Author: David Barkin (dynip-216-139-133-239.nyct.net)
Date: 09-19-2001 03:40
Hello Mac Bloke
I'm glad your thinking about this as opposed to just reacting. This is a complex question. For example what upsets someone like Saif is that when a terrorist blows up a super market, Israel then levels a village.
What is the difference between the terrorism of a group and the terrorism of a state?
Let's take the Taliban. The Taliban were "freedom fighters" back in the eighties. They received (along with others) 3 billion dollars in US aid.
What I posted earlier was that you draw the line at civilian targets. By this I recognise that in war innocent people get killed. Still, if the target is military then it need not call for retribution that this act at the WTC did. In many places around the world people are oppresessed. This oppression amounts to quite a bit more then not getting their fair share. Who am I or you to tell these people what to do?
My real annoyance with the Palestinians is not that they don't have a legitimate grievance but never in history were an oppressed people more able to take advantage of large scale civil disobedience and win. There is a large Israeli peace movement, the support for Israel was (no longer) fragile. If they had taken up non-violent civil disobedience, within two years they would win reasonable concessions (not the crap deal they were recently offered). But there is something in the Machismo of the people that prevents them from doing this.
