Friday Firesmith – The Sins of the Israelis

friday firesmithThere are two sides to every story and the war between the Israelis and the Palestinians have more angles to it than a meth addicted used car salesman trying to shilling condoms in a convent during Holy Mass. The conflict over there it is nasty and both sides hate each other with a passion. If you ever want to engage in some sort of exercise in futility try to sort out who is trying to kill who and who hates who and why everyone over there in that part of the world is who they are and why they are that way.

But let’s get rid of all the complications and look at this thing as simply as we possibly can.

Let’s say you and your family and your friends all lived in an apartment building that faced a street and across the street was another apartment building. Now let’s say that at random times of the day and night, someone fired a shotgun out of one of the windows of the other building at your building. Now, shotguns, from a distance, are not that deadly, but people get their windows blown out, they get hurt and it is scary as hell. And one day you discover the people across the street are building tunnels to get closer and closer to you.

Okay, now before 1947, the people across the street, this was their building, They lived where you are living now, and they would like to live there again. You understand that now, but that was nearly seventy years ago and your family doesn’t really have anywhere else to go. So what do you do?

You could speak to them about all this and hope for the best. You could fire shotguns back at them and hope for the best. Or you could go over there, kick the doors in, and blast away at anything that moves and a few things that don’t anymore, blow up the tunnels, really wreck their building to the point that they might forget about ever firing at you again.

So what would you do? Yeah, I know the back story here, in more detail than most, but the bottom line is this; on a day to day this is your life and you have to do something, what’s the plan?

Personally, I think the Israelis are using a disproportional amount of force. But I’m not over there and I’m not living with what they have to live with, day in, day out. Given the situation at hand, with the rockets and tunnels, I might do the same thing. You might.

And, oh by the way: Here’s a video showing how the people of Gaza reacted to the attacks of 9-11 as reported by every news channel in America. We hadn’t even gotten our dying and wounded out before the celebration began.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRA0NKQ0k6E

Those people chose sides that day.

And so did I.

Take Care,
Mike

Mike writes regularly at his site: The Hickory Head Hermit

Opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those of the management of this site.

34 thoughts on “Friday Firesmith – The Sins of the Israelis”

  1. Frankly, if they or someone else in the region draws us into this mess or in some way makes a bigger mess out of this squabble among neighbors, I will be in favor of shooting everyone on both sides.

  2. The bottom line is that the first apartment building was taken away from the original owners and given to a party that has political and financial ties (strings) attached to other governments. I’m cherokee and still feel pissed about the treatment of the natives here. Oh well, gotta let it go or it will rot your soul.

  4. There’s British mini-series called The Promise from 2011 which gave me an understanding of Israel. It’s a really good series.
    Yeah Erin, my grandfather’s grandfather walked the Trail of Tears as a child, I feel our ancestors got screwed, and the Natives here are still being screwed. The “reservations” are deplorable.

  5. Oh, the Palestinians danced on hearing about 9-11? Are you aware of the Israelis attacking the USS Liberty with jet fighters and torpedo boats, killing 34 American sailors?

    Neither side are friends of the US, and we should stay away from both.

  7. And why, pray tell, is there some requirement about “disproportionate force” in warfare? What kind of crap is that? Are you morally required to swat a mosquito gently because you are bigger and stronger? Any individual Israeli is threatened by death from Hamas missiles … the relative disproportionate power of the two factions means NOTHING.

    The Israelis already seem to be bending over backwards to minimize civilian casualties while the Hamas seems bound and determined to maximize them (on both sides. I’d have given them 48 hours notice and carpet bombed the entire Gaza after this many years of this crap. Despite a massive PR and propaganda campaign, no logical person should be helping Hamas with their deplorable behavior.

    http://legalinsurrection.com/2014/07/media-cover-up-of-hamas-crimes-starting-to-unravel/

  8. “Those people chose sides that day.”

    Imagine if you will, that you are in front of your house mowing your lawn and the neighbor’s kid across the street runs up to you and throws a baseball at your head. Of course, you’re upset and you have a talk with his parents. When you’re done you go back to mowing the lawn when all of a sudden the same kid runs up to you again wielding a brick. You manage to dodge that. You’re thinking you need to talk to his parents again, when suddenly you see it’s his dad handing the kid the weapons to use on you. Now you’re past dumbfounded at the kid and just pissed at the parents. So you grab a rock from your flower bed and heave it at your neighbor’s window, shattering it. The father is now furious, grabs a bat and starts running toward you when he trips and falls flat on his face on the sidewalk and gets one helluva face scraping on the concrete.

    Considering that the US gives Israel around $3 billion dollars in aid (most of it in weapons) each year, their reaction is understandable.

    I want to state for the record, I am not picking sides on this particular issue. There’s plenty of blame to go around for both sides. There’s also more to it than what one sees on the news. Just know there was a time that peace was evident in that region and someone got assassinated before it could happen.

