Israel Matzav

Pointing out stupid rhetoric

At this point, all we’re asking for is a basic command of language, so that words uttered mean more or less what people would expect them to mean. But apparently even that’s too much of a challenge: this constant refrain about how Israel is at war with “Palestinian terrorists” but not “the Palestinian people” being a perfect example. It seems to us that if a broad majority of the Palestinian people fund terrorism and shelter terrorists, then in a real sense the Israeli people are at war with the Palestinian people. Certainly, it’s hard to find many places in history where this stupid idea has been given as much airing as it has in the context of the Israeli-Arab conflict: no one in World War II ever said “we’re not at war with the German people, only with the German army”. Ditto for almost any other war in human history…

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.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:34 PM