Blaming the victim
This piece of nonsense by UCLA literature professor Saree Makdisi is one of the most morally perverse things I've recently read- and given the verbosity of the Left these days, that says a lot!
For Lebanon to permit Hezbollah to use its territory as a base of operations against Israel is an act of war. It has been waging that war for some time. Israel is fighting back- and for Makdisi, that is an unforgivable sin.
The moral difference between Israel and its opponents is something Makdisi cannot bear to admit. Indeed, he conceals it by taking refuge in an outright lie:
The dishonesty of that paragraph is staggering. Never mind, for the moment, that far from "imperiously" demanding that the residents of southern Lebanon leave for nefarious reasons of its own, it is doing so precisely out of a humanitarian desire to spare them the very suffering Makdisi deplores. With its enemies, it seems, Israel simply can't win- not even by trying to save Arab lives.
Never mind the obvious point that Lebanon, in permitting Hezbollah to operate from its territory against Israel, is itself responsible for the dilemma of refugees and whatever logistical problems might be involved in evacuating them. Israel's first concern cannot be to solve these problems for them. Its first concern must of necessity be defending itself and its own people from the rocket and other terror attacks being launched from southern Lebanon with the support and connivance of the Lebanese themselves.
The key point is the oft-repeated falsehood that it was Israel who terrorized the Palestinians into leaving their homes in 1948. It was not. While individual extremists may well have encouraged individual Palestinians to leave, the policy of the Israeli government was to beg the Palestinians to stay, and live side-by-side with Israel Jews in a state in which they would have absolutely equal rights.
The terror came from the Arabs. It was they who urged the Palestinians to leave- so as to facilitate their publicly declared intention of butchering every Jewish man, woman and child in the territory the UN had awarded to Israel after what they expected to be an easy military victory. Prominent among the voices raised for genocide was that of the chief Palestinian religious leader, Mohammed Amin a-Hussayni, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem- an avid Jew-hater who had sided with Adolph Hitler during the Second World War, and boasted that the Arabs would finish Hitler's work!
The Palestinians were promised that they would not only get their own homes and property back once what was expected to be a short and brutal war was over, but those of the massacred Jews as well. They openly threw in their lot with their Arab brothers and their program of genocide, cooperating with the Arab invasion in every way possible. And when the dust had settled, and the Israelis- some of them Holocaust survivors- had perversely refused to be massacred by the followers of Hitler's ally, the Grand Mufti, and the armies of the surrounding nation, there could be no question of allowing the Palestinians back. No nation can facilitate the presence in its midst of a hostile population dedicated to its overthrow and the mass murder of its people and hope for either itself or its people to survive!
The Palestinians have waged war against the people of Israel ever since. Their self-identity as victims precludes any possibility of coming to an accommodation with Israel which would allow for peace. The cult of the suicide bomber has filled the niche' which in healthier societies would be filled by scholars and doctors and lawyers and political leaders, not only in Palestine, but throughout much of the Muslim Middle East.
And when, as in the present case, Arab nations give terrorists sanctuary from which they can kidnap and murder innocent Israelis, they have no complaints coming when Israel simply defends itself- whether by kidnapping and assassinating in return, or by attacking the nation which itself has declared war on Israel by allowing itself to be used as a base from which attacks against Israel can be staged. It seems odd that Makdisi doesn't mention the roughly 1,500 rockets that have been fired into heavily populated regions in Israel from Lebanon- and tries to finesse the rather critical point of who started the current war.
I can assure you that no warning has been given the Israelis whom Hezbollah has targeted with its missiles that it would be well for them to evacuate the area.
No lie is too outrageous for the defenders of those who want to finish Hitler's work, and anyone who presumed to defend them- or to criticize Israel for merely defending itself against genocidal maniacs- must of necessity be operating out of either vast ignorance or a moral perversity beyond belief.
No, Prof. Makdisi. Not all of the world is silent at Israel's self-defense. The tiny segment of the world that is writing these words right now is cheering.
Perhaps some day the Palestinians and their supporters will take the hint that the people of Israel will not go willingly into the ovens- and make peace.
The ball is in their court- as it has been ever since 1948.
For Lebanon to permit Hezbollah to use its territory as a base of operations against Israel is an act of war. It has been waging that war for some time. Israel is fighting back- and for Makdisi, that is an unforgivable sin.
