Friday, January 27, 2006
Hamas and political suicide
Western government call Hamas terrorists because they use suicide bombers. As usual, I'm sensing a double standard. Some questions:
1) Why is it moral to bomb civilians from the air, but immoral to do it from the ground? Both suicide bombers and jets aim for military and civilian targets. When pressed, their respective organizations claim that the civilian targets were military all along.
Israeli bus hit by a suicide bomb
2) People aren't supposed to get any warning of suicide bombers. They rely on surprise. What's the difference between that and pilotless drones that fire missiles moving 5 times the speed of sound? How much warning does that give anyone?
The only substantive difference between a suicide bomber and a jet pilot, is that the latter are, apparently, heroes. The suicide bomb is the poor person's F-16.
Palestinian school hit by Israeli airstrike
They're moral equivalents. In fact, the jet fighter pilot is just doing his job: there's a banality to his evil that's truly frightening. The suicide bomber is giving up his or her life. And, when you get past the racist hysteria about Islam, it's often because of the trauma involved in seeing a relative killed.
Targetting civilians is wrong, ethically and politically. Hamas targets civilians; the Israeli army targets far more and gets away with it. Why does Israel never have to apologize for its terror? So how come Hamas has to renounce its struggle, while Israel gets rewarded? Does anyone still wonder why the Palestinians don't trust the west, in the face of this rank hypocrisy?
1) Why is it moral to bomb civilians from the air, but immoral to do it from the ground? Both suicide bombers and jets aim for military and civilian targets. When pressed, their respective organizations claim that the civilian targets were military all along.
Israeli bus hit by a suicide bomb2) People aren't supposed to get any warning of suicide bombers. They rely on surprise. What's the difference between that and pilotless drones that fire missiles moving 5 times the speed of sound? How much warning does that give anyone?
The only substantive difference between a suicide bomber and a jet pilot, is that the latter are, apparently, heroes. The suicide bomb is the poor person's F-16.
Palestinian school hit by Israeli airstrikeThey're moral equivalents. In fact, the jet fighter pilot is just doing his job: there's a banality to his evil that's truly frightening. The suicide bomber is giving up his or her life. And, when you get past the racist hysteria about Islam, it's often because of the trauma involved in seeing a relative killed.
Targetting civilians is wrong, ethically and politically. Hamas targets civilians; the Israeli army targets far more and gets away with it. Why does Israel never have to apologize for its terror? So how come Hamas has to renounce its struggle, while Israel gets rewarded? Does anyone still wonder why the Palestinians don't trust the west, in the face of this rank hypocrisy?
We need every intellectual and every political force to pull together with us against the imperial scheme to redesign our lives without our consent. Why must resistance be left to extremism and desperate suicide bombers? Edward SaidPolitical Islam is a reactionary philosophy and movement, born out of desperation and misery that Zionism and imperialism created. The Palestinian left opposes it and continues to organize, despite Israel's colonial intervention. Read about the Palestinian National Initiative here.