  9. Mike – don’t forget that we in that building owned it for centuries until forced out–then got it back around 1947.

    Also don’t forget that the ruling group across the street was created with one goal in mind: to kill me and everyone else in my building.

    Israel’s Prime Minister said it best: “we protect our people with missiles; Hamas protects its missiles with people.” That is a good indication of why, despite Israel’s advanced warnings, there are more Gazan deaths.

    • Tim,

      I am well aware of history. I stated as much in the second paragraph.

      I was engaged to an Israeli woman. Neither she, nor her family, nor anyone I met who knew her, wanted genocide. The average every day walking in the street person in Israel isn’t looking to exterminate anyone for any reason.

      Except self defense.

      I worked with a guy who lived in Gaza the first part of his life and he says it’s a hell hole that no one dared get trapped in if they valued their sanity.

      I feel for those people, I really do. But celebrating in the streets over murdered Americans pushed me over the edge. You don’t and you won’t hear me cheering over the deaths of the people in Gaza and killing innocents is a crime no matter whose finger in on the button. Yet you have to admit, Tim, no one there has done themselves any favors when it comes to Public Relations and the average American.

        • Tim, no one over there can behave themselves for any length of time. The Jordanians seem to be about the most laid back people there are right now.

          But damn, man, when was the last time there wasn’t a war going on? Okay, we did start two or three of them, nevermind, we don’t look so good either.

  10. Yea. Its a giant clusterf**k over there.

    I often wonder if the Israelis find it ironic that they have forced an entire population to live in squalid ghettos, like how the Nazis made the Jews live in Poland. That has to bug the shit out of them. I hope it does.

    And I often wonder how we Americans would react if the Native Americans fought us today the same way the Palestinians fight with Israel today. And what the Australians would do if the Aboriginals did the same there? What would they Canadians do? I know exactly what would happen. All holy hell would break loose. We would not show the restraint that Israel has show.

    I think we all just forgot that we were at war with the Indians for a very long time. How long? 400 years? We stole their land, almost wiped them out, and drove them to live on reservations. They fought back, and we fought harder. And here we are today. We just had a bigger battle field. That, and no video camera to witness the brutality.

    And you gotta hand to the Palestinians. They never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. They are so blinded by their situation that they haven’t stopped to realize that they have no clue how to win the PR battle in the west. Stupid shit, like dancing in the streets after 9/11, set back their cause years, if not decades. They never understood that having a leader who looks and acts like a swaggering drunk madman, with a week’s facial hair and waving a pistol around just doesn’t build a lot of trust (I’m talking about Arafat). Seriously. The Kadahfi inspired mad Arab dictator look just doesn’t work.

    And also the hijackings in the 70’s and 80’s, the Olympic massacre, death to America chants, etc., etc. etc. That set back your cause for generations. Seriously, you guys have no idea how to win the long game.

    And to be honest. The Israelis are just as dishonest. Seriously. Either take over the West Bank or get the f**k out of there. This neither here nor there shit has to end. It is obvious that you plan to steal the whole damn thing inch by inch, building by building. Perhaps you think no one will notice if you do it really slowly? I think it is chicken shit. At least in 1800’s America we said “We are taking it all. All the way to the Pacific. And f**k you if you get in the way.”

    As for Gaza. WTF? It really is a giant open air prison. What do think is going to happen? Ask any prison CO how prisoners fight back and you will find a lot of parallels to Hamas. Prisoners will take on CO’s, just because, even if they know they are going to get shit knocked out of them. Guess what Israel? You have managed to turn that place in to one giant seething pot of angry, I-don’t-give-a-shit anymore, inmates.

    And to those who bitch that this fight isn’t fair. Seriously? War sucks. It is ugly and brutal. This isn’t a f**king boxing match with refs. Israel is actually being very restrained here. I guarantee America, England, Russia, and China would not. Fight to win, or go home. That is the reality. They shouldn’t have to pull their punches just cause you don’t have airplanes and tanks. Next time, be careful who you pick a fight with. They may not hold themselves back.

    I could go on. But what’s the point?

    • They never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity

      I love that Ron.

      You have to wonder if the difference in philosophy, which is much less than the cultural differences between Native Americans and the European invaders, can be overcome?

      Yet we see people of the same religion, more or less, waging war in Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and no doubt sooner or later, Iran, which is going to be a lot more fun than it needs to be.

      ISIS has shown that Islamists can be just as brutal when killing their own as when killing anyone else.

  11. Mike, did you read about the Israelis dancing in the streets celebrating the killing of children? They did. I have been pro- Israeli, and dated an Israeli, but deliberately targeting children is too much for me to stomach.

    • Barb, if you know any Israelis you’d have a hard time believing it.

      That said, when news of the fire bombing of Tokyo reached New York there was celebrating.

      We killed 100,000 men, women, and children in one night, in one raid.

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