Image via WikipediaRelated source » Israel's Indivisible Legitimacy
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“The international community’s response to the Palestinian atrocity in Itamar is pointed to as proof that Israel must surrender. Instead of considering what the savage murder of an Israeli family tells us about the nature of Palestinian society, the world media have turned the massacre of the Fogel family into a story about “settlements.” […] With American [self-loathing] Jews taking a lead role in delegitimizing Israel; with the international media ignoring the massacre of the Fogel family and attacking Israel for its response to the event they didn’t cover; and with the US government united with the nations of the world in condemning the government’s decision to allow Israelis who are Jewish to build on land they own, the despair of a growing chorus of Israelis is understandable. […] It is time to make the Palestinians pay a price for their depravity and to put their international supporters on the defensive. […] Two days after the massacre in Itamar, the PA dedicated a public square in El-Bireh to terror commander Dalal Mughrabi. Mughrabi commanded the 1978 bus attack on the coastal highway in which 37 Israelis – including 12 children – were murdered. […] Were the government to go after international aid to the PA, not only would it begin a debate in the US and perhaps Europe about the nature of Fatah specifically and Palestinian society generally, it would force the Palestinians’ myriad supporters to justify their support for a society that is defined by its goal of annihilating Israel. […] And whether defying our foes is hard or easy, it is our only chance at survival.”
— Caroline Glick, 2011/03/18 (townhall.com)
It is fine to take the high road (so long as survival permits it). It also makes sense to justify punitive defensive-action in the court of public opinion. Up to a point. I think it is counter productive, however, to justify actions that are prima facie justified.
I think it is not in Israel's best interest to box itself into a propaganda war framed entirely by its enemies. That is generally a losing proposition, especially when world opinion is so outrageously stacked against Israel. Nothing Israel says in response to its enemies' slander will sway the vast majority of the world's hatred of Jews. It only serves to legitimize, in the minds of the Jew haters, the slanderous propaganda.
Israel should, in my opinion, continue to be proactive in pursuing their national objectives, which they have every right to pursue as a sovereign nation, without gratuitous public justification. It should do the same in taking defensive punitive measures. Only in the case of preemptive strikes, when there may be a legitimate basis for an explanation, can one be offered, but only if it truly serves the national interests.
That, by the way, is how most sovereign nations conduct their affairs. Israel can not afford to be more generous than the world's major powers, nor do they have such an obligation.
Post 1,589 Neither Holier nor Guiltier Than Thou
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