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Saturday, April 17, 2004
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HEY, GONNA GET YOU TOO, ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST
"I don't see what 'problem' Israel has with the Palestinians. What? Don't they have enough bullets? Should I go out and buy some for them?"
-Dr. Reverend, virtually every day since I met him 20 years ago.
Dr. Reverend (or the Ayatollah Weinberg, as he now prefers to be addressed) is chock full of such wisdom. He is given to quoting the late, lamented, Meir Kahane, as I suspect we all are from time to time. I don't necessarily subscribe to the good Doctor's "final solution" to Middle East peace, I can appreciate the sentiment behind it.
I generally admire the way the state of Israel does business. They don't fuck around, largely because they can't afford to. Israel is a small fish in a big pond. At one point, Israel is only 8 miles across and has a population of 5 million people, approximately 1 million of whom are Palestinian or Arab. It is surrounded by 100 million other Arabs, several of whom would like to see the state of Israel and 4 million of its inhabitants destroyed. The Jews are intimately familiar with people wanting to destroy them, having experienced it as recently as 60 years ago. 60 years is not considered a long time when your history stretches back 6 thousand years.
Israel stubbornly insists on not being destroyed. This has lead to something of an impasse.
One of the consequences of this impasse has been terrorism against Israeli civilians. The Arab nations have fought five wars against Israel and lost them all. As a result, they seek to gain through fear what they cannot gain on the field of honor. Nearly 1,000 innocent men, women and children have been murdered since September of 2000. How should Israel be expected to respond to that?
To listen to most of the "civilized world," the answer seems to be, "nothing."
This, of course, is world opinion regarding the Israeli liquidation of newly minted Hamas leader and terrorist swine, Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi. al-Rantissi was killed today by an Israeli missile strike on his car. al-Rantissi replaced the freshly eliminated Sheik Ahmed Yassin, killed in a missile strike last month.
While I understand the strategic concerns over this policy of "targeted elimination," I also understand that the primary duty of any government is the protection of its citizens. If the Palestinian Authority will not police itself- as is evident in its blaming the al-Rantissi hit on the United States- it falls to Israel to do so for them.
And I do like the message it sends. Israel is essentially saying to Hamas, "Until you get your shit together, we'll take them out as quickly as you can produce them."
In the wake of 9/11, the United States has toppled the governments of two countries. By comparison, the reaction of the Israeli Defense Force has been downright restrained. 3,000 Americans were killed on 9/11. If you adjust the population figures, Israel has suffered the equivalent of 50,000 murders at the hands of terrorists. Spain lost 200 people on March 11 and reversed its foreign policy. This is its prerogrative. Israel cannot afford to be Spain. As a matter of fact, it remains to be seen if Spain can afford to be Spain, but that is a lesson that Israel learned far too long ago.
And once, just once, can Israel protect its people and the European Union keep their fucking mouths shut? It's pretty obvious who Europe sides with in the Middle East. But they would do well to remember that they are a large part of the reason there's a Middle East conflict in the first place.
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