Actually, Israel IS At War With the Palestinian People
Remember how people on both the right and the left were a little uneasy about the label "war on terror" because what the West is actually fighting is a group of violent ideologues seeking its elimination and their own domination? It's a good point - the threat of Islamofascism is not limited to, or even primarily from, its inhumane tactics. Rather, its true threat is as an existential danger to Western civilization - its ideologues literally seek to impose Islamic law throughout Europe and the Americas.
Similarly, the Palestinians should not face disapprobation only for their broad support of savage terrorism. What we should actually be shunning them for is the fact that their support for this tactic is part of their broad based support for the violent elimination of the Jewish state. Let's say the Palestinians stopped trying to succeed in their genocidal quest through terrorist - that they built themselves an army and tried to wipe out five million Jews with tanks. Would that make them any less worthy of condemnation? Obviously not.
All of which makes Peretz's statements last week particularly asinine:
[Peretz] added, "There is no intention of recapturing Gaza. I’m not going to send the IDF into an adventure just to satisfy public need. There is no intention of reentering the alleys of Gaza, or staying in them. I don’t think we should consider the possibility of a renewed occupation... We must make every effort to achieve peace, and I want to say to the Palestinian people: We are not at war with you; the terror groups are using you."
Peretz said the exact same thing to Abbas (like literally the exact same thing) over six months ago. Back them he was still just a Histadrut chief running in an election and trying to ruin our life. So he either has a very good memory or absolutely nothing new or interesting to say. You'd think the intervening war thing that Israel fought against the elected Palestinian government would have caused him to modify his standard repertoire. But not so much.
This expression - "we not at war with x people, just with x's terrorists" - is becoming more and more stupid as it becomes more and more clear that large swaths of "people" support "terrorists". Not to put too fine a point on it, but... yes, Israel is at war with the Palestinian people. The Palestinian people have repeatedly demonstrated that there is broad and persistent support for violence against Israel among them. It's blindingly stupid to say that Israel is not at war with the population that supports war with Israel. Think of the logical analog: "we're not at war with you, we're just at war with your army". Do these people even listen to themselves when they talk?
The other annoyingly stupid line of argument that you'll hear is that Palestinian terrorists are also enemies the Palestinian people. Well OK, sure, in a way. But certainly we can agree that Palestinian terrorists are MORE enemies of Israel than of the Palestinian people? Like if we were taking a poll, and the question was "do you think that Palestinian terrorists support Jews or Palestinians more", we'd expect a high percentage of people to correctly identify that, yes indeed, Palestinian terrorists are more in favor of killing Jews than Palestinians. That helps explain why, even after five years, Palestinian suicide bombers have yet to target, say, a Palestinian cafe or diner or school.
[Cross-posted at IsraPundit]
Similarly, the Palestinians should not face disapprobation only for their broad support of savage terrorism. What we should actually be shunning them for is the fact that their support for this tactic is part of their broad based support for the violent elimination of the Jewish state. Let's say the Palestinians stopped trying to succeed in their genocidal quest through terrorist - that they built themselves an army and tried to wipe out five million Jews with tanks. Would that make them any less worthy of condemnation? Obviously not.
All of which makes Peretz's statements last week particularly asinine:
[Peretz] added, "There is no intention of recapturing Gaza. I’m not going to send the IDF into an adventure just to satisfy public need. There is no intention of reentering the alleys of Gaza, or staying in them. I don’t think we should consider the possibility of a renewed occupation... We must make every effort to achieve peace, and I want to say to the Palestinian people: We are not at war with you; the terror groups are using you."
Peretz said the exact same thing to Abbas (like literally the exact same thing) over six months ago. Back them he was still just a Histadrut chief running in an election and trying to ruin our life. So he either has a very good memory or absolutely nothing new or interesting to say. You'd think the intervening war thing that Israel fought against the elected Palestinian government would have caused him to modify his standard repertoire. But not so much.
This expression - "we not at war with x people, just with x's terrorists" - is becoming more and more stupid as it becomes more and more clear that large swaths of "people" support "terrorists". Not to put too fine a point on it, but... yes, Israel is at war with the Palestinian people. The Palestinian people have repeatedly demonstrated that there is broad and persistent support for violence against Israel among them. It's blindingly stupid to say that Israel is not at war with the population that supports war with Israel. Think of the logical analog: "we're not at war with you, we're just at war with your army". Do these people even listen to themselves when they talk?
The other annoyingly stupid line of argument that you'll hear is that Palestinian terrorists are also enemies the Palestinian people. Well OK, sure, in a way. But certainly we can agree that Palestinian terrorists are MORE enemies of Israel than of the Palestinian people? Like if we were taking a poll, and the question was "do you think that Palestinian terrorists support Jews or Palestinians more", we'd expect a high percentage of people to correctly identify that, yes indeed, Palestinian terrorists are more in favor of killing Jews than Palestinians. That helps explain why, even after five years, Palestinian suicide bombers have yet to target, say, a Palestinian cafe or diner or school.
[Cross-posted at IsraPundit]
