From: anne
Category: Other stuff
Date: 10 March 2002
You can create a deterrent if for every suicide bombing ten times as many palestinians are killed, yet this sort of cold logic will not work at the moment. Regimes, even elected ones are liable to sudden collapse when they stop looking good from the outside, for on the inside greater confusion exists. The suicide bombers want the destruction of Israel, and no moral balance exists between them and the Israeli soldiers, but day by day they grow closer in perception and reality. Israel's existence becomes more precarious as its moral credit is used up, rhetoric about it being the only democracy in the region is undermined by thoughtless, stupid speeches and actions by hardliners. Israel is a colonial state in a post-colonial age and, it is sustained by what we thought was the inexhaustible rightful guilt over the holocaust, a culmination of centuries hatred. But quickly new scenes usurp old memories, and people think why bother? Palestine will be a big mess but it will sooner and stronger the worse the carnage.The battle of Algiers. Israel may linger on for a while, like Rhodesia, then whither and die. Its hope is clarity, economic strength, and well marketed moral purpose.
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