OPINION & EDITORIAL
Israeli twist of terms hints at opressive intentions
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Also by Guest Columnist:
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by Guest Columnist
Thursday, March 6, 2008
You know things are bad in a country when the Red Cross declares “there is no solution that can be provided by humanitarian organizations.” To what is this grim prognosis referring? The massive conflict-ridden Sudan? Occupied Iraq? Warlord-ruled Afghanistan? According to the Red Cross, humanitarian aid still holds promise in these massive disasters. The area they describe is in fact a small strip of land about one-tenth the size of Dane County: the Gaza Strip.
The Red Cross arrived at this disquieting conclusion back in December. Since then, conditions have worsened immeasurably. In the first two months of 2008, Israeli forces have killed 146 Palestinians, 42 of whom were civilians uninvolved in fighting. Israeli leaders then apparently decided that they were still producing too low a level of terror in the Palestinian population, for in the last week, Israeli operations have killed more than 100 Palestinians — half of whom were noncombatants.
This latest massacre is purportedly in response to the firing of Qassam rockets from Gaza into the southern Israeli cities of Sderot and Ashkelon. I often wonder what Israel would do without the Qassam attacks, for they have provided such a versatile excuse for whatever atrocity it is the state wishes to inflict on the Palestinians this week. It is easy to forget, amid the copious obloquy heaped upon the Palestinian government, that Hamas actually maintained a 16-month unilateral ceasefire in 2005-06. Throughout this period, Israel continued to mount attacks inside Palestine, culminating in the shelling of a Gaza beach in June 2006 in which eight civilians were killed.
The hysteria over Qassam attacks also obscures the vastly disproportionate nature of the threats Israel and Palestine pose to one another. Since Qassam rockets were first launched into Israel in 2001, they have killed a grand total of 14 people. This means that this week alone, Israel has killed many times more Palestinians than the entire death toll from the dreaded Qassam. These facts do not, of course, justify attacks on civilians, but they do illuminate what is at stake for the opposing sides in the Levant.
Israel is, of course, acutely aware that its own destructive capabilities greatly eclipse those of Hamas. Just last week, Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai declared that if the Palestinians continue their ineffectual rocket attacks, “they will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves.” According to the Jerusalem Post, “The Hebrew word shoah, which means ‘disaster’ or ‘conflagration,’ is primarily used in Israel to refer to the Holocaust.”
When confronted about his genocidal intent, Mr. Vilnai quickly retreated, insisting that he wasn’t referring to the Holocaust, but merely disaster in a more general sense. This seems to me to be missing the point. An analogous situation would be Mr. Vilnai announcing that he had a “final solution” to the Palestinian problem, but then later clarifying that he wasn’t referring to that Final Solution. Phrases like shoah and “final solution” may not, in and of themselves, refer to genocide, but they cannot be spoken without evoking it.
Mr. Vilnai is joined in his desire to eliminate the Palestinians by former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, who made a pronouncement last May that “there was absolutely no moral prohibition against the indiscriminate killing of civilians during a potential massive military offensive on Gaza.” Mr. Eliyah’s son, chief Rabbi of the holy city Safed, brought out the full implications of his father’s ruling: “If they don’t stop after we kill 100, then we must kill a thousand. And if they do not stop after 1,000, then we must kill 10,000. If they still don’t stop, we must kill 100,000 — even a million. Whatever it takes to make them stop.”
Defenders of Israel will undoubtedly respond with equally unpleasant quotes taken from members of Hamas. The key difference here, however, is that Mr. Vilnai and Co. have the means to make their foul words a reality. Israel is armed with nuclear weapons, each capable of killing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. Palestinians are armed with Qassams, which have a kill rate of 14 deaths for every 3,000 launched. Qassam rockets are hardly the harbingers of Judeocide they are portrayed as. Rather, they are the futile lashing out of a people who have been forced to live for nearly 60 years without hope.
Paul Heideman (heideman@wisc.edu) is a graduate student in African studies.
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 1:16am):
This is going to be amusing.
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 1:55am):
Great letter Paul! The situation there is totally depressing. I seriously cannot understand how these zionists can justify it.
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 3:43am):
Do you really think Israel would use a nuclear weapon in the Gaza Strip or the West Bank? Not in a million years; that would be self-destructive and those "secret" weapons are reserved for when Iran and/or a radical pan-Arab coalition tries to pursue a conventional war to wipe Israel off the map...again. The Palestinians suffer because the rest of the radical Muslim world wants them to suffer; how else could they blame Israel and the Jews for every conceivable problem in the world?
