Subject: Re: Who will fight for you?
The rational argument against Israel's current policy is to draw parallels to nationalist disputes like The Troubles in Northern Ireland, which were ended not by treating the opposing side as a "bully," but reaching an accord. Or by looking at the Partition of India, which resulted in a lot of trauma and loss and death on both sides, but resulted in an unsteady but enduring level of peace between the two national peoples.

Did the Catholics deny the Protestants the right to exist? How about in India?
It's not remotely the same thing, as you know quite well.

Israel has "punched the bully" over and over and over again....but the "bully" hasn't given up. It hasn't worked. It might never work.

I'd say Israel has 'shoved' some of the bullies. Maybe slapped a couple, but it's never hauled off and curb-stomped any of them. Hamas is on the receiving end of a curb-stomping at the moment and Hezbollah is gearing up to get theirs. As we write these posts Hezbollah leaders can't talk to their foot soldiers (due to the fear of having your 'nads blown off by a rogue beeper or walkie) and as a result there's choas in their ranks. Hez fighters are bailing out of Lebanon per some reports rather than sit there and die.

Iran is the real bully behind the scenes. To carry on our analogy the most the Israelis have done is fill their locker full of sand (STUXNET in the nuclear power plant) or put itching powder in Iran's jock strap (stealing all their nuclear documents). But that hasn't worked. After Iran's recent attacks on Israel proper in defense of their terror proxies the Israelis had to respond.

The response they've chosen is to blind Iran's air defenses.

Advocating for an accord is therefore not the "bullied kid hoping the bully picks on them last," but an observer realizing that the Palestinians aren't a schoolyard bully that can be dealt with by schoolyard bully tactics. If you stand up to this "bully," they won't stop bullying. You can get into a fistfight with them - you might even win that fistfight - but they'll be back tomorrow, with friends.

That may be how YOU see it but to those who merely state things like "we're manufacturing more terrorists" I don't believe they posses the ability to process nuance.


At any rate. You're very well aware that the fastest way this ends is if the Iranians...just stop. Where are the calls for them to stop funding terror?

Which is very frustrating - but it's reality. Fighting back against a "bully" only works if doing so resolves the problem, if the person you're fighting is in fact like a schoolyard bully. If not, then it won't work.

When the bully understands that the only reward he gets for trying to steal your lunch money is a beating coupled with some humiliation, he'll stop. I do agree with you that the analogy is flawed; the Iranians/fanatic Arabs don't believe the Israelis have a right to live where they live and would just as soon see them dead. I don't know how you handle that kind of death cult stuff.