I'm not sure if that's a step up in blogging or not.
But apparently I have a new reader who always posts as "Anonymous" and leaves nothing but insulting, sarcastic posts, all related to the war between Israel and Hezbollah. In particular, he or she takes issue with my post on sending the IDF a virtual hug. This commenter is not interested in having a mature conversation about the issues, but rather wants to bash me (and always includes my children) for writing this one post in support of the IDF.
Anyone who reads this blog ought to know by now that this is not a political blog. I don't post political commentary because I have no desire to engage in political wars of words on my blog. There are other blogs devoted to politics, including this particular war.*
This blog is not one of them.
I see my one pro-IDF post as a parallel to my stand that while I do not support America's war (or is it a "police action" like Viet Nam?) in Iraq, I do support our troops. Not to do that, in my opinion, is tantamount to betrayal of fellow American citizens who are putting their lives on the line (and sadly, losing them at an alarming rate). Personally, I would rather our troops leave Iraq and come home, and the U.S. can suck it up and call this a failed whatever-it-is and admit that maybe we didn't have any business being there. This is my opinion, to which I have a right, and I have no desire to debate that with anyone.
As a Jew, and as a person who feels a strong connection with Israel, I believe absolutely and completely that Israel has not only the right but the obligation to defend herself. Israel neither started nor welcomed this war, and it seems to me that if Hezbollah really cared about its people the way they want us to think, they wouldn't be using civilian neighborhoods as bases from which to launch rockets.
It's the old "actions speak louder than words" at work again.
That said, while I support Israel's right to defend herself, I also think the method this time was flawed. When guerrilla fighters are launching rockets from behind innocent human shields, I don't believe air strikes are the answer. There is no possible outcome aside from massive civilian casualties.
But I am not the one making decisions (probably a good thing) and I am not going to withdraw support from Israeli soldiers who are quite clearly defending their homeland when my reason is a disagreement with military policies.
As I see it, there is a clear difference between supporting a war and supporting the people who have no choice but to fight in that war. And before anyone - particularly my insulting commenter - digs out the "I was just following orders" line, I will also say that there is a clear difference between being at war and trying to wipe entire populations off the face of the earth.
Note that Hezbollah has a stated goal of eliminating Israel completely: men, women, children, babies. The more Jews killed, the better, in their view. And this is when they're not at war!
Which brings me back to my insulting commenter, who doesn't have the courage to post as anything other than "Anonymous" and takes aim at me simply because he or she thinks I'm an easy target. This morning, he or she wrote this, in part:
"So what you're saying is that you support the IDF and want to send them hugs and chockies and lots of Pollyanna goodness from your safe little hole in Minnesota provided that you don't have to think about the reality of what you're supporting? Those little kids in Quana could have been yours. And unlike yours, they didn't have the chance to stay "out of it" as long as there are dingbats like yourself supporting their mass murder from afar. Your god must be so proud."
So much anger. I would suggest therapy, but more than likely, this person wouldn't be honest with the therapist.
There is power in sarcasm because then then the person doesn't have to acknowledge their true feelings. It's a known psychological defense: sarcasm covers anger and most often, anger covers hurt.
I wonder what he or she is hurt about? Dead children in Lebanon? If so, why isn't he or she also hurt by the death of innocent Jews? Or dead children in Darfur? Or Nigeria? What about the 275 MILLION children who witness war in their own homes due to domestic violence?
Or is he or she hurt because the innocent children who tragically died in Qana didn't take out any Jews with them?
The commenter has one valid reference in a part of the comment I didn't quote: this is unconscionable. I do not support it or condone it. It is an insult to all of humanity. But I also need to be clear that supporting the men and women who are fighting and dying to defend Israel against rockets and bombs intended to kill as many people as possible is quite different from supporting kids - Israeli or Lebanese or any other - who are taught to hate.
I don't support hate in any of its disguises. I can only hope that my anonymous commenter will someday learn the same. And until then, find someone else's blog to insult.
Shabbat shalom.
* The blogs linked herewithin are the opinions of those individual bloggers and do not necessarily represent or reflect the values and opinions of this blogger (me).
3 comments:
IT is amazing how Israel and USA that supports Israel all the way turn all the facts upside down
Before 1948 there was nothing called Israel
Before 1967 Israel had 1/3 the land that is occupied now
It is amazing that when someone tells the truth they are always "full of hate".
Here are a few not so anonymous comments for you.
His Majesty's Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."
The Balfour Declaration
"The past leaders of our movement left us a clear message to keep Eretz Israel from the Sea to the Jordan River for future generations, for the mass aliya [immigration], and for the Jewish people, all of whom will be gathered into this country." Shamir declared
We must expel Arabs and take their places." David Ben Gurion
"Spirit the penniless population across the frontier by denying it employment... Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly." Theodore Herzl
"We have to kill all the Palestinians unless they are resigned to live here as slaves." Chairman Heilbrun of the Committee for the Re-election of General Shlomo Lahat, the mayor of Tel Aviv, October 1983
"We walked outside, Ben-Gurion accompanying us. Allon repeated his question, What is to be done with the Palestinian population?' Ben-Gurion waved his hand in a gesture which said ‘Drive them out’” Yitzhak Rabin,
"We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population." Israel Koenig, "The Koenig Memorandum"
Rabin's description of the conquest of Lydda, after the completion of Plan Dalet. "We shall reduce the Arab population to a community of woodcutters and waiters" Uri Lubrani
"Zionist colonization must either be terminated or carried out against the wishes of the native population. This colonization can, therefore, be continued and make progress only under the protection of a power independent of the native population - an iron wall, which will be in a position to resist the pressure to the native population. This is our policy towards the Arabs..."
