Some 300 British Jews have signed a petition which appeared as a full-page advert in Thursday's Times Newspaper condemning Israel's military actions in the Gaza Strip and my thoughts about this, as always, are mixed. A sampling:
1 - It's perfectly ok for diaspora Jews to tell the Israeli govt. what to do. The Israeli govt. doesn't have to listen, of course, but disapora Jews don't owe obsequience to Israel.
2 - You can be a proud Zionist, and still call Israel on the carpet from time to time. The Jews who signed that petition aren't nec. anti-Zionists, or self-haters, or any of the other pejoratives likely to be thrown around. I tell my kids what to do all the time. I argued with my mother almost every day for three years. Doesn't mean I don't love them.
3 - I agree with those who say that thousands of Palestinians shouldn't have to suffer because of one Israeli soldier. Collective punishment is wrong. Was all of Montana made to suffer because of the unibomber?
4 - However, it must be pointed out that the Palestenians currently under attack are no longer residents of Israel. That's an important distinction. It was wrong for Israel to collectivly punish people who were under its administrative jurisdiction, but when agents of a foreign country infultrate an army base, and carry off a soldier that's an act of war. And during war innocents, unfortunately, suffer.
5 - Nonethless, Israel should not be involving Palestenian civilians in it's dispute with the terrorists. More must be done to leave them unaffected. The simple Palestenian goatherd, who wants only to live in peace with his family, shouldn't pay for the crimes of the Islamists. There's no reason, for example, to distrub people's sleep and break their windows by creating sonic booms over Gaza , as Israel has done. Though Israel claims this is being done to turn the Palestenian population against the terrorists, I don't buy it.
6 - Still, still, still..... a full page ad carrying harsh criticsm for Israel, at the very moment when rockets are raining down? There are better, less public, ways to make your objections known.
7 - And, how about a little sympathy for the people of Sderot and Ashkelon?
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