The moral difference between Israel and its opponents is something Makdisi cannot bear to admit. Indeed, he conceals it by taking refuge in an outright lie:
Israel warned the entire population of southern Lebanon to leave. No Arab can forget that terrorizing an entire population from it s homes is the tactic that was used to seize possession of Palestine in the spring and summer of 1948. Not everyone will leave. Many will reject Israel's imperious warnings- what right, they will ask, does Israel have to terrify us into flight from our homes? In any case, most have nowhere to flee to- and even if they did, Israel has destroyed the bridges and is bombing the roads out of the south.
The dishonesty of that paragraph is staggering. Never mind, for the moment, that far from "imperiously" demanding that the residents of southern Lebanon leave for nefarious reasons of its own, it is doing so precisely out of a humanitarian desire to spare them the very suffering Makdisi deplores. With its enemies, it seems, Israel simply can't win- not even by trying to save Arab lives.
Never mind the obvious point that Lebanon, in permitting Hezbollah to operate from its territory against Israel, is itself responsible for the dilemma of refugees and whatever logistical problems might be involved in evacuating them. Israel's first concern cannot be to solve these problems for them. Its first concern must of necessity be defending itself and its own people from the rocket and other terror attacks being launched from southern Lebanon with the support and connivance of the Lebanese themselves.
The key point is the oft-repeated falsehood that it was Israel who terrorized the Palestinians into leaving their homes in 1948. It was not. While individual extremists may well have encouraged individual Palestinians to leave, the policy of the Israeli government was to beg the Palestinians to stay, and live side-by-side with Israel Jews in a state in which they would have absolutely equal rights.
The terror came from the Arabs. It was they who urged the Palestinians to leave- so as to facilitate their publicly declared intention of butchering every Jewish man, woman and child in the territory the UN had awarded to Israel after what they expected to be an easy military victory. Prominent among the voices raised for genocide was that of the chief Palestinian religious leader, Mohammed Amin a-Hussayni, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem- an avid Jew-hater who had sided with Adolph Hitler during the Second World War, and boasted that the Arabs would finish Hitler's work!
The Palestinians were promised that they would not only get their own homes and property back once what was expected to be a short and brutal war was over, but those of the massacred Jews as well. They openly threw in their lot with their Arab brothers and their program of genocide, cooperating with the Arab invasion in every way possible. And when the dust had settled, and the Israelis- some of them Holocaust survivors- had perversely refused to be massacred by the followers of Hitler's ally, the Grand Mufti, and the armies of the surrounding nation, there could be no question of allowing the Palestinians back. No nation can facilitate the presence in its midst of a hostile population dedicated to its overthrow and the mass murder of its people and hope for either itself or its people to survive!
The Palestinians have waged war against the people of Israel ever since. Their self-identity as victims precludes any possibility of coming to an accommodation with Israel which would allow for peace. The cult of the suicide bomber has filled the niche' which in healthier societies would be filled by scholars and doctors and lawyers and political leaders, not only in Palestine, but throughout much of the Muslim Middle East.
And when, as in the present case, Arab nations give terrorists sanctuary from which they can kidnap and murder innocent Israelis, they have no complaints coming when Israel simply defends itself- whether by kidnapping and assassinating in return, or by attacking the nation which itself has declared war on Israel by allowing itself to be used as a base from which attacks against Israel can be staged. It seems odd that Makdisi doesn't mention the roughly 1,500 rockets that have been fired into heavily populated regions in Israel from Lebanon- and tries to finesse the rather critical point of who started the current war.
I can assure you that no warning has been given the Israelis whom Hezbollah has targeted with its missiles that it would be well for them to evacuate the area.
No lie is too outrageous for the defenders of those who want to finish Hitler's work, and anyone who presumed to defend them- or to criticize Israel for merely defending itself against genocidal maniacs- must of necessity be operating out of either vast ignorance or a moral perversity beyond belief.
No, Prof. Makdisi. Not all of the world is silent at Israel's self-defense. The tiny segment of the world that is writing these words right now is cheering.
Perhaps some day the Palestinians and their supporters will take the hint that the people of Israel will not go willingly into the ovens- and make peace.
The ball is in their court- as it has been ever since 1948.
Comments
It's called "self defense," Dennis- and all the anti-Semitism in the world won't make it anything else.