It's mass murder. And it's wrong to debate of this merely as an ineffective tactic of resistance. Both Islamic Jihad and Hamas, not the occupation, are responsible for such attacks, and both aspire to the destruction of Israel. It's as if Israeli citizens have no more right to live than their nation has to exist. Civilian deaths at the hands of the IDF must be answered with civilian deaths in Israel. That's more about the balance on a ledger of corpses than anything else.
My objection is that, as far as suicide bombings against Israeli civilians are concerned, the violence and illegitimacy of the occupation should not trump the criminality of the attacks. Ultimate culpability falls to the bombers. Recitation of the facts of the occupation in reference to such massacres makes about as much sense to me as fitting the torture and killings under Mugabe in the context of the need for meaningful land reform. It's a non sequitur. This is lethal fanaticism, regardless of whether or not it was born of desperation with the brutal occupation.
> Personally I think the whole point is that they are
> desperate. That is not an excuse, but it is an
> explanation crucial to understanding what is going
> on. Are they rejectionist Probably. Is that the
> problem? Only a Zionist thug would think so, sorry
> for the blunt language.
No, I don't think suicide bombings are the exclusive problem. Whatever the solution, it should include an end to the occupation and a contiguous Palestinian state. But suicide bombers are now a criminal part of the problem. They get no more license from the occupation to slaughter than, say, the Holocaust provided for the expulsion of the Palestinians in the first place.
-- Shane
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