Replies to post #2412 on Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[Math Junkie]

Funny, I don't see anything in the Geneva Conventions about voting making you a legitimate military target.

[goodluck]

Syl,
When you talk about domestic policy, I find myself agreeing with you more than not. Far more than not. But, although I told myself that I wouldn't respond to your diatribes on the legitimacy of the infitada, I will just say this once more, in a slightly different (I think) way than before. You said, "And when someone gives them equivalent military power like we give to the Israelis maybe then you will have a point. Till then, they are being killed, terrorized, under an occupation, and suppression and they are fighting the best they can for freedom." (my bolding)
That last phrase is completely wrong. They are fighting in a stupid way if they actually want to achieve a Palestinean state. If their goal is the destruction of Israel, then I suppose you may be right in commending their means, but if that is actually their goal, then they will at some point in the next 20-30 years find themselves utterly decimated, as they and their backers can't possibly keep funding this sort of war and they will drive the Israeli public into the use of greater and greater force, and they will eventually be utterly destroyed. Israel has more backing than they do, and, at least as important, they have nowhere else to go.

But if they actually want to achieve a two-state solution, then the means they are adopting is stupid. They should study what Ghandi and King did to the British and the South, and copy it. It would work in Israel. They have said that they tried that and it failed. A small number of them tried it for a few months, while other more radical Palestinean were continuing their violent tactics. That isn't the way it works. It has to be concerted, it has to be widespread, the violent ones must be suppressed, and it has to be persistent. It will work if done like that.

Marching and singing are far more powerful than bullets when used properly in a civilized context. While it is true that Israeli society is becoming more radicalized and coarser, they still haven't lost their human sense altogether. But it may be true that the Palestineans will succeed in destroying Israeli society if they continue their violence in the sense that that human decency will be continually weakened and diminished by the continued necessity of using force. But that destruction won't still won't result in a Palestinean "victory." That is the point at which they will really be able to talk about the "al akba" (sp?), the "catastrophe."