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 7:05am):
To March 6, 2008 @ 3:43am:
I'm pretty sure you both missed the point with the nuclear weapons reference and that you also make the ridiculous assertion that Palestinians suffer because Muslims want to hate Jews. Sigh.
It's amazing how people can be so opposed to the genocide in Sudan or the guerilla warfare of the FARC or the anti-terrorism crusade of the Russians in Chechnya, but when such cruelty is staring them in the face in Israel, they choose to justify it. Even the majority of Israelis want peace and oppose what their army does.
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 7:52am):
7:05 is exactly right. 64% of Israelis are in favor of negotiations towards a ceasefire. So before people come on here and start blathering about how impossible it is to negotiate with terrorists, they should consider how out of step their view is with the majority of Israelis.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/958473.html
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 8:29am):
You should and live in Sderot for six month. Then we'll see how trivial you think Kassam rockets are.All that needs to happen for peace to come to the region is for Palestinians to stop killing Jews. The solution to the Palestinian question is so glaringly obvious only an Jew hater can't see it.
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 8:38am):
It is incredible how swome people confuse cause and effect. The problems in Gaza are due, not to Israeli actions, but rather are a response to Palestinian actions. Before Israel pulled out of Gaza, they had built infrastructure, schools, greenhouses,and all sorts of desirable facilities. When Israel pulled out, they left the structures intact. The Gazans immediately destroyed them. They elected a government who had a platform to destroy Israel. They allowed Hamas and Fatah to use schools, hospitals, and private homes as launching sites for rockets against innopcent civilians.
As far as the claim that Israel's actions are disproportionate. What's your point? If someone refuses to act civilized by killing and maiming innocents, a slap on the wrist will do no good. If they cannot understand that their actions are wrong, then at the very least, they should be afraid to act as they have been.
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 8:39am):
To 7:05. The majority of Israelis do want peace, but I you are wrong that the majority oppose what the army does. Simply not true.
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 8:39am):
The palestinian rockets terrorize Israel regardless of how many deaths or injuries are caused. The refusal of the palestinians to stop the rockets and actually deploying larger rockets led to the Israeli actions.
You cannot find any palestinians who are starving or who cannot get medical care (the Infant Mortality Rate in the Palestinian territories is lower than Jordan, Syria, and even Saudi Arabia according to the UN). Hamas and Fatahs goal is to kill Jews and eliminate Israel. Palestinians do not want peace. It is their fault and the fault of all the Arab countries that refuse palestinians their rights. Lebanon is horrible on Palestinians.
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 8:54am):
What a stupid argument. The ridiculous metric of "3000 rockets to 14 deaths" actually defeats your entire point - how many tens or hundreds of thousands of rockets must Palestinians have launched to even reach that overall average? And if they are so oppressed and downtrodded, why are they able to spew out hundreds of huge missiles a week? We're supposed to forgive precious lil' Hamas just because they're largely incompetent? That's like forgiving a guy who walks into a diner and sprays 500 bullets because he somehow only manages to kill 3 people.
Your litany of Israeli "massacres" is also wildly inaccurate. Take, for example, the "beach shelling" that was never proven to be such - indeed, contemporary reviews indicated it was probably a Palestinian bomb of some kind.
In the end, of all the wild hyperbole in your article, I think your willingness to whitewash a murderous terrorist organization in Hamas is the most telling. You really don't get it: Israel is an excuse, not a root cause. Militant Islamic groups like Hamas use Israeli "occupation" of what was - ahem - once JEWISH LAND before the Muslims conquered it as an excuse for their barbarism, and you are the fig leaf in the West. Do you really think that "self-defense" requires the destruction of weddings, discos, and restaurants? Or that if Hamas wins and Israel is destroyed, all those militants and suicide bombers will suddenly drop everything to become pediatricians and folk singers? Give me a break. It is only by standing up to Islamic militancy the world over that we have a chance of defending everything that is great about Western culture and freedoms. Supporting Israel in face of its ongoing terrorist onslaught is the only moral stance any civilized person can take.
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 8:58am):
Let's ignore the failure of the Palestinian leadership to provide for their own people.
Ignore the widespread corruption and embezzlement.
Ignore the pathological hatred towards Jews. Ignore their stated goals of destroying Israel.
