I don't fancy any circumstance where Israel should not and will not exist and, in a Coxian turn of phrase, mention of five million Israeli dead is merely filibustering. Perhaps I'm too generous with Heartfield's intentions but I'd suggest that the question isn't a if/whether but how Israelis and Palestinians will coexist. That the US either supplies and/or cheers on the Israeli State's use of widely disproportionate and excessive force offers one possible answer to the how question, but its clear that solution is counterproductive. I'd wager that bin Laden's contribution is also full of folly and destruction.
I will confess that my notion here may well be no more (or less) substantive as lamenting 'give peace a chance.' But all this war talk has put me off my morning gruel and I hear precious little talk about peace - or put differently, stopping the killing.
I'm motivated by a quotation from Gywnne Dyer's book on war from years ago. "Nothing is inevitable until it has happened, but the final war is undeniably a possibility, and there is one statistical certainty. Any event that has a definite probability, however small, that does not decrease with time will eventually occur..." Admittedly the drama of his prose was about nuclear war and we need not bother with another form of doomsday talk. But we need to do something to decrease the probability and right now the only thing that is keeping the US from military action is that it doesn't have a dance partner. They simply don't know who to shoot, yet. Use the pause...
And talk about morality won't produce solutions on its own. Realistically, a bunch of people are destined to get blown-up and thus the cycle continues. Morality is the yardstick by which we measure the magnitude of Tuesday's injustice as well as the US response. Peace talk is about how to keep that yardstick from becoming a punitive paddle.
Dennis Breslin
----- Original Message ----- From: "Brad DeLong" <jbdelong at uclink.berkeley.edu> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2001 12:49 PM Subject: Re: What is the moral course
> > > This is the most ridiculous post of the week,
> >> but it's only Thursday.
> >>
> >> mbs
> >>
> >
> >Max, I'm normally out there in the bleachers as part of the Sawicky
> >fan club and I learn a lot from your responses to the
> >rant and cant on the list. Had someone suggested that a moral
> >response might involve fining those responsible for an illegal disposal
> >of a commercial airline in a unregulated venue, then you'd be
> >right. What Heartfield suggested is as far from ridiculous as
> >it is from what is realistic. A moral reponse is to make peace.
> >
> >Dennis Breslin
>
>
> Heartfield's "making peace" seems to involve five million dead
> Israelis. Or do you think that Osama bin Laden wants Palestinians to
> live alongside Israelis in a single democratic Palestine?
>
>
> Brad DeLong