponents). They don't have to, since their terror succeeded in creating a State. Now, they can achieve the same results, using helicopter gunships. Much more efficient than filling milk cans with TNT, and hand-carrying them to crowded Arab markets, as was done in 1938.
You can't say that civilization don't advance, however, for in every war they kill you in a new way. Will Rogers (1879 - 1935) |