Ignore the gaping discrepancies between Palestinian new sources, and Israeli.
Ignore the vast human rights abuses by Palestinian leaders. Human shields, fighting from civilian areas. The propaganda machine that infuses children with a cult of death.
Ignore the ME powder keg that can erupt at any moment, and the fact that Israel is surrounded by enemies.
Ignore this and more.
The only conclusion remaining is that you, too, hate Jews.
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 9:29am):
If the Palis laid down their weapons, you would have peace. If you Jews laid down their weapons, you have no Jews.
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 9:38am):
Paul, you're a dork! Why don't you bitch about the crap Hamas does to Israel? Why don't you bitch about the way Hamas brainwashes Palestinian kids into growing up to become suicide bombers? It's always Israel and never Hamas!
I don't care what Israel does to the Palestinians anyway. I hope the Israelis kick their butts. I also think Islam is a trash religion. The Arab world would be much better off being more secular. Things were a lot quieter in the Middle-East when they were more secular.
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 9:58am):
The majority of Israelis also don't want to be blown up while riding a bus.
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 10:07am):
"42 of whom were civilians"
According to Hamas there is no such a thing as a civilian - all are to kill Jews at every opportunity. Even women, children and animals are to be fitted with bombs to kill the Jews.
"I often wonder what Israel would do without the Qassam attacks"
Simple answer, NOTHING. Israel would do nothing if it was not being attacked every day. But that would not fit with Hamas plans to destroy Israel.
If the Palestinians had no weapons then there would be peace, if the Jews had no weapons then the Jews would all be murdered by the Palestinians.
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 10:14am):
"they are the futile lashing out of a people who have been forced to live for nearly 60 years without hope."
Were those the ones who tried to take control of the government in Jordan or Lebanon?
And there has never actual been a country called Palestine, save for a few months in 1948. They are an imagined community and have ticked off most of the other Arab countries who claim to be their allies.
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 10:41am):
Screw the Palestinians...and all Muslims. I agree with 9:38am that the Arabs need to be more secularized. I've met with people from Arab countries and they all agree that Muslims are getting way too big for their own britches. Most secular Arabs don't care about what happens to the Palestinians and would rather not be pulled into the conflict. Muslims are squarely to blame for that.
Live and let live, or your mosque will be shut down and demolished. And you'll know you had it coming.
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 11:03am):
Islam is the most f***ed up religion in the world. I'll admit I'm not religious myself, but religion has been the reason for more wars in the Mid-East than land or oil. And I'm really sick and tired of all these jerkoff Muslims claiming Islam is a religion of peace. And all they ever seem to talk about is Israel this/Jews that.
None of those Arab countries seem to care about what happens to the Palestinians. Why do they get their turbans all up in a bunch over what's going on if it doesn't really matter?
I don't even want to hear another word from any of them about Israel or Jews. These fanatics have been for years trying to brainwash us into hating a people we never had anything against. Who's next? Hindus? Buddhists? Stick a cork in it, Mohammed!
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 11:13am):
"Do you really think that "self-defense" requires the destruction of weddings, discos, and restaurants?"
For one thing, I never said qassams were in self-defense. I said they were futile, and that attacks on civilians were illegitimate.
Do you really think that "self-defense" requires the the destruction of hospitals, the targeting of ambulances, and the murder of Palestinian children?
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 11:17am):
"If the Palis laid down their weapons, you would have peace. If you Jews laid down their weapons, you have no Jews."
This argument is repeated so often it bares some deconstruction. An analogous situation was in the American West with the expansion of settlers. If settlers would have laid down their arms, they probably would have been slaughtered. At the same time, if they hadn't stolen Native American land and attempted genocide, they wouldn't have that problem.
The situation in Gaza is roughly analogous. No one is asking Israel to disarm. We are demanding that the state does what its population and the rest of the world desires and negotiate a cease fire, while also halting the blockade of Gaza and the expansion of settlements in the West Bank. Such actions, which would allow Palestinians to at least begin to live a life slightly different from that of prisoners, are the preconditions to any cessation of violence, upon which a longer lasting solution can be envisioned.
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 11:23am):
Simple solution... dont shoot rockets at Israel, dont get bombs dropped on your head.
