Terror is Symmetric · One side sends a kid with a bomb into a crowded street to blow himself to Hell with the hope of killing innocents. The other side mortars a residence and kills innocents in the hope of taking out an enemy bigwig. These are perhaps distinguished in the underlying hope, but that bears no moral weight.

Killing innocents in the full knowledge that this will draw savage reprisals from the other side is defensible on no grounds imaginable, and those who try to find a moral basis for either side's actions along these lines are at best self-deluded and at worst simply scum.

There is a real chance that the Palestinians will, through terror, make the cost to the Israelis of the settlements and the Likud's apartheid dreams too high, and win something thereby.

There is a real chance that the Israelis will, through violent oppression, make the cost to the Palestinians of intifada and the Jihadists' Khomeini-flavored dreams too high, and win something thereby.

No matter; the cost of not condemning murder, terror, and oppression is too high for the world if we want a future that's worth living in.


author · Dad
colophon · rights
picture of the day
September 05, 2002
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