June 11, 2003

I'm wondering if anyone suspects--as I do--that President Bush and Co. want the PLO, Hamas, etc., to increase their attacks on Israel (in a way that appears entirely unprovoked) so that they can: (1) declare the PLO, Hamas, etc., to be enemies of the peace process and therefore (2) give them a taste of U.S. weapons.

"Well, boys. That's about it. We gave you a lot of rope, and you have nicely noosed yourselves. Now we shall, as they say, spring the trap. Grab your rancid headgear and kiss your distended rectal tissues goodbye. Those tanks and choppers your hear are ours."

In other words, I suspect that reprimanding Israel is a mere rhetorical device.

On the other hand, I may be taking too much Xanax.

How many innocent Israelis must die to make the point? Hamas has been quite open in declaring its intentions to the world: it wishes to kill all the Jews it can and annihilate Israel. It also has declared quite openly that America is its enemy and Rantisi urged muslims in Iraq to become suicide bombers vs. American troops.

Completely agree with the answer to the question, "How many innocent Israelis must die to make the point?"

But maybe Bush wants the point made during HIS party so that his military response is more easily justified.

Bush and Co just do not seem so dumb as to think it makes any sense to reprimand Israel. I have a hard time seeing it as anything other than a move.

But I will say one thing...why I don't know. Something better happen soon to rectify the situation there. Israelis are getting killed. And, in the absence of opportunities for direct action, I am slowly filling my house with ammunition and rifles. (An expensive sort of sublimation.) My wife does not like this one bit. "As of last count, this is your fifth mid-life crisis!"

She doesn't understand. But then, her family is German.

My wife is Jewish, Martin. She wants to know why we have only six long guns and no explosives at all.

But seriously, the time for Israeli restraint is long past. The PA has demonstrated that either it has no interest in controlling the terrorist groups, or it has no power to do so. This is unacceptable. The IDF should move in -- hopefully, leavened by American special forces with state-of-the-art weaponry and riot-control gear -- and end all pretense of Palestinian autonomy. Of course, any notion that the Palestinians will ever have a sovereignty of their own should be euthanized.

Ironically, if the PA did have sovereign nation-state status, there would already have been a nice, decisive war. The terror campaign might already be over.

Guys, get real. It is not a matter of names and groups and brigades. The entire Arab world wants Israel dead. At their summit, none of the so-called "moderate Arabs" would even voice the words "Jewish State" nor would they pledge recognition of Israel, not that recognition or treaties or agreements have ever been honored by a single Arab nation. Just remember the Syrians and the Egyptians were the United Arab Republic until they started calling each other "dwarfs", then Libya and Egypt were partners until some dispute caused them to break relations. Iraq entered the Treaty of Paris with Iran in 1976 and attacked Iran in 1979. All the polls taken among Arabs indicate a large majority wants Israel destroyed.
The only thing they will understand is a devastating war which leaves them gasping for air. Maybe then, they'll be sedated enough to contemplate co-existence on the victor's terms.

Dear Dr. Rittenburg,
I’ve been reading your website for a couple months now, and although I consider myself very much in the center (well, perhaps a little to the left), I found a sentence in the article “Road Map to Madness (cont.)” that was posted on your website very offensive. Let me start by saying that I do support the Israeli position, and I believe that the Israeli’s have a right to lands they currently control, as well as some parts of the contested territories. I also in no way have any sympathy for the Islamic fanatic religious-