Wednesday, January 7, 2009

"Proportional Response"

I originally posted this comment about an article on AntiStrib. I felt it was worth posting here, as well.


I have been asking myself the question of "proportional response" to this since it (the latest round between Israel and Palestine) began. I don't have the answer, because I'm not Israeli. They are the only ones who have the right to determine "proportional response", since they are the ones targeted in the attacks. The rest of the world, bedamned. The whole point in responding at all SHOULD be disproportional, in the hopes that those who are attacking will be STOPPED, dead in their tracks, so to speak. Raise the stakes so steeply, they fold. Case in point: Dropping the big ones on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were disproportional, yet highly effective in their objective. Which is what we wanted. Was it horrific? Absolutely. That was the point. For the world to expect "proportional response" is rediculous. All that means is a continuation of the conflict. What the goal is, is an END to it. The people of Israel know there is no such thing as innocent bystanders in a time of war. They are all combatants with their very lives at stake, making WINNING their objective. If they die because of who they are and what they stand for, they do so with the fundamental understanding of what is at stake. Ask any of them. This also is applied to the Palestinian people, who are not so very different, being bound by millenia of conflict with the Israelis. Only the Palestinians and Israelis involved will settle this, ultimately. "World View" will prove to be a non-factor in it's resolution, since the "World" is not the mother waching it's future die. The "World" doesn't get a vote.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Just stumbled across your blog and read enough of the posts to know Id like to comment here n there.

FYI, I lived in Israel for the last 7 years, Tel Aviv to be exact, and am very familiar with the term Proportionate Response.

At the time of the Gazan op. I had three friends go in, one, a soldier, and the other two journalists. By and large they said the same thing: Israel's strike was remarkably restrained and as humanitarian as an army can be in wartime.

Here's the blog of my one friend (just back from Afghanistan) commenting on the Israeli response in Gaza.

http://blog.newshound.biz/?p=137