Actually, in trying to anticipate horrible things Israel might do in retaliation as the bombings continue unabated (despite pleas from some Palestinian organizations to knock it the hëll off), I’ve come up with something even worse than the notion of rounding up ten random Palestinians for every dead Israeli. One that doesn’t have the widespread carnage of the Chicago Way, but is even more lethal in its own manner. I call it “The Unforgiven Way.”
At one point in the film, Clint Eastwood warns citizens in a town who might take a shot at him, “Any of you sons of bìŧçhëš takes a shot at me, I’ll kill you…and your wife, and all your children and family, and burn your dámņëd house down.” It’s overkill (no pun intended) but he’s making his point quite well: Screw with him and your loved ones will suffer the consequences.
At the moment, families of suicide bombers are supposedly four-square behind their loved ones blowing themselves to bits. But suppose, just suppose, Ariel Sharon made the following declaration:
“Any bomber who blows himself up with the intention of killing Israelis…once we’ve identified his remains, we will kill his or her spouse…and children…and parents, and grandparents, and cousins and whatever extended family we can find. So be aware that in killing yourself, you’re killing everyone whom you’ve ever loved and who ever loved you.”
Just imagine the consequences. Just imagine the families, with their own lives suddenly on the line, turning in their more radical offspring in order to save their own necks.
Do I want to see innocent Palestinians die? No, of course not. Nor do I want to see innocent Israelis die, considering I have a number of relatives who are innocent Israelis. But sooner or later, someone in Israel is going to start thinking outside the box. The results will not be pretty.
PAD
• 
How about simply “White Knight”? It would play on the name White House and incorporate “knight” into the title, plus it would refer to the idealized “white knight” candidate people always wish would run for President.
I also tried to think of a play on “Excalibur” and executive (like “Chief Excalibur” or “Excalibur Action”) but couldn’t think of one I liked.
Maybe “Knight-in-Chief”?
Mr. David,
You’re trying to extrapolate events in this conflict as if they were plot developments in a script. You forget that fictional characters are under more obligation to believe sensibly than real ones.
My own worst-case scenario projection is a biowarfare Chernobyl. If the same schmucks who encouraged 9/11 are messing around with biological warfare — anthrax, ebola, smallpox, what have you — odds are good they’re going to botch it. (Maybe they already have — there were reports early on that Afghan refugees trying to get into Pakistan were suffering an elbola-like disease.)
On a related sour note, has anyone done a study on how far such diseases could spread if propelled into the atmosphere when the lab they were housed in is demolished by conventional artillery ?
belive me, as much i
Well, mr. David. On the other hand… Now just what in the world could have made even ONE palestinian crazy enough to even contemplate killing him- or herself just so he/she could take some other people with him/her? Pure insanity? Brought on by nothing but bad genes? A bad day at work? Lotsa years of oppression? Something else?
It’s interesting which questions you ponder and which you seemingly on this site do not.
Isn’t this also called the “Kaiser Soza” method?
Peter,
There is no such thing as an “innocent Palestinian”. What is called “Palestine” is merely a pawn on the chessboard of the violent, deadly game of Arab/Islam against the West. Sadly, Isreal is on the front line and is suffering all the losses.
The best response would be a sudden, deadly strike against all the centers of power in the Arab world.
Kausfiles at Slate reports that someone’s already proposed this. Kaus’s comment was that we’re all moderates compared to that guy. On another note, Arafat’s finally accepted the deal that Clinton proposed that all of his apologists said was so unfair he could never accept it. Why the hëll couldn’t he have done that 18 months ago and saved hundreds of lives?
Bravo, Mr. David, bravo! You are one of the bravest men in the industry of comic books! Keep up the fantastic work!
Peter, if Israel was an innocent party your points might be shocking,
But hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been kicked out of Israel into Jordan, and denied the right to return.
Innocent Palestinians are shot dead going to the market for food.
Economic and cultural genocide is a daily fact of life for Palestinians.
It is quite possible that your proposal would not change a thing based upon the horrific acts that Israel perpetuates on the Palestinian people on a daily basis.
This idea wouldn’t work anyway, even if the IDF were desperate enough to risk world censure to carry it out. The reason is that in the warped thinking of the terrorists and their supporters, a so-called martyr gets a “get-into-Paradise-Free-Card” for himself (or herself as well) and his entire family. The threat of killing the entire family will not be a sufficient deterrence. The only deterrence I can think of are either Divine Intervention, or genocide.
