Morality is not on our Side (Haaretz)

cont'd: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/742257.html


Morality is not on our side

By Ze'ev Maoz

There's practically a holy consensus right now that the war in the North is a just war and that morality is on our side. The bitter truth must be said: this holy consensus is based on short-range selective memory, an introverted worldview, and double standards.

This war is not a just war. Israel is using excessive force without distinguishing between civilian population and enemy, whose sole purpose is extortion. That is not to say that morality and justice are on Hezbollah's side. Most certainly not. But the fact that Hezbollah "started it" when it kidnapped soldiers from across an international border does not even begin to tilt the scales of justice toward our side.

Let's start with a few facts. We invaded a sovereign state, and occupied its capital in 1982. In the process of this occupation, we dropped several tons of bombs from the air, ground and sea, while wounding and killing thousands of civilians. Approximately 14,000 civilians were killed between June and September of 1982, according to a conservative estimate. The majority of these civilians had nothing to do with the PLO, which provided the official pretext for the war.

I can't
AIPAC has too many strings to pull.
Shame on IDF and shame on us for supplying them and egging them on.

An Israeli paper can see what's happening and say it's wrong, and yet people here at DU are a cheering section for all of the killing.

This same article posted a few days ago made the front page:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1721104

The gentleman who voiced this view in Haaretz, (a publication so blatantly right-wing and supportive of a preemptive military strategy that it makes the Washington Times seem like The Nation), has a lot of courage. From everything that I've heard emerging from Israel, he stands singularly alone with this opinion, though. All you have to do is glance at the reader comments below his editorial to see what I mean.

Conversely, while every American politician--from President Cheney to freshman Democrat congresswomen from the suburbs of cities like Cleveland and Denver--seems to be standing by Israel's "right to defend herself" and whole-heartedly agreeing with George Bush's bewildering strategy of refusing to demand an immediate ceasefire, every ordinary American citizen I've spoken with, be they progressive or staunchly conservative, seem to want Israel to stop their military assault immediately.

Well, not everyone.

There are some fundamentalists who believe this is all part of God's plan and this is just the next step in our advancement to the End Times, so they seem generally pleased with this two week campaign.

But everyone else seems against it.

And I find THAT weird--that's there's such a huge disconnect across the political spectrum between the people and their representatives, be they democrat or republican. Why, it's almost as if the politicians in Washington aren't listening to us.

But I digress.