Re: terror (Was: To the list...)

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

At 5:16 PM -0700 10/17/03, Danielle Ni Dhighe wrote:
> At 05:48 AM 10/17/2003, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> > Deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on civilians
>
> Of course, Palestinian groups make the argument that Israel is a
> military state and its adult citizens are reservists.

Some Palestinian groups -- namely Hamas and Islamic Jihad -- make an
argument that "Israel is a military state and its adult citizens are
reservists" and that all Israeli adults are legitimate targets of
attacks, but it's probably a minority opinion among Palestinians in
historic Palestine.  Even if you completely accepted Hamas and
Islamic Jihad's position, you would still have to regard children,
Palestinian citizens of Israel, and other groups that are not subject
to the draft as civilians.  Deliberate and indiscriminate attacks
won't do.

At 5:16 PM -0700 10/17/03, Danielle Ni Dhighe wrote:
> > inside the Green Line don't send a political message to
> > Palestinians, Jews, and the rest of the world that those who send
> > Palestinian youths on suicide missions
>
> What about those who send pilots and soldiers on homicide missions
> against Palestinian?  What message are they sending?

The impossibility of coexistence -- which, in part, is the same
message as what Hamas and Islamic Jihad's deliberate and
indiscriminate attacks end up sending to Palestinians, Jews, and the
world, except that, in the case of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, they have
neither capacity nor intention to actually overthrow the state of
Israel, whereas the Israeli Right, in possession of state power and
supported by the US government, can actually make their message
reality.  The Israeli Right can afford to pursue the course that they
have, because the impacts of the intifada and solidarity activism on
the Israeli economy have been slight and because they don't care
about the mounting Israeli casualties of the intifada, much less
Palestinian casualties.  Palestinians and solidarity activists, in
contrast, cannot afford to stay the course -- if we did, pretty soon,
all of historic Palestine would fall into Israeli hands.

At 5:16 PM -0700 10/17/03, Danielle Ni Dhighe wrote:
> And why should there be a distinction made between inside the green
> line and outside the green line?  Why should the pre-1967 borders of
> an illegitimate state be recognised at all?

Israeli settlers -- most adult men among whom, unlike civilians in
Israel, are regularly armed, and some of whom are organized in
terrorist vigilante groups -- in the occupied territories are
politically the weakest link.  It makes sense to concentrate your
fire on the weakest link, especially if your firepower is limited.
--
Yoshie

* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/>
* Calendars of Events in Columbus:
<http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>,
<http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/>
* Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/>
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/>
* Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio>
* Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>


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