Opinion
Lower your expectations
Yoram Kaniuk
Published: 15.01.09, 19:21
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40 Talkbacks for this article
31. Kanyuk
szeni ,   London   (01.16.09)
All you need to know about this Kanyuk-guy is that he, even in his own opinion, is 'not smart enough'.
32. #30 Annie - Juustice??
Ted ,   UK   (01.16.09)
I wonder what you would call justice? the justice in Hamas eyes is simply the eradication of Israel, is that what you mean? Just go to youtube and watch the brutal sharia laws they applying to their own people, under the guidance of their sponsors - Iran. Do you believe anybody in Gaza will dare even speak aginst Hamas?
33. Israel did give them an EDUCATION.
JMK ,   NYC   (01.16.09)
34. Justice
Brad ,   USA   (01.16.09)
Hey, Annie from Belgium, I find your implied definition if "justice" laughable. Israel has held out the olive brach to their Islamo-nazi neighbors for decades. What they have gotten in return has been hatred, slander, rocket attacks, and homicide bombers. All without regard to "civilian casualties". But, take heart Annie, because you're going to get your chance to live out your high sounding words. You see, Europe is becoming more infected with these Muslim agitators. So, it's only a matter of time before they assume control of your country, and your life. Remember, in Islam, there is no limit on what a Muslim can legally do to a non-Muslim. When they have taken your posessions, your freedom, and wrapped you up in a birka, will you blame yourself for not practicing "justice"?
35. Response to Article
Stephen Morgan ,   London UK   (01.16.09)
Sir, When you write the word 'terrorism', What do you mean exactly? Generally it means the creation of terror, an act causing terror and what causes terror? Airplanes, bombs, explosions, gunfire, murder, injury, assault, invasion. Do you believe that Israel does not cause terror? The last week alone should convince you that it does. The state of Israel uses terror, as does the US, UK, etc against civilians and the results are always the same - failure to acheive the stated goal. If terrorising Palestinians actualy worked, it would have worked generations ago. So, please tell me if you believe that six months from now, because of these massacres, that Israel will be living a golden age of peace, loved and respected by the Palestinians, Arab neighbours and the liberal moralists of the West? If you beieve this, I can only say that you join millions of other deluded war makers from our collective history who also believed that if they could could just kill a few more of their 'enemies', all would be well. PEACE NOW.
36. #35 you are absolutely right.
George ,   Canada   (01.17.09)
37. Nonesense
Rania ,   Lebanon   (01.17.09)
"There is no way to defeat zealous ideologies, because their leaders are willing to hide behind their children." How can this be the reason? That didn't stop israel from killing those whom she claimed "hid behind children"... Find another basis for your weak argument. Indeed you don't get anything.
38. #35 Morgan's Myopia
eh-oop ,   UK   (01.17.09)
Stephen. You're kidding me. Like Hezbollah, Hamas preaches the extermination of all Jews, everywhere, including children. Not only that, but they see their cause as predestined to win. Have you read the Hamas Charter? And have you found a single Jew who preaches the extermination of all Muslims? How realistic is it to expect Hamas to agree in negotiation to give up the primary reason for its existence? And Hamas does not only target civilians but it operates a policy of using them in the pursuit of terror - as suicide bombers and as human shields. Where is the equivalent Israeli policy? Who's the terrorist? If you see yourself as typical of the "liberal moralists of the west", then, I agree, I don't think Israel will be respected by them in six months. But I am one, and I can look at societies and conclude which are liberal and moral and which aren't. But perhaps we can agree on the answer to one other question. Does the peace of society allow room for Nazis? Draw your own conclusions.
39. Terrorism and cancer -are they the same thing?
Robert Arnow ,   Beersheva   (01.17.09)
This writer claims forcefully that terrorism is like, or even is, he seems to believe, a form of cancer. His argument is so strong in his mind, and his knowledge of the behavior of cancer cells so absolute, that he draws his truth about terrorism from the natural behavior of a malignant cell disease. Is it true, however, that a patient (or "victim") can be pronounced after a full doagnosis as being "cancer free". The general publis has become familiar with the term, and it just may have some validity. Being diagnosed as totally free of cancerous cells does not preclude a recurrence of either the same or a different form of cancer, but, it can be virtually eliminated. No, it is not the type of disease that can be eradicated world wide (even those that were thought to have been have somehow reappeared from time to time). Terrorism stems from basic ignorance and frustration. Can anything eliminate those two factors from humanity? Probably not, but terrorism, or small scale wars like the struggle in Iraq and larger ones, are winnable, I believe. It only takes for the potential good side to lose its stable morality, or weaken it in the name of eventual justice for a good cause, to use all of its resources to stamp it out quite sufficiently. Look at what the allies did to Germany and Japan during the Second World War. Both criminally twisted nations turned virtually 180 degrees towards building economically powerful states, while definitively renouncing aggression as a state policy. The policies of the former Soviet Union, Britain and the United States may have eliminated those sources of cancerous terrorism for all time.
40. A wise article
Shalom Freedman ,   Jerusalem   (01.18.09)
While I am not sure that Terror groups cannot be totally defeated I do believe Kaniuk is wise in telling us to lower our expectations that we can make it all perfect. As he rightly points out the violence against the Jews has been going on since 1921. It is also true to say that this time the Army was truly prepared. And those responsible it for this certainly should be commended.
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