Steve Canuck, you are obviously fed some silly Palestinian propaganda.
Palestinians weren’t “kicked” to Jordan. Jordan is a British made country made out of half of the original “Palestine” area and 80% of it is Palestinians. Jordan is indeed what should be Palestine to begin with.
Israel is very kind to the Palestinians considering the way they’re behaving and teaching their children to hate. Sure, some soldiers over the years did terrible things to Palestinians, but so did Americans soldiers in Vietnam and policemen everywhere. That doesn’t make Israel itself evil, while the Palestinian leadership is utterly and totaly evil.
–MB
Robert Weichbrodt, if you think there’s ANYTHING that justifies going to blow yourself up among women and children then you must be sick.
Sure, Palestinians have it hard. But so do many people. In the holocaust, for example, the Jews suffered billion times worse in every aspect, and that even without them trying to kill the Germans first like the Palestinians did to the Israelis, but did you see any Jews back then slaughtering innocent German women and children? Nope. Why? Because it’s wrong.
The Palestinian suicide bomber goes to his task with joy, not despair. More often than not his family celebrates his sacrifice more than they mourn it. Why? Because of one of the worst cases of mass brainwash the world has seen since Nazi Germany. The same brainwash in the muslim world that threatens the entire free world.
Ask yourself, what did drive the 911 bombers to do what they did? Israeli occupation? Yeah right.
A good example to what I mean:
http://www.memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD39102
Does that sound like an act of despair or an act of evil lunacy?
cLoNe,
I would not call Nazi Germany a mass brainwashing. You cannot compare the fanatic islam ideology with Germany at Hitler time. I don’t know where you come from but it seems you have not lot information about the Nazi time in Germany apart from the official clich
Maja, my mother is a holocaust survivor so I know a thing or two about the holocaust, albeit from a totaly different prespective.
The nazis did brainwash the mass with incredible propaganda. Back then there was no internet and it was easy to brainwash people. Sugarcoating it with economical benefit was only making it more powerful.
My main point is that not germans and not muslims are “evil”, they just fell to the hands of very skilled brainwashers.
Peter,
I can’t tell if you’re actually advocating this policy or merely anticipating it. But I’d like to tell you about a documentary I saw last night on TV.
Bereaved families of suicide attacks were interviewed – on both sides. Most of the Palestinian parents of the bombers were completely unaware of their sons’ onvolvement with Hamas. They were shocked and horrified. They condemned the actions at the same time as they missed their children.
On the Israeli side, along with the grief there was anger. But the anger was often directed not at the bombers but at the government, for policies that aggravate the problem.
The most moving scene came at the end, when the parents of a bomber met with the parents of the bomber’s victim. They drank tea together, they visited the remains of the Palestinians’ house together, they talked about their children and they reaffirmed their commitment to peace, and to a Palestinian state.
I have no Israeli or Palestinian friends, but I found the bravery on both sides moving.
In stark contrast to your `unforgiven’ comments. I know Clint Eastwood is about as cool as it gets, but he can’t solve the problems of the middle east.
Both sides need to have their consciousness raised. To have a human contact with the other side. To reject the cynical political motives of those in power. This i the only way forward. A cycle of reprisals is guarranteed to make things worse.
best
Nick
“The Unforgiven way” ?
Sounds like a very good definition of genocide to me.
Sounds very much like what this Mr Sharon would be capable to do. Probably to do something like that is the reason why he doesn’t want an international peace corps to stop killings once and for all. On both sides.
And I think I can understand the reason why a suicide attack would be justifiable. Freedom. that’s why some resistants died for in WW2.
JCL
A little question JCL… How exactly killing babies and old women brings “freedom” to anyone? You think PAD’s idea is genocide but not systematic blowing up of Israeli babies? Weird. AND scary.
The Palestinians have killed hundreds of innocent Israelis. Have they got their freedom? Nope. They only made things worse for themselves. And people like you who support those actions only make sure they’ll stay in that šhìŧhølë of a situation.
And Nick, the story you bring up is only one example. Follow the link I put for the story of a proud mother of a Palestinian suicide bomber who’s happy he did what he did in the name of “jihad”. There are many examples of such parents and those are the people PAD was talking about. The Israeli goverment isn’t perfect, but if my son was killed by a palestinian suicide bomber, I’d blame the bomber and his senders first. I’m weird that way.