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 12:18pm):
Mr. Heideman, we really don't want to hear any more BS about Jews and Israel. If you and your little Islamic extremist friends want to celebrate your hatred of Jews then kindly do it somewhere else. We could care less what happens to your poor little Palis, especially when they are the ones who started every fight they ever had with Israel. They elected terrorists to be their leaders, they fire rockets into Israeli towns and they enjoy every minute of it. Then when they get their butts kicked for it they come crying to all their stupid college liberal supporters for sympathy. To hell with them.
It wouldn't bother me a bit if all the Muslims were kicked out of western countries and huddled back to the third world sleaze pits they came from. Why don't you go with them if you care so much, Paul?
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 12:31pm):
In all my life I have never read a more biased article. You propose Israel's acts of defense is too harsh. Since Kassams only killed 14 innocent civilians (and you fail to mention the countless civilians that have had arms and legs amputated on top of the thousands traumatized by the constant barrage of rocket attacks) do you propose that instead, we round up 14 random civilians and kill them? Would that be justified? For every leg blown off, should we take an innocent Palestinian and chop of one of their legs?
Instead, I believe that Israel is doing what any free and legal country would do when it encounters random acts of violence against it's citizens. It is going after the exact location of where the rocket was launched from. Unfortunately, Hamas uses locations that are not Hamas or militant bases, but rather civilian populated areas from which they launch these rockets, and I feel very sorry for the innocent lives that are carelessly put in danger by radical fundamentalists.
You mention that Israel has the capabilities of launching a complete nuclear Holocaust and annihilate the entire Palestinian population- indeed they do. However, we are civilized and respect life, which is why the have never bombed carelessly and would never intentionally take the lives of innocent civilians. If Hamas had these capabilities, you think they would have the same attitude?
And what about the the 2005 complete withdrawal of troops- not a single Israeli soldier remained, and it stayed that way until Hamas regrouped with their new freedom and started aimlessly launching rockets into Israel, with the hope that this poorly made rocket would end up in the homes of as many innocent civilians as possible. Fortunately for Israel, these rockets are not accurate.
I suggest you try to do a little research into the situation before making outrageous, blatantly anti- Semitic, typical liberal, hippy, and socialist remarks.
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 12:48pm):
Israel: reacts to suicide bombings and endless rocket attacks by attempting to lock off the entry points of said bombers and attack launch sites for said rockets.
Hamas: reacts to Ariel Sharon simply walking around the Temple Mount by initiating a now-eight-year war.
That would seem the most disproportionate response of the entire debacle.
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 1:16pm):
give it a rest with the liberal jabs. Dont any "conservatives" not want strife or do liberals only hold that as virtuous? I thought the right was religious?
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 1:35pm):
Annnnnnd now the Gazans respond by
SHOOTING STUDENTS IN A SCHOOL.
Real noble, eh.
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 1:48pm):
It's always sad to see someone who knows absolutely nothing about the Middle East pontificating about it.
Common. But still sad.
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 2:46pm):
Another Pali peace overture?
Two gunmen infiltrated a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem and opened fire in a library Thursday night, killing at least seven people, police and rescue workers said.
***
In Gaza City, residents went out into the streets and fired rifles in celebration in the air after hearing news of the attack on the seminary.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Israel-Shooting.html?hp
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 2:49pm):
Ariel Sharon didn't simply walk around the temple. The Butcher of Qibya descended upon al-haram al-sharif with over one thousand armed policemen during prayer service.
He's also famous for his advice on how to treat Palestinian peaceful protestors: "Cut off their testicles."
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 2:54pm):
For conservatives "not want strife" does not equate to "surrender immediately", but then it was Democrats who got us into WW I, WW II, Korea and Viet Nam - were they not liberal?
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 2:55pm):
"However, we are civilized and respect life, which is why the have never bombed carelessly and would never intentionally take the lives of innocent civilians."
This is blatantly false. For one, the article quotes Israeli religious leaders who advocate the large scale killing of innocent Palestinians. Second, Barak asked his legal team just this week if they thought it would be legal to fire artillery at population centers with the full knowledge that they would be killing innocent civilians.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/960258.html
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 3:13pm):
i just have one question. why the hate? you obviously have just written a story, not an article and there is not one sentence where you looked at both sides with respect. so again, why the hate? why do you hate Jews? why do you hate that there is a Jewish State? why do you hate the fact that a country is able to defend itself?
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 3:15pm):
I'm not surprised that such biased viewpoints would be given voice in Madison. At a meeting on antisemitism in 2006, a woman that taught in the University's Middle East Studies Dept. declared that she regularly gets accused of being an antisemite when all she really does is "criticize" Israel. When asked what it was that lead to those accusations she said it was because of her support for the campaign to divest from Israel.
