The Unrealistic Israeli Left

This article reports on a small number of Israeli leftists protesting against the war. One claims that the cycle of violence needs to be stopped. Exactly how is this supposed to be accomplished? The Israeli military is doing it in the only reasonable way: by attacking in order to force costs on Gaza. If the protesters have something better to offer, they don’t seem to be saying it. Sometimes a cycle of violence can be stopped simply by having one side do so. If a father beats his son, who beats his son, who beats his son, etc., then at any point along the progression a father could stop the cycle of violence simply by not beating his son. But in this case, stopping the cycle of violence isn’t possible unless both sides do it, and since Gaza has shown no interest in doing so, then it won’t happen.

The protesters may be saying that Israel is ultimately at fault for oppressing the Gazans, but to take a page out of the book of the left, the violence and even more the rhetoric behind the violence of the Gazans is disproportionate to that end. Surely, the Gazans know that some Israelis offer them some support, yet they seem intent on killing them, too. Anyway, where exactly are the Gazan Gandhis? They don’t exist. They have never existed. It has always been violence, violence, violence with the Gazans, never non-violent protests. Moreover, they got their own country in 2005 when Israel pulled out. At that point, they could have developed their country and shown themselves to be good neighbors, but instead they couldn’t help themselves, just as the scorpion riding on a frog’s back across a pond can’t prevent itself from stinging the frog, thus causing its own drowning.

The Israeli protesters also complained that they felt silenced by the near-unanimous “patriotic fervor” among Israelis, who want to support Israel. Maybe now they can get an idea of what it is like to be a conservative in academia today.

Comments

[Terry]

I don't remember where I saw it but last week, I believe (or the week before), some leftists Israelis were holding a similar protest, perhaps in Tel Aviv, against the war in Gaza that got abruptly canceled because Hamas had launched rockets towards the spot where they were having that protest.

Talk about irony.

[John Pepple]

Yes, I remember reading about that. Thanks for reminding me. Heh.