"A voluntary reconciliation with the Arabs is out of the question either now or in the future. If you wish to colonize a land in which people are already living, you must provide a garrison for the land, or find some rich man or benefactor who will provide a garrison on your behalf. Or else-or else, give up your colonization, for without an armed force which will render physically impossible any attempt to destroy or prevent this colonization, colonization is impossible, not difficult, not dangerous, but IMPOSSIBLE!... Zionism is a colonization adventure and therefore it stands or falls by the question of armed force. It is important... to speak Hebrew, but, unfortunately, it is even more important to be able to shoot - or else I am through with playing at colonizing." Vladimir Jabotinsky
There are some who believe that the non-Jewish population, even in a high percentage, within our borders will be more effectively under our surveillance; and there are some who believe the contrary, i.e., that it is easier to carry out surveillance over the activities of a neighbor than over those of a tenant. I tend to support the latter view and have an additional argument:...the need to sustain the character of the state which will henceforth be Jewish...with a non-Jewish minority limited to 15 percent.
I had already reached this fundamental position as early as 1940 [and] it is entered in my diary Joseph Weitz
Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist. Not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahlal arose in the place of Mahlul; Kibbutz Gvat in the place of Jibta; Kibbutz Sarid in the place of Huneifis; and Kefar Yehushua in the place of Tal al-Shuman. There is not a single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population."
" It lies upon the people's shoulders to prepare for the war, but it lies upon the Israeli army to carry out the fight with the ultimate object of erecting the Israeli Empire." Moshe Dayan
" The present map of Palestine was drawn by the British mandate. The Jewish people have another map which our youth and adults should strive to fulfill -- From the Nile to the Euphrates."
"We must do everything to insure they (the Palestinians) never do return." Assuring his fellow Zionists that Palestinians will never come back to their homes. "The old will die and the young will forget." Ben Gurion
One of the most enduring and deceptive slogans of Zionism was coined by Israel Zangwill almost 100 years ago: Palestine was a
"land without people for a people without land."
After paying a visit to Palestine in 1891, the Hebrew essayist Achad Ha-Am commented:
" Abroad we are accustomed to believe that Israel is almost empty; nothing is grown here and that whoever wishes to buy land could come here and buy what his heart desires. In reality, the situation is not like this. Throughout the country it is difficult to find cultivable land which is not already cultivated."
"How can we return the occupied territories? There is nobody to return them to."
"There was no such thing as Palestinians, they never existed." Golda Meir
"We should prepare to go over to the offensive. Our aim is to smash Lebanon, Trans-Jordan, and Syria. The weak point is Lebanon, for the Moslem regime is artificial and easy for us to undermine. We shall establish a Christian state there, and then we will smash the Arab Legion, eliminate Trans-Jordan; Syria will fall to us. We then bomb and move on and take Port Said, Alexandria and Sinai." David Ben-Gurion
"Everybody has to move, run and grab as many hilltops as they can to enlarge the settlements because everything we take now will stay ours... Everything we don't grab will go to them." Ariel Sharon
“If we thought that instead of 200 Palestinian fatalities, 2,000 dead would put an end to the fighting at a stroke, we would use much more force...." Ehud Barak
"There is a huge gap between us (Jews) and our enemies? Not just in ability but in morality, culture, sanctity of life, and conscience. They are our neighbors here, but it seems as if at a distance of a few hundred meters away, there are people who do not belong to our continent, to our world, but actually belong to a different galaxy." Israeli president Moshe Katsav
"Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that . . . I want to tell you something very clear: Don't worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it."
Ariel Sharon
"Jewish blood and a goy's [gentile's] blood are not the same." Israeli Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburg
If Israel would only honor the agreements to return the borders back to those it held prior to 1967, release the hundreds of Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners - men, women, and those who were children when captured - now adults after 20 years in captivity, and stop acting like a wounded martyr when its constant tyranny of its neighbors results in offensive actions against it, maybe the world would look a little more favorably upon its claims of being "forced to defend itself from attack".
The Hezbollah and the Hamas were borne out of Israel's oppression of and domination over Lebanon and Palestine respectively. One only has to read the comments from eminent Zionists throughout the past 40 years to appreciate that Israel has never had any plan to deal with its neighbors on a straightforward and flat playing field. They have pushed to expand Israel's borders by military action and have held those borders in complete disregard of any agreements or treaties it may have signed since.
Israel, far from being some little bullied child on a playground is in reality the most militarily well equipped country in the entire middle east. It cries and moans and threatens Lebanon, the Lebanese people and the Hezbollah IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY for being supplied by weapons from Iran, while at the same time it is receiving not only precision guided weaponry, armaments, helicopters, planes, but nuclear missiles from its friend across the water, the USA. Where is the parity in this?
And more importantly, how can you support it? And hey, it would be really incredibly forthright if you actually replied to this post rather than deleting it and repeating choice phrases which suit your agenda. Oh, that's right. You people are all about disinformation aren't you?
Oh well. I live in hope.
I'm reminded again as to why I stopped taking comments. Some people are too tiresome.
Keep up the good work, Sheyna. I enjoy reading your blog.
Yael: Thanks! :-)
Anonymous: Sounds like you need your own blog.
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