universalchiro wrote:
Look, Israel is a sovereign nation surrounded by enemies on their door step. If people don't attack Israel, then they will be at peace with them, if people attack Israel then you're going to get the crap kicked out of you. Israel has better weapons and higher skilled soldiers and superior leadership than neighboring countries.
Israel is running under the policy of collective punishment. Three Israeli teenagers are kidnapped and murdered and Israel's response is to rampage through the West Bank and then drop hundreds of tons of explosives on Gaza. Israel is punishing anyone and everyone they can get their hands on whether or not those being killed, maimed or made homeless by indiscriminate bombing had anything to do with the kidnapping or murder.
This is not a sane response.
You say Israel is surrounded by enemies, you would be as well if you conducted yourself in this manner. In this case, Israel is absolutely the aggressor who is bombing people who didn't do anything at all to harm Israel or Israeli citizens.
Suppose some Mexican nationals kidnapping three Americans off the streets of El Paso and then murder said three Americans.
Would you be ok with the US carpet bombing Mexico City in response?
Would that be a sane response?
If one holds an entire people hostage for the actions of a couple of individuals, that's collective punishment. A barbaric relic of the past that is still used by the elite few in modern times by totalitarian government and rage induced mobs. A relic held by the likes of Stalin, the Old British Empire, General Sherman's March to the Sea during the US civil war, the Intolerable Acts in response to the Boston Tea Party in Massachusetts in 1774 to name a few (and we see now how that last one on the list turned out for the British).
In modern times this same barbaric policy is carried out by the North Koreans, the Anti Sikh riots in India in 1984 where the mass graves still are being discovered, Pakistan 2008 who went ahead and destroyed the entire town of Spinkai, South Africa during and after Apartheid and Israel in regards to the Palestinian people.
This same barbaric policy in which we accuse and condemn Syria for allegedly carrying out, we turn a blind eye to Israel.
I don't know about you, but I am not the type to hold the son accountable for the father's crimes. Now I can't speak for God, but I'm pretty sure that God looks out for everyone, be they Israeli or not. Maybe you read a different Bible than I do but I'm pretty sure that God loves us all equally.
And what does the Bible tell us about fighting evil with evil?
What Israel is doing right now is wrong, unwise and will not improve her security. There will be blowback eventually, but we'll all conveniently forget about our own actions and attitudes when that blowback strikes and we'll all keep that circle of violence going into perpetuity.