Was that all I wondered, it seemed so innocuous? Well a little digging led to more of her writings including this gem, not to mention similar words found on the site a Holocaust denier.
Her words --
"Let us not reflect too much on what all this means. How, for example, would the 47-year-old Sapir College student like to know that his death has been far more useful to his State than his life? For in death he provided another pretext to carry out mass murder of the Arab Untermenschen blocking the otherwise pleasant view to the sea in the southeastern Promised Land. His death challenged the Israeli rules of combat: the "We kill and You Die" warfare, the only type allowed by the Neo-Jewish Masters and their allies in the United States who have no intention of making a just peace with the lower forms of life in their midst. The sanctimonious demand that the Qassams must be stopped is a deliberate lie intended to make you forget that the Qassams provide a near fool-proof pretext for grabbing more of Gaza and setting more of it to ruin; and that the Qassams are the result of systematic national torture and evisceration, borne themselves of occupation, caused by it, improved upon by periods of siege, sadism and mass killing.....The leaders of the hapless Sderot student's racially pure dreamland are grateful for his dying: Now the angry flames of intolerance can burn on feverishly. Into those flames the bodies of each dead Gazan man, woman or child should be flung, like books, to consecrate the ritual, the burnt offering, of those who owe the latter-day Israelites their Modern Day Zion."
Gee, I wonder why people thought she might be a little anti-Semitic around the edges.
Given that someone that held such views was in a position to influence young minds, is it any wonder we would then read such a sophmoric opinion in the Badgerherald? When will the University of Wisconsin wake up and root out the tree of hatred that continues to bloom in it's midst?
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 3:19pm):
Paul "I am clearly anti-semetic" Heideman has obviously never been to Israel, West Bank, or Gaza Strip, let alone done any research beyond a blatanly pro-Palestinian website he happened to stumble upon while "google-ing" for sources. I suggest, Paul, that you stick to Africa before spreading blatantly biased propaganda upon the impressionable students of Madison. I sincerely hope that you are a student of MATC or some other institution other than the University of Wisconsin - Madison. I constantly ask myself how kids like you manage to get accepted into a school of this caliber. I am embarassed to be grouped in the same student body as you. You should know that most Palestinians and Israelis hope and pray (in their equally peaceful religions) for peace. Many Palestinian Israelis actually work side by side with Jewish Israelis in a seemingly harmonious relationship. It is only the fundamentalist minority and their equally moronic ("liberal, socialist, anti-semetic, hippy, etc.") and uninformed counterparts in America that perpetuate the hate, bias, and prejudice toward other cultures and religions.
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 3:27pm):
Long Live Palestine!
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 4:05pm):
I can't believe most of these comments are posted. Completely disrespectful and offensive.
but then again most of them are made by JEWS!
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 5:13pm):
interesting that you mention the 'red cross.' you know the israelis recently have a version, but since the entire muslim world is virulently antisemitic (because the koran invokes it) they have a red rectangle or diamond shaped organisation. remember beslan, bali, the buddhist and hindu holy sites destroyed, madrid, iraq, lebanon, tripoli, nyc, pennslyvania, wash dc, tel aviv, darfur, chechnya, bosnia, the 'youth riots' in denmark and france, and everywhere else that a muslim nation borders another religion and there is jihadist violence. liberal moral equivalence and ignorance is no excuse.
this article is nothing but a representation of a person who underwent the brainwashing liberal tactics under a ridiculous program called 'african studies.'
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 5:19pm):
palestinians are jordanians...and no one here can name anything from this fabled ruined palestinian culture...food, currency, borders, former leaders, language, gifts to the world.
nothing. prior to arafish.
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 5:42pm):
This article is the most disgustingly and absourdly biased account of what is going on in Israel that I have read in a long time.
Just because only 14 Israels have been killed by the Qassam rockets does not mean that others have not been horribly injured and mammed for life. Also there is no mention of the whole Entefata at which point terror was given a whole new meaning. When will enough Jews be dead for the Palestinians to be satisfied? When will the breeding of hatred and distruction stop?
The addition of the Holocaust terms in this article like "Shoah" and "Final Solution" are used inappropriatley and completley out of context. This seems to imply that the Jews in Israel are out to exterminate their Gaza neighbors. If this point doesn't blatently show bias and misinformation, then I don't know what does.