I doubt PAD actually want this solution to be practiced and he, like the Palestinians, knows that the Israelis are way too moral to pull off something so cruel. If the Israeli really did want to wipe out the Palestinians it would’ve happened a long time ago.
Again, people fail to realise the situation in Israel & in Palestine. Why is there so many Palestinians willing to blow themselves up along w/ Israelies? The answer is Ocupation, Ocupation & Ocupation. Israel in all it’s might are occupying the Palestinians for over 54 years, they have confiscated palestininan Lands, illegally settled them w/ jews from Europe, New York and Russia. The Israelis have buklldozed thousands of Palestinian houses, destroyed entire villages since 1948, massacred thousands of Palestinians and Arabs since 1948, ie: Der Yassin, Sabra & Shatila, Nablus, Jennin, Kibya and other villages and cities. Torture, imprisonment by the thousands. Israel has broken numerous Human Rights charters, UN Resolutions. And you dare ask why the Palestinian are blowing themselves up along w/ Israelis!
When one realises that there is no future for them, one starts to do something, to make a better living environment for the future of their children.
Think about it, what is the root cause of the problem. A question & answer so easy to figure out except for the American politicians and Pro Jewish Lobby which bought off the Senate.
The Americans supply Israel w/ over 3 Billion Dollars a year, Billions more on weapons. No wonder the Arab World hates the Israelis and the Americans.
Go read books and articles on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and make your own judgement.
Watching Fox news or CNN is useless for getting the truth, they are so biased in their coverage of the Palestinians.
Use common sense, why are the Palestinians in despair 7 why do the Israelis keep occupying the Palestinians?
ISM Members Report More War Crimes in Jenin
Monday, June 24 2002 @ 02:23 AM GMT
International Solidarity Movement (ISM)representatives in Ramallah continue to report on the invasion of the camp launched at 1 AM on June 19. It began with aerial bombing from apache helicopters followed by shelling from approximately 50 tanks that lasted until 7 AM June 19th.
The Israeli army proceeded from house to house making arrests, looting, vandalizing stores and trashing and exploding houses. Irish International Caoimhe Butterly saw injuries from severe beatings, even children as young as 13. Men were bound hand and foot. Caoimhe herself was beaten twice and called a “Nazi Cow” and an “Arab *censored*” for “helping Palestinian terrorists.”
Late on the 19th, the Army announced from tanks that all men between 15-50 years of age were to report to a school in Jenin. Between 2000-2500 men went to the school where soldiers detained, strip searched, and left them under guard on the main street. Among those detained were: a man in a wheelchair, a blind man, a man on crutches, a man with severe mental illness and several children under 15 years of age. Many detainees were never given time to get their ID papers, which left them in a very precarious situation.
Soldiers took these men to Salam military base and released some of them in Romnaneh and Burkeen, telling them not to return to Jenin until Saturday.
The Army is still in Jenin destroying houses. They have exploded 12 houses after evacuating the families. Five bulldozers are at the outskirts of the city and have already damaged a school. The camp’s population is now women, children and the elderly. Ambulances are being blocked. The Israeli Army has cut water, electricity, and telephone lines in the camp.
The Army is beginning to repeat in the city of Jenin what it has done in the camp, going house to house and rounding up the men as well as shelling sporadically. One soldier is walking the streets beating people with a baton.
The Army also invaded Bethlehem this morning at 4 AM, imposed a curfew, and is starting to go house to house.
Currently members of the International Solidarity Movement in Jenin include: Jim Davis (Ireland), Caoimhe Butterly (Ireland), Juliana Friedman,(United States),Tubias Carlson (Sweden), Rick Rowley (United States), Rebecca Murray(United States) and Hyun-ni Kim (Korea)
cLoNe,
Ok, brainwash, this is your opinion. I don’t have to share it. You will accept this. This is why it is an opinion.
I think the comparision of fanatic muslims and the germans at nazi time is not appropriate. The overtake of power by the nazis and the process to their cruelties was not abrupt, more slow. Otherwise it wouldn’t have come to what happened then.
Apart from this was the antisemitism of the nazis their method. It was not because of the jewish religion. For the conflict in Israel/Palaestina there is pure hate and a kind of war state against state.
The nazis persecuted jews in their own land. And they have been (or wanted to be) conquerors. It is a really different situation. You cannot compare it only because jews are involved. That is the only similarity between the situation in Israel now and the nazi time.
