James-Speaks

IT

"There is actually an argument to be made that both Hizbullah and Israel have taken the civilian population of their enemy hostage. Since hostage-taking is forbidden, both are war criminals" www.juancole.com

Billmon is ripping the neocons, delightful Sunday reading. He is number two on my list now that Amanda Congdon has fled NYNY for LA. But, I digress,

Billmon has violated *******'s law, where mention of Hitler signals the end of discussion. Perhaps because we are talking about Hitler, really, and the aftermath, Israel, the discussion will not end.

One of the mantras for the founding/support of Israel is that it must never happen again.

I'm all for that, or against that. It must never happen again.

Let's discuss what it is. I have always thought that it was the commission of genocide, where one group of nasties, i.e. Nazis, takes another group of nice people, eg. the Jews of Europe, out back and shoots them. One hopes we all agree that this particular it was a crime against humanity and must never happen again.

One also hopes that we recognize the types of people who oppose it during the commission of it are the sort of people who do so not because the victims were Jews and the perps Nazis, but because it is the commission of it which is bad. Really bad.

So what are we to make of the commission of it by the descendents of the victims of it? That is exactly what is happening in Gaza and Lebanon, not on as grand a scale, but still, one group of not so nice people, the Israeli Defense Forces, is bombing and burning people in the name of war, because it must never be allowed to happen again.

So, when the IDF does it to prevent it from happening again, are they laboring under the distinction that it applies only to themselves as victim? To Israel, does it must never be allowed to happen again mean that only their kind of people must never be the victims again?

Is this what Alan Dershowitz means when he says that the murder of innocent Lebanese civilians is regrettable but necessary?

More to the point, when Israel does it to innocent Lebanese civilans, does Israel expect people of conscience to look the other way, but to suddenly pay attention when Israel claims, falsely, that Iran wants to do it to Israel?

This imposes quite a burden on people of conscience. Perhaps Israel could fund some sort of morality clinic to explain their twisted uses and misuses of it.