Englishman in New York24 Feb 2005 01:30 pm
Some people on this site and elsewhere constantly accuse the Left of supporting or at least being apologetic of Palestinian violence against civilians. My opinion on this matter is straight forward: The only consistent attitude towards terrorism in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is to be against its use by both sides.
So begins an interesting blog by Moishe Oofnik at Jewschool.
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Oh no, EINY. Just when I thought your views on all things Jewish/Israel/anti-Semitic were saner than the average blogger, you have to skirt that line of moral equivalance. Of course, no one should use violence. Guns=bad. Dead people are tragedies, human life is precious. Yes, yes. But you condemn ‘terrorism’ by both sides. Are you suggesting that what the Israeli military does is terrorism? Or just the occasional lunatic settler who goes a bit wacko with his M-16? This is an old argument (and one which I thought my side had definitively won). Why we bringing it up again?
You’re right. It’s a bad choice of words. The word terrorism is pretty loaded, after all, whoever heard of a good terrorist? (We usually call them freedom fighters.) But the post was intersting in two respects. 1. Oofnik’s attack on apologists for Palestinian violence (we have quite a few high profile ones where I come from). And 2. The great debate which ensued from the post and is continuing right now at Jewschool.com if you want to weigh in. I’m sure some of the comments will make your blood boil.
Paul, you had better jump back into that Jewschool thread. Looks like you bailed after “Sausage” called you an a**hole for making fun of his flu, (which was probably not the best tactic for presenting your case).
Get back in the ring and finish what you started!
Holy shit, EINY. That place is going up in flames. I can’t believe that jewish sausage called you that. Anyways, to continue in a more temperate manner here, i do think there is something to the claim that too many on the left are unwilling to condemn the blowing up of Israeli civilians. Yes, I’m sure not ALL of them, and one must always be careful with generalizations, but enough of them, and as a ‘movement’, such as there is one, i think it’s reasonable to conclude that’s the dominant view. I would add that I think the refusal to judge is the biggest shortcoming of today’s left, a group i must say i more naturally gravitate towards than the alternative. In the rush to be open and tolerant and accepting of multiple truths, the left has neglected to set any standards, to declare anything out of bounds. While there may be many truths, it doesn’t follow that there are no wrongs. Unfortunately, the left seems chronically incapable of declaring anything beyond the limits of civilized action.
I agree. I have to say I was still thinking about this when I woke up this morning. I guess I felt pretty stupid about the whole “terrorism/Israel” thing. Only an idiot would equate Israel’s actions with terrorism. As for the Jewshool thing — I had no idea “the sausage” had come back at me! I’ve just popped over there and dropped one last comment.
On the one hand, perhaps I should have known better. That’s not a debate so much as a mud-slinging contest. But on the other hand, I love reading posts and comments that make me want to weigh in. It happens so seldom.