While uneasy about the asymmetry of the Shalit deal between Israel and Hamas–a thousand Palestinian prisoners ( invariably described in Israel as “terrorists”) for one Israeli–the Israeli and the American Jewish media are also full of hymns of self-praise for us wonderful Jews: the “price” we paid was “a moral victory for Israel,” demonstrates our adherence to “profound Jewish values” such as “the pride in the value we place on every single human life,” is “a sign of humanity” that is “sadly absent in large parts of the world, especially in this region,” and the like. The implication is unmistakable: we are different from them, the parents of the 1000 Palestinians, and the nation they represent, either did not grieve or had no right to grieve over their “children” in Israeli prisons, nor rejoice over their release.
The blatant racism and infuriating claims of moral superiority aside, there are indeed significant differences between the Israeli and Palestinian prisoner situations.
While some of the Palestinian prisoners were truly terrorists seeking the unjust cause of the destruction of Israel, surely many others were essentially soldiers in a just cause, national liberation and the creation of an independent state in a small part of Palestine. On the other hand, Shalit was a soldier of a nation whose real cause (continuing the de facto occupation of the Palestinians and Jewish expansion into what remains of their territory) is unjust and whose “profound Jewish values” and “adherence to the dignity of all human lives” does not prevent it—stop me when you think I’m misstating the facts—from occupying, killing, repressing, imprisoning, blockading, and deliberately inflicting deep economic as well as psychological pain on another people.
Who are these people, anyway? Never mind our supposed Jewish moral values, how about our celebrated commitment to reason? Or even self-preservation? Are they quite mad?
This is a crosspost from Jerry Slater’s site.
Yes Jerome, you have it exactly right this time.
They are quite mad.
What does the world do about a country whose leadership is mad and a has a large number of mad people?
What is the solution?
The US leadership isn’t the solution, it’s also quite mad.
“While some of the Palestinian prisoners were truly terrorists seeking the unjust cause of the destruction of Israel, surely many others were essentially soldiers in a just cause, national liberation and the creation of an independent state in a small part of Palestine. ”
I would draw the line a little differently among the Palestinian prisoners who had killed Israelis. The line is between those who killed Israeli soldiers, which is a legitimate act of resistance (whether a smart tactic is a separate question) vs. those who deliberately killed civilians. Doing the latter is wrong whether the cause is good or bad.
Of course a far larger number of Palestinian civilians are killed by Israelis, and millions are living under Israeli oppression.
American Jewish media are also full of hymns of self-praise for us wonderful Jews: the “price” we paid was “a moral victory for Israel,” demonstrates our adherence to “profound Jewish values” such as “the pride in the value we place on every single human life,” is “a sign of humanity” that is “sadly absent in large parts of the world, especially in this region,”
But hey, according to professor Mearsheimer “Jews don’t fall for propaganda”, so we don’t have to worry.
They will just treat it as it should be treated–a brainwashing propaganda that tries to booster somewhat wounded egos.
israel always plays at least a double-game, sometimes triple and quadruple … most of these 1000 were being held for bogus or no charges as a way to intimidate the larger Palestinian populace and were let go because they didn’t do anything wrong in the first place … and, since israel is gearing up for more attacks on Gaza and other Palestinian places and backs up the settler-monsters at every turn they figure they’ll get these released prisoners one way or the other in the future
Donald:
You are exactly right, in every respect. Still, my own view is that killing civilians in an unjust cause is even worse than killing civilians in a just cause. In fact, I would contend, most of us do make this distinction in our own minds, although we are unwilling to make it explicit–perhaps for good reasons.