Posted on by Larry Jones

Bombing For Peace

The Israelis are now saying that they won’t stop their assault on Gaza until peace and tranquility are achieved.

Please forgive my anti-Semitic, overly simplistic stance on this, but that is like saying you are going to keep smashing up the china shop with a baseball bat until everything is back in one piece. The Palestinians and the Israelis might have intractable differences and tribal grudges and no doubt there is a history of ugliness between them such that almost all of them have some event in their family’s past to prove that the other side is evil and intent upon destroying them. They need to get over it and start trying to figure out how to settle their differences before any more schools or hospitals or lives are destroyed.

I used to think that my country, the U.S.A., had the responsibility and the credibility to enter into the violent affairs of others in the world and help negotiate a truce, one that might lead to a lasting peace. Certainly the parties in the Palestinian mess have demonstrated that they can’t manage it themselves. Sadly, the United States no longer holds the moral high ground in these matters, and any attempt at diplomatic intervention on our part would justifiably be met with suspicion, if not outright jeers. Who knows if any nation has clean enough hands to step in and help resolve the ongoing bitterness?

I’ve heard it said that the first casualty of war is truth. That’s a nice metaphor, but there is real blood spilling in Palestine right now, and no civilized nation should sit by and allow it to go on.

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6 Replies to “Bombing For Peace”

  2. Yeah, Jon Stewart was pretty ruthless on this very topic last night. The whole thing makes me kind of sick.

    I’ve been READING your previous posts, btw, but have been lazy about commenting. But I do wish you & yours a good new year. The above notwithstanding.

  3. My mom used to have a great line when us kids were doing the “He started it!” “No, she started it!” routine. She would put her hands on her hips, stare us down, and say, “I don’t care who started it. STOP IT.”

  4. Thanks, Bill – Those posts say it better than I did.

    Narya – Just reading without commenting? You can do better than that. And yes, Stewart also says it better than I did.

    kStyle – My mom said exactly the same thing! Please let me know if these “mom-isms” are delivered to you in your sleep once you become pregnant. By the way, your mom (and mine) said it better than I did.

  5. You might as well let everybody kill one another–they’ll do it anyway. The Earth has never “stood still”, don’t you know? If half the planet were destroyed one day, within a month the surviving half would be at war with itself. It’s the ultimate proof that none of the religions of the world actually amount to a hill of beans.

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