This afternoon is a good example of the type of story you should have used in your article to balance your anti-semetic comments. A terrorist went into a Jewish Seminary in Jerusalem and opened fire on the students. Students. Jewish Students. Eight innocent people were killed. Did they do anything to provoke this attack? Ask yourself that.
The rockets raining daily on small towns like Sderot have put families in a constant terror state of mind. They have about 3 minutes from the time when the sirens go off in their town to get to a shelter. In this time if a mother has two or more small children (as most people do in this city), she may only have time to get one to safety. This mental stress has been afflicitng the minds of all the residents in the southern Negev area. Regardless of the death toll, death from these constant attacks is a possibility daily.
In 2001, when terrorist attacks happened in America, our immediate first response was to go after those who attacked us. Why shouldn't a soverign country such as Israel have the right to do the same? The attacks will only continue unless the people who create terror see that there are clear consequences for their actions.
You can talk as much as you want about the 16 month cease fire that happened in 2005-2006 but in reality and actuality, the terror in Israel should never be okay. Terror and killing is never justified. Both sides have done wrongs but in the end who is there continuing peace talks, disengagements of territory and supplying resources?
Honestly, you should be ashamed of yourself for writing such an article with misleading information. I saw in the article that you are a grad student in African Studies. Obviously you must know enough background information about the Arab-Israeli conflict to be interested in writing an article like this. There are always two sides to every story. Unfortunatley you chose to ignore many crucial points of information that would help views to better understand the situation. This article simply is disgraceful to have in a college newspaper and to have to read something of this low-level anti-semetisim and anti-Israel. Next time you chose to write an article like this, please TRY to represent the FULL truthful story of both sides, otherwise I suggest re-thinking a career as a writer and any field of African studies.
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 7:42pm):
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/03/06/mideast/index.html
Read that. That's why Israel does what they do.
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 7:53pm):
8 Israeli students are murdered and what's the reaction in Gaza? Celebratory gunfire. When was the last time the Israelis were celebrating innocent civilians being killed in Gaza? Never - and not only does that not happen, but many Israelis apologize and go to great lengths to express their sympathies when innocents are killed, even in Gaza. This article is dead wrong and incredibly biased on a number of isses too long to address, but I'm glad to know that those who have been commenting in general have the sense to know a bit more accurately the truth on the ground.
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 8:15pm):
Tell me who are the real oppressors? . Do you think for a second that today's murder of innocent Israeli students will do anything for peace? Are you crazy to think that these people (Hamas and other Palestinian Islamists) want peace in any way, shape, or form? Every time there is any talk of peace there are terrorist attacks in Israel. These people do not want peace . All they want is the destruction of Israel. For with peace, they will have to take care of their own people, stop complaining that everything is Israel's fault, and become civilized human beings--apart of the free world. Unfortunately for all of us, without reeducating the children of the terrorist, there will NEVER (can you read) NEVER be peace in the Middle EAst, and with editorials such as this, being read by naive and young students and other people who read these columns, hate and ignorance will continue to be propagated at U of W and other college campuses around the country and world.
I'm glad to see, by the byline, that this writer is still in school. He still has time to learn.
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 8:51pm):
I see that the Egyptians are building a 13 foot concrete wall to assist their brothers in Gaza.
They should just admit that Gaza is part of Egypt and start keeping the peace.
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 9:09pm):
Yeah, the Palis teach their children that all Jews must die - but I'm supposed to feel sorry for them?
The Palis use their children as human shields and then wonder why they die?
Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 11:02pm):
accusing mr. heidemann of anti-semitism is cowardice. he's obviously not criticizing a race; he's criticizing a government. hiding behind that enormously emotional term, violating it for your own petty purposes, is shameful and simply indicates that you can't come up with compelling intellectual argumentation.
-a jew who believes that we of all people should know and internalize the danger of groupthink.
David (March 7, 2008 @ 9:45am):
How ironic that the day I read this, two Palestinian terrorists walked into a religious Israeli yeshiva and started killing innocent 16 year olds. If Palestinians stopped shooting themselves in the foot with their quasam rockets and with their suicide bombings Israel would have gladly gone back to the '67 borders! But, you're right Paul. The situation in Israel is just like the Holocaust! Because in the Holocaust, the Jews were put in cattle crates for days, shipped off defenseless to death camps and gassed...
then their bodies burned. In Israel now, the Jews left Gaza to the Palestinians, the Palestinians have their own government (which in turn, they elected it to be run by Hamas a terrorist organization) and they have rockets that kill people! They have explosives that they use, like yesterday, when two men walked into a SCHOOL and blew themselves up! You're right Paul, it is the EXACT same thing as the Holocaust. You say in you article that the Israelis use the rocket attacks as an excuse to go into Gaza. Damn right it's an excuse! It's a pretty good excuse too! If Mexico were to shoot a rocket into America and kill just one person on purpose, we would declare war instantly. Going into a land where rockets are shooting their civilians isn't an excuse, it's defense. Just because Israel has actually modernized themselves and has become a powerful nation in technology does not mean they should be bullied for that. I agree, the killing of either kind of Civilian is wrong and tragic, but to imply this is a Holocaust is insulting to the over 13 million who lost their lives. To consider this just A mass extermination of a certain race, like the Jews went through is ridiculous!I promise you there was no peace talks, no cease fires between the Jews and the Nazis during the Holocaust. If the Palestinians want peace they should stop blowing up schools, until then Israel is going to have to defend itself.
Kim Koppje (March 9, 2008 @ 7:23am):
First, I am really disappointed that this Anti-Semitism article came out of the University. Paul as a graduate student of Africian studies I would think that you would understand oppression/racisim/anti-semitism. You should go to Israel and understand the situation before writing such an article. I think you should travel around Israel in a bus. You need to sit and watch each person get on, a man, woman, or child and think if this a suicide bomber. You need to experience living a life of constant threat wether you are on the way to work, the market, eating pizza with family or friends or just being in school studing.
Can you imagine what United States would do if this was Mexico sending in rockets? If all the Mexicans that constantly slip into United States were sucide bombers? If all these people who are working here could at any time explode? We have borders too and many slip in and out. Just like the Palistinians. However these people are not here to harm us. They have families and want to earn money.
Palistinian's only goal is to kill Jews. They could live a life of peace if the Palestinian/Arab starts to love thier children! Stop teaching hatred. Close down all the pre-schools that are teaching thier children how to fire a gun and to blow them self up.
I hope you are not close to obtaining your gradute degree because you have a lot to learn!
Anonymous (March 10, 2008 @ 7:17am):
Just a quote that is worth reading after your article;
"Hamas seized control of Gaza last June from Abbas' forces. Since then, Israel has pursued peace efforts with Abbas, who rules from the West Bank, while battling Hamas in Gaza both through military operations and an economic blockade on the area."
Do you think Hamas is thinking about the lives of Palistinians? Do you think Hamas is wanting a peace process?
"Hamas will not reach any agreement with Israel until it opens Gaza's border crossings"
Do you actually think Gaza's borders should be opened? They are NOT going for food and basic living materials they want to cross the borders to send more suicide bombers. They want more weapons?
Anonymous (March 12, 2008 @ 12:18pm):
"These facts do not, of course, justify attacks on civilians, but they do illuminate what is at stake for the opposing sides in the Levant."
It is nice to claim that you are not justifying indiscriminate terrorist attacks against innocent civilians, and in fact, you might even believe what you are saying. But your article, in particular the few lines before the above statement, run completely counter to your juxtaposition of Palestinian and Israeli deaths.
At no point in the article do you mention the fact that Palestinian terrorists fire rockets from the centers of heavily populated residential areas, using their own Palestinian brethren as human shields. Israel exercises great restraint in its military policies in such situations, holding back from firing against terrorists in these cases in order to minimize Palestinian civilian casualties.
This fact might come as a surprise to readers who have been so fortunate to read your two quotes from Vilnai and Eliyahu that were taken entirely out of context. In actuality, Vilnai's Holocaust reference in particular was blasted by the Israeli public, and Eliyahu certainly does not represent all Israelis.
Calling Israel's actions terroristic in nature by placing them on the same level as those of Palestinian terrorists is wrong and only serves to strengthen those who intentionally target innocent civilians.
Anonymous (March 13, 2008 @ 11:08pm):
There is no love beteween the Jewish and the
Arabs. If were not the Jewish State it is the Kurds or some poor disenfranchised ethnic or religouss group. The Bible and Koran teach many things that a extremist can use to destroy humanity and the world.
What have we learned from Hitler, Stalin, MAO
and other misguided beliefs to promote our own living hell of violence and belliegerence against humanity?
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