Nine years ago, I was in Cairo for an emergency meeting of the Arab League,
which had gathered to discuss the outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada.
Most everyone at the meeting was supportive of the Palestinian right, such as it
is, to use suicide bombers to kill Israeli civilians. Even Amr Moussa, who was
soon to become the secretary-general of the League, argued to me that suicide
bombing represented a legitimate attempt at self-defense. When I saw Moussa in
Cairo, I argued with him about this support. It seemed to me that Arab leaders
would one day reap the whirlwind for their endorsement of this gruesome terror
tactic, and I told him so. But he argued back, saying that the tragic and unique
reality of Palestine -- the special "desperation" of the Palestinians -- meant
that the tactic of sucide bombing would never spread beyond the borders of this
one conflict.. He was wrong, of course, and many more Muslims have since died in
attacks committed by suicide bombers than have Jews or Christians.
So Amr Moussa sincerely felt the Israelis were (are?) uniquely evil, did he. Today the suicidists have added the Iranian leadership to their list of enemies so evil one should die to kill them. It's a very long list.
what goes around comes around
ReplyDeleteI have said many times that terrorism is a sickness that inevitably infests the societies that support it.
ReplyDeleteSuppose that regime X supports terrorism against Israel, using the excuses that it's okay if it is committed "by the oppressed, in response to a just grievance, in revenge, against heretics", etc., and teaches this twisted idea to generations of their own people.
Eventually, someone in their own society feels oppressed, and feels that their grievance is just, wants revenge, and believes in a puritanical version of [pick a religion or political alignment] that sees the rest of society as insufficiently extreme.
And by then, it's far too late. The message that terrorism is okay if you're angry enough can't be taken back later on, and it's awfully hard to stop terrorism in some cases but not in others.
-Zvi