Disastrous talk of disasters

Liberal Avenger has something to say about Israel's Minister of Defense, Matan Vilnai, going Clint Eastwood on Hamas, especially because his decision to use the word "shoah" has been translated by Reuters as Holocaust. I generally agree with LA but, this time, not so much. The entire quote as translated reads [emphasis mine]:

"The more Qassam (rocket) fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, (the Palestinians) will bring upon themselves a bigger holocaust because we will use all our might to defend ourselves," Vilnai told Army Radio. [Reuters]

Now, far be it from me to defend the Israeli government, but Vilnai isn't a member of one of those ultra-orthodox parties so, despite his IDF background and reviewing the translation in context, my read on the statement was that he was saying if the [Palestinian supported] Hamas keeps their attacks up, Israel is going all Six-day war on them.

Like many Americans, I'm sick and tired of the troubles and terrorism created by British colonialism [in all fairness, I'm disgusted by American Colonialistic shite too] and extremely concerned about how dangerous the world currently is because of it. This being said, 9/11/01 and my old days at in the lab aside, my concerns when I go home or drive to work or on any given day do not include the very real threat of terroristic attacks. Israelis deal with that every day and border security (or lack thereof) has a much more palpable impact on them than it does to us (and that effect is felt by them daily), so I have no choice but to understand why they can be hawks to defend their borders.

As a very young child, I remember talk of the settlers and even then I knew that those settlements would eventually have to be left behind. The Israeli settlements on land won in the six-day war were meant to be antagonistic; in settling people in Gaza, the West Bank, the Golan Heights Israel were giving the Arab world the finger, but it was all done with the implicit knowledge that the rest of the world would only tolerate Israel's actions for so long before they would be forced to give the land back. Israel is only secure in its insecurity and this is the only way the world in general is willing to tolerate her existence.

It's time to give the land (except East Jerusalem; holy sites in Jerusalem have only been open to all members of the Abrahamic religions under Israeli rule) back. It's time for the Arab countries to really support the descendants of the very Palestinians they and the British turned into refugees. It's time for Palestinian authorities, Arab Nations and the rest of the world to say enough is enough - you're getting your land, your getting full control of it and don't fuck it up by allowing your country to be used as a launching ground for attacks on your neighbors. The problem is, I don't know too many people who are truly optimistic enough to believe that there can be peace if Israel is allowed to exist at all but, in risking so much, Israel deserves the same right as every other sovereign nation to secure her borders and, frankly, she not only has the right to threaten to create one hell of disaster on those who would attack her, she has the right to act on that threat if need be.

Tags: Israel Hamas Palestine Middle East Matan Vilnai language politics war

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