January 12th, 2009

The reason we're here talking to each other is we're 1 or 2% of the population ... we're outnumbered by people who form opinions by watching TV sound bytes.
-DM, from my Mensa group.

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I have a hypothetical situation for you: A man is standing on the SkyTrain platform, and, as the train passes, another man comes up and pushes him down onto the tracks and into the path of the SkyTrain, killing him. Whose fault is it for that man's death? The train car or the man who pushed him?

By moving children and other visibly pathetic civilians into the path of Israeli attacks (attacks that are announced ahead of time as warning for civilians to steer clear) Hamas is doing exactly the same thing as the man who pushed. And blaming Israel for "killing innocent women and children" is the same as blaming the train car.

Israel moved out of the Gaza strip a few years back. Whatever was there was destroyed, and those missiles that continually rain down on Israel were just moved into Gaza so they could penetrate a little deeper. And about those missiles: Even within a moderately-sized picture, one wonders at whether or not the response really is disproportionate or not.

I bring in an example from my childhood: I was the youngest and, by far, the most obnoxious of the children in my family. I used to taunt my sisters tirelessly and endlessly.

One particular game I played during road trips was to ever-so-gently poke my sister in the ribs. Not painfully, not even uncomfortably ... but repeatedly and inexorably. After long enough (even now I marvel at how long it sometimes took), she would inevitably turn around and pummel me black and blue--at which point I would cry and scream and appeal to my mother for the completely disproportionate response: "I only poked her a little, and look at the bruise she just gave me!" Full marks go to my parents for recognizing the nature of my games, and admonishing me appropriately for them. (And eventually I learned.)

Well, before the invasion of Gaza, Israel announced that it would halt its airstrike for a couple of days, and someone from Hamas got in front of a microphone to say the missile attacks (pokes to the ribs) would continue unabated nevertheless—this time for revenge on the deaths incurred in the bombings.

And, historically, even during times of so-called cease-fires, missiles came dropping into Israel.

It makes me wonder how much Israel is supposed to maintain a stance of high-minded tolerance. Surely, there is no one who can stand around and take the constant poking without losing some composure.

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