[lbo-talk] the new official IDF line

Michael Smith mjs at smithbowen.net
Sat Jun 5 10:35:56 PDT 2010


On Sat, 5 Jun 2010 12:45:32 -0400 Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:


> In his interview with Russia Today, Norman said that Israel has
> probably gone from acting like a lunatic state to being a lunatic
> state.

If we accept this way of describing the situation -- and I'm not saying it's wrong -- then Israel has been a lunatic state for a long time: ever since it developed "regional superpower" ambitions, and that may well have been a long time ago. It may well have been ab ovo, in fact. Lunacy may be a deformation professionnelle of Zionism.

It's always fun to try looking at it from the enemy's point of view. What could Israel have done different? They couldn't possibly have let the flotilla through. That would entail an implicit admission that they don't control everything in their self-appointed sphere of influence.

Could they have come up with a kinder, gentler way of stopping the flotilla? No doubt. But wouldn't that entail an admission too -- namely that the people on the flotilla were entitled to some degree of respect, that they were something other than vile terrorists and anti-Semites, that Israel might have enemies -- and the flotilla folk certainly were enemies, Yahweh bless 'em -- who are *human beings* with reasonable motives?

I'm seeing a lot of parallels these days between Israel and the New York City police department.

--

Michael Smith mjs at smithbowen.net http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org http://fakesprogress.blogspot.com

"Everyone has his favorite passage from the Theodosian Code." -- M I Finley



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