There’s a great scene from the West Wing (which, as regular readers will know, is one of my favourite shows) when C.J. tells Josh, Toby, and Sam that she’s afraid that Governor Ritchie will win the election by “overcoming perversely low expectations”:
I’m absolutely terrified we’re going to lose the expectations game. You can’t believe how many times I get asked what would be a win in the debates. At this point I feel like if and only if Ritchie accidentally lights his podium on fire does the President have a fighting chance.
Of course, on TV everything works out great for the main characters. But this is real life, and I can’t help but thinking that the Palestinians keep “winning” the media war against Israel precisely because of those lowered expectations.
Everyone expects the Palestinians to break their word, violate truces, and send terrorists to murder children and babies. So when it happens, people claim shock for about 10 minutes and then promptly forget about it.
Israel, on the other hand, is held to a higher standard. As some argue it should be, because unlike the Palestinians, Israel is a democracy with lofty ideals about freedom and equality and human rights. So when Israel engages in self-defence, people are “disappointed”.
Governor Ritchie may not have had to light his podium on fire to lose the debate against President Bartlet. But the Palestinian terrorists keep lighting themselves on fire . . . and winning the propaganda war. And it’s precisely because of these lowered expectations.
Going into residential areas and bombing the fuck out of whole city blocks hardly qualifies as “self defense.” That’s no better than suicide bombings–unless you’re a war crimes/crimes against humanity apologist.
Agreed, if Israel went into residential areas and randomly killed civilians, it would certainly be no better than a suicide bomber. Of course, Israel doesn’t do that. A suicide bomber tries to maximize civilian casualties, while Israel tries to minimize civilian casualties. You can’t even begin to compare the two.
segacs,
The reason that, as you state, Israel gets held to “higher standards” isn’t because Israel is a quasi-democracy (witness its recent racist changes to its marriage laws), but because it is the colonialist occupier of the West Bank and Gaza. Are suicide bombings an acceptable form of resistance to Israeli colonialism (and don’t you call it anything else)? No, certainly not; but that said, one must also remember that Israel has absolutely no right to, as it does, continuously circumvent the principle of the supremacy rule of law and the judiciary apparatus, and carry out “targeted assasinations” (or, as Ms. Hanthala refers to it, “bombing the fuck out of whole city blocks”). The debate is, fundamentally, one of the interrelationship between collective security and individual freedom: in a liberal-democracy, collective security is based on individual freedoms, not vice-versa. A society where the later was the case was the USSR (perhaps Israel has picked up the view of the supremacy of the rights of society, over individual right, from all those right-wing “Jewish” immigrants from the CIS).
The main point is, sorry for running off track there, that the IDF acts (outside of Israel proper of course) as its own judge, jury and executioner-that’s why Israel gets so much international scorn. The reason that Palestinians have very little respect for the rule of law is that they have never known an environment where individuals are fully protected-under either the Jordanian OR Israeli occupation.
For those with longshort memories:
(news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3030480.stm)
Text of Hamas truce–
First: Suspending military operations against the Zionist enemy for three months. This suspension goes into effect as of today [29 June] in line with the following conditions:
1. The immediate halt of all forms of Zionist aggression against our Palestinian people to include incursions, destruction, closures, siege on the cities, villages and camps; as well as the siege imposed on President Yasser Arafat; the demolition of houses; the bulldozing of agricultural land; encroachment on lands, property, and the Islamic and Christian holy places, particularly the Holy Al-Aqsa Mosque.
This should also include the immediate halt of all assassinations of individuals; massacres; all forms of detention; and deportation of the sons of our people, their leadership, cadres, and mujahideen.
2. The release of all Palestinian and Arab prisoners and detainees from the occupation prisons without any condition or restriction, and returning them to their homes, beginning with those who have served long terms in prison, those who were sentenced to long imprisonment terms, women, children, the sick and the elderly.
Second: In case the enemy does not meet these conditions and obligations, or violates any of them, then we will no longer be committed to this initiative, and we will hold the enemy responsible for the consequences.
Text of Fatah truce —
1. Immediately halting all forms of the Israeli aggression against our people, including assassinations and massacres against our centres of population, cities, villages and camps; stopping incursions and the destruction of buildings, the infrastructure, as well as economic, official and popular institutions; ending the bulldozing and confiscation of agricultural lands; and stopping efforts to Judaise them.
2. Lifting the siege clamped on the Palestinian people and their elected legitimate leadership headed by brother President Abu-Ammar [Yasser Arafat].
3. Releasing the prisoners and detainees held in Israeli jails.
4. Stopping encroachment on the Islamic and Christian holy places, particularly the Holy al-Aqsa Mosque, the Church of Holy Sepulchre, the Holy Ibrahimi Mosque and the Church of the Nativity.
5. Immediately halting the confiscation of land, the building of settlements on it and the expansion of the existing ones so as to pave the way for dismantling them; as well as stopping the construction of separation walls and fences.
6. Starting the occupation forces’ withdrawal to the areas where they were before 28 September 2000 and expediting the dispatch of international observers to supervise the implementation of the agreed-upon terms of reference of the peace process in accordance with the resolutions of international legitimacy with the objective of achieving a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in the region.
—
Did the Israeli government keep up