Quote:
|
I'm not suggesting that the situation is anything less than shit, but blowing yourself and non-combatants up is not a response to anything other than a persons fucked up allegiance to a misguided notion.
|
I understand that Lookout. However, if you and your people are facing the world's fourth military superpower and you are restricted in your movements within your own country, you've seen your family members brutalised and humiliated and your grandfather still has a set of keys for the house your family were forced to abandon..you may look to see what you can do. David has become Goliath and the palestinian has discovered an altogether larger sling.
When we devasted Baghdad with Shock and Awe, we killed non combatants. That may not have been our ultimate goal, but it was something our military and politicians were unconcerned about. When Israel sends rockets into a crowded market place, or destroys a house which has been divided up into flats, one of which contains a suspected 'terrorist', they kill non-combatants. This is not a concern to them.
One side in that conflict is imprisoning the other. There is little to no freedom of movement for Palestinians. They are divided from their farms, their workplaces, hospitals, schools...checkpoints are a random and violent affair if you are a Palestinian civilian. Israel can do this because they are a wealthy and militarily powerful. Palestinians have very little to compare with Israel's arsenal.
Strapping on a bomb and targetting civilians is terrorism...in that it creates terror. But all those who have fought with violence against occupation have been considered terrorists at one time or another. The French resistance were considered terrorists by many. The ANC was considered a terrorist group.
Palestinians are creating fear and dismay amongst the ordinary people of Israel, because it's the only way they have to fight back. The Israelis meanwhile are creating terror amongst the ordinary people of Palestine, because they think to terrorise them into submission.
The world is horrified at someone strapping a bomb to themselves and blowing up a schoolbus, but they are not horrified at the death and suffering inflicted on ordinary Palestinians, many of them children, by Israeli terror tactics.