Jewish World Review July 18, 2006 / 22 Tamuz,
5766
Thomas Sowell
A cycle of nonsense
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com |
Now that Israel has responded to rocket attacks and the
abduction of its soldiers by terrorists by making military strikes into
areas controlled by those terrorists, much of our media are deploring
another "cycle of violence" in the Middle East.
For reasons unknown, some people seem to regard verbal
equivalence as moral equivalence and the latter as some kind of badge of
broadmindedness, if not intellectual superiority.
Therefore, when Palestinian terrorists ("militants" in
politically correct Newspeak) attack Israel and then Israel responds with
military force, that is just another "cycle of violence" in the Middle East
to some people.
The "cycle" notion suggests that each side is just responding to
what the other side does. But just what had Israel done to set off these
latest terrorist acts? It voluntarily pulled out of Gaza, after evacuating
its own settlers, and left the land to the Palestinian authorities.
Terrorists then used the newly acquired land to launch rockets
into Israel and then seized an Israeli soldier. Other terrorists in Lebanon
followed suit. The great mantra of the past, "trading land for peace," is
now thoroughly discredited, or should be.
But facts mean nothing to people who are determined to find
equivalence, whether today in the Middle East or yesterday in the Cold War.
Since all things are the same, except for the differences, and
different except for the similarities, nothing is easier than to create
verbal parallels and moral equivalence, though some people seem to pride
themselves on their ability to do such verbal tricks.
Centuries ago, Thomas Hobbes said that words are wise men's
counters but that they are the money of fools.
Regardless of fashionable rhetoric, there is no Middle East
"peace process" any more than trading "land for peace" has been a viable
option. Nor is a Palestinian "homeland" a key to peace.
During all the years when Arab countries controlled the land now
proposed for a Palestinian homeland, there was no talk about any such
homeland. Only after Israel took control of that territory as a result of
the 1967 war was it suddenly sacred as a Palestinian homeland.
There is no concession that will bring lasting peace to the
Middle East because the terrorists and their supporters are not going to be
satisfied by concessions. The only thing that will satisfy them is the
destruction of Israel.
Pending that, they will inflict as much destruction and
bloodshed on the Israelis as they can get away with at any given time. This
brutal reality is not going to vanish through verbal sleight of hand.
The terrorists have spoken in words and in deeds, including
suicide bombers. They have what Churchill once described in the Nazis as
"currents of hatred so intense as to sear the souls of those who swim upon
them."
We saw that on 9/11 or should have seen it. But many,
especially among the intelligentsia, are determined not to see it.
Of all the Western democracies, only two have no choice but to
depend on their own military forces for their survival the United States
and Israel. The rest have for more than half a century had the luxury of
depending on American military forces in general and the American nuclear
deterrent in particular.
People who have long been sheltered from mortal dangers can
indulge themselves in the belief that there are no mortal dangers. Nuclear
weapons in the hands of Iran or North Korea and, through them, in the
hands of hate-filled terrorists may be all that will finally wake up such
people. But that may be tragically too late.
Those who keep calling for an end to the "cycle of violence" are
what make such violence more likely. "World opinion" in general and the
United Nations in particular can always be counted on to counsel "restraint"
in response to attacks and "negotiations" in response to lethal threats.
What that means is that those who start trouble will have a
lower price to pay than if those they attacked were free to go all out in
their counter-attack. Lowering the price to be paid by aggressors virtually
guarantees more aggression.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the media consider "must reading."
Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment on JWR contributor Thomas Sowell's column by clicking here.
Thomas Sowell Archives
© 2005, Creators Syndicate
|