I’ve recently come up with a theory about the psychology of the Palestinian suicide bombers. It seems to follow the psychological model of serial killers and rapists. A serial killer or rapist developes the self image of a victim due to severe early abuse. They get around to killing when they realize that it helps them shed that “victim” self image and recreate their self image as a “hunter” or something approximating their mental impression of the person or person’s who abused them. To someone who has believed with 100% of their being that they have been a victim all of their life, the ability to instantly change that feeling (albeit by killing somebody) is powerful and often too strong to deny. Unfortunately, eventually they begin to slip back into the mental role of “victim” faster and faster after each murder and they begin to feel the compulsion to murder more and more often.
Similarly, the Palestinians are an entire society that feel that they have been victimized for generations. The Palestinians cheers and idolization of the suicide bombers that are a given after each attack seem consistant with the high the serial killers feel after a murder. This might go some ways towards explaining why these people continue to throw their lives away even at the few times that peace has seemed to be even a possibility. Compromise alone will not allow the Palestinians to shed their “victim hat” as surely and powerfully as constant mass murder. The trick for Israel will be to give the Palestinians a feeling of empowerment without seeming as if they are caving in to terrorism long enough to come to an agreement for a Palestinian homeland without compromising Israeli security in the meantime.
This is going to go on for a long time, isn’t it?
That “ISM” report sounds totally biased and misleading. It sounds like the usual anti-Israeli propaganda that totally ignores the fact that many of the destoryed houses in Jenin were bøøbÿŧráppëd by the Palestinians themselves to kill Israeli soldiers (and they did kill 13 soldiers with one attack, imagine the structure damage from that). Ignoring the facts that kids and women helped hiding weapons and bomb factories in houses and tried to smuggle that stuff with Ambulances.
There were of course the LIES of a massacre of hundreds, until the PLO itself admitted no more than 60 people died, most of them militants.
I mean, pointing out bad things the Israelis did is one thing, but ignoring the stuff the Palestinian did there shows exactly what kind of “honest” report this is.
Maja- I wasn’t saying the situation is the same, just the mass brain washing. And yap, there was brainwashing. Do some research about Nazi media. They did fantastic stuff there. It’s very similar to Palestine where there’s no free press and kids grow up watching a TV that tells them it’s GRRREAT to kill Jews.
To Clone,
The more lies you write about the more you and the people will believe them.
Saying that 60 Palestinians killed is not a massacre then tell me the defination of the word massacre from the dictionary.
No matter how bad the situation is, it is definately the time for Israel to stop behaving like the offendend virgin.
They bitterly complain and point the finger at everybody else except them. They make it sound as if the Palestinians are besieging them.
My Khazar friend, it is the other way around. Israel is illegaly occupying the Palestinians, illegaly confiscating Palestinians lands, illegaly rounding up thousands of innocent Palestinians, illegaly bulldozing Palestinian homes, illegaly destroying entire Palestinian villages that belonged to the aboriginal population, the Palestinians.
You need to get your facts straight and not from the Israeli Ministry of Information.
Enough is enough, end the occupation, end the settlements and end the misery the Israelis have caused the Palestinians for over 60 + years.
John
John,
You will cease to bother any of us any further. This is not a place for Orwellian parroting. There are more than a few people who’ve seen what you’ve written here who fell out of their chairs laughing at you. If you cannot learn to use your moral and common sense, get a new hobby.
Avi,
Go read the Jerusalem Post or the Israeli Ministry of Information if you’re Offended by what I have written. If you’re offended then I am glad that the message has reached you.
If your moral sense is corrupted by your hatred against the Palestinians then you are the looser.
It is high time that you get a new hobby, go shoot some more Palestinian babies and confiscate more Palestinian lands.
People w/ common sense are tired of your lies and your colonialism ideas.
Grow up my dear Khazar boy.
John
To anyone else here whom it may concern,
This “John” is a racist. That is the meaning of his complaint about Jewish “settlements” in Judea and Samaria. He denies Jews the right to live in parts of their ancient homeland, that is, in Judea and Samaria, which are part of the Land of Israel.
He has to bear in mind that the Arabs forced Jews out of the country by means of special discriminatory taxation, in the middle ages. The Crusaders also killed off a large part of the Jewish population in the country.
I agree that this John has gone way too far by now, and it’s time for him to pack his bags and leave. Stop abusing this fantastic little website of Peter’s, John.