Wednesday, July 19, 2006
The Conflagration I - Disproportionate Responses
'Disproportionate Responses', I
Yesterday The Guardian today published a context piece about the above picture of Israeli girls writing on shells. They were scared, they say; they'd been in shelters; possibly they were performing for reporters or their parents.
While this sound reasonable, it's funny how Palestinian kids playing with toy guns never get the same treatment. One of the stock images for Zionists is 4 year olds wearing Hamas bandannas. This is offered as proof of the violent hatred of Palestinians towards all Israelis. There's never any context given, not even when - as is usually the case - the kids are posed next to pictures of their dead relatives, killed by Israelis.
Children are frightened, they want their parents' love, they're indocrinated into a community. That this goes on - on both sides - is no surprise. That this is a response to trauma when the Israelis do it, and race hatred when the Palestinians do it, is no surprise either. Children don't have the capacity to respond rationally to war. Neither, it seems, do most adults.
'Disproportionate Responses', II
A little chart I made, for anyone who thinks this is an equal conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. Though of course, if you compare military deaths, it pretty much is. But Israel main goal isn't to knock out Hezbollah. Bridges, a power plant and civilian neighbourhoods aren't military targets. Rather, it's to humiliate the Lebanese, and send a message to the entire Arab world: the U.S. may be down for the count in Iraq, but we're still here and ready to fight.
I'll admit it: this is a liberal chart. 1) It doesn't count Palestinian causalties, which would dwarf both sides. But who counts the Palestinians anyway? (Note: gallows humour.) 2) It implies that if those lines were equal, things would somehow be better. But of course, war isn't about equal sides. Nobody invades North Korea because it can fight back. The US and USSR fought proxy wars, because both were too strong to attack directly. War is a bully's game. When the UN moans about Israel's 'disproportionate force', it misses the point: if Israel didn't have disproportionate force, it wouldn't attack in the first place.
Disproportionate, indeed - Israeli prepares to invade Gaza
Yesterday The Guardian today published a context piece about the above picture of Israeli girls writing on shells. They were scared, they say; they'd been in shelters; possibly they were performing for reporters or their parents.
While this sound reasonable, it's funny how Palestinian kids playing with toy guns never get the same treatment. One of the stock images for Zionists is 4 year olds wearing Hamas bandannas. This is offered as proof of the violent hatred of Palestinians towards all Israelis. There's never any context given, not even when - as is usually the case - the kids are posed next to pictures of their dead relatives, killed by Israelis.
Children are frightened, they want their parents' love, they're indocrinated into a community. That this goes on - on both sides - is no surprise. That this is a response to trauma when the Israelis do it, and race hatred when the Palestinians do it, is no surprise either. Children don't have the capacity to respond rationally to war. Neither, it seems, do most adults.
'Disproportionate Responses', II
A little chart I made, for anyone who thinks this is an equal conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. Though of course, if you compare military deaths, it pretty much is. But Israel main goal isn't to knock out Hezbollah. Bridges, a power plant and civilian neighbourhoods aren't military targets. Rather, it's to humiliate the Lebanese, and send a message to the entire Arab world: the U.S. may be down for the count in Iraq, but we're still here and ready to fight.
I'll admit it: this is a liberal chart. 1) It doesn't count Palestinian causalties, which would dwarf both sides. But who counts the Palestinians anyway? (Note: gallows humour.) 2) It implies that if those lines were equal, things would somehow be better. But of course, war isn't about equal sides. Nobody invades North Korea because it can fight back. The US and USSR fought proxy wars, because both were too strong to attack directly. War is a bully's game. When the UN moans about Israel's 'disproportionate force', it misses the point: if Israel didn't have disproportionate force, it wouldn't attack in the first place.
Disproportionate, indeed - Israeli prepares to invade Gaza
