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Purveyor

(29,876 posts)
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 02:32 AM Jun 2014

Israel's Addiction To Military Force, Its Only Response In Times Of Crisis

Amnesia, or even insanity, must lie behind Israel’s constantly repeated, but spectacularly ineffective, reliance on massive military force when its citizens are abducted.

By Emily L. Hauser | Jun. 26, 2014

People have short memories. It’s an all-too-human quality that frankly allows politics to continue. But even so, there are times when Israelis’ short-term memory loss can leave me breathless.

When three yeshiva students were kidnapped two weeks ago, the collective response was immediate, and visceral: Bring the boys home, and spare no effort, no matter how costly or violent. The nation’s security forces leapt into action, and Israelis’ prayers were mixed with palpable rage. Few worried that dozens and then hundreds of people – Palestinians -were being swept up in a massive and indiscriminate dragnet; few paused to consider the efficacy or ethics of raiding well more than a thousand targets, including private homes, universities, and media outlets; few questioned the wisdom of using live fire against those who dared protest it all, killing (among others) a 15-year old boy and a mentally unstable man on his way to morning prayers. Military spokesman Peter Lerner told us, and few questioned it, that the government and military “are committed to resolving the kidnapping and debilitating Hamas terrorist capacities, its infrastructure and its recruiting institutions.”

And perhaps – perhaps – if these methods had successfully resolved past abductions, if the forces intent on grabbing Israelis had abated, perhaps we could at least understand the impetus, struggle as we might with the unending horror of this unending war. But the simple fact is that all of these methods, all of them, have been used time and again, and all have failed spectacularly.

I don’t ask that our memories be terribly long. Just 25 years, a single generation. Consider Nissim Toledano, Nahshon Waxman, Avi Sasportas, Ilan Saadon, Yaron Chen, Ehud Goldwasser, and Eldad Regev, and ask yourself if massive, indiscriminate Israeli reaction to the capture of those men helped them in any way. For that matter, consider Gilad Shalit. He did come home, thank God, but it wasn’t because of wars, or raids, or crackdowns. It was because of a prisoner swap that tore the Israeli people apart.

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http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.601501
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Jefferson23

(30,099 posts)
3. The way you think, based on your posting history and sources. You believe every word
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 05:53 PM
Jun 2014

the Israeli government tells you....at least the majority anyway.

That is my impression.

 

shira

(30,109 posts)
4. It's not the Israeli gov't. It's the Israeli people who are not suicidal....
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 06:00 PM
Jun 2014

You believe their fears of the W.Bank becoming a nasty terror state are irrational, correct?

Jefferson23

(30,099 posts)
5. I have read many of your posts, and they are in line with the Israeli government.
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 06:04 PM
Jun 2014

Your hyperbolic rhetoric to portray Palestinians as killers may work on some people who read
your commentary..it is useless of you to bother with me.

The objective is not to cede any land, call it a security problem.

Israel won't give up any land, ask Kerry.

 

shira

(30,109 posts)
6. Peaceful Palestinians don't run the state. Hamas & Fatah terrorists do....
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 06:10 PM
Jun 2014

If Israelis believed giving the Palestinians everything they want would result in peace, Netanyahu would be out on his ass - just like he was back in 1999 when Ehud Barak was elected in order to fulfill Yitzak Rabin's peace agenda.

Israel's a democracy. The people aren't suicidal. They have rational fears of a terror state being created right at their doorstep. They have good reason to fear that, just as Americans would fear the same within 5 miles of their biggest populated cities. They simply will not vote in an administration that will cave in to all Palestinian demands.

You oppose Israeli democracy.

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