Thursday, June 15, 2006

Revenge?

Following WWII did the Jews rise up and wreak retribution on their anti-Semitic enemies? In general, the answer is "NO." Jews are not known for their vengefulness, even under extreme circumstances. I remember reading a book by a member of the Jewish Brigade that saw action as a part of the British Army during WWII. The British were careful to keep the Brigade away from Germany because they feared Jewish reprisals. But, at the very end of the War the Brigade was moved through Italy into Germany. I remember how disappointed I was when the "hero" of this tale (true or fiction I cannot remember) had a real Nazi in his sights, but because the man was not armed and dangerous, he didn't shoot him. After the war there are numerous examples of Poles and others carrying out massacres against returning Jews, but as far as I am aware there was no example of a massacre carried out by Jews against defenceless German or Polish civilians.
One thing that doesn't change is human nature, it remains more or less constant through thick or thin. Jews in Israel are no more vengeful than their compatriots (sometimes the same people) after WWII. There is a society for the families of Israelis murdered by terrorists, do they form militias, do they go out and kill Palestinian civilians out of revenge? The answer is of course, NO! Why is that, presumably because they are infused with a Jewish view that all life is sacred and that to take revenge against innocents is unacceptable.
There have been a few such exceptions, I recall Baruch Goldstein who massacred Muslims at prayer in the Tomb of the Patriachs in Hebron. Even with massive justification this is not acceptable in Jewish civilization. And this is an exception compared to the murder culture that permeates Palestinian society, where every night thousands of men go out with guns in order to shoot Israelis or each other. Last week a car with Israeli license plates was shot at by a Palestinian gunman on route 443 leaving Jerusalem, and the driver was killed (this was probably not reported in your media). He turned out to be a Jerusalem Arab, and he was buried last week. Today gunmen invaded the PA Parliament in Ramallah and shot it up, destroyed papers and records and threatened to kill legislators unless they are paid. In our society, people dying of cancer carry out a hunger strike outside the house of the PM, people from Sderot being shelled every day from Gaza carry out a hunger strike outside the home of the Defence Minister Amir Peretz in Sderot.
That is why it is so preposterous to blame Israel for "killing" Palestinian civilians. Certainly they are dead, but they died because their gunmen are actively attacking our civilians. Let them stop and everyone knows that the IDF guns will be silent. Once again, the Defence Minister threatened the Hamas Government of the PA through a third party that if the rocket fire on Sderot did not stop, the IDF would mount a major campaign in northern Gaza (is this what we disengaged for?). On Monday instead of 10 rockets there was one. I hope they think that we mean business, no country can allow its cities to be brought to a standstill with its citizens being randomly targeted by a barrage of rockets. On the other hand, Israel's so-called targeting of "militants" is no more than an elementary defensive measure to stop the launchers carrying out their missions. In war, that's how the "game" is played. But, hopefully Hamas got the message and the barrage will stop. If not the IDF will have to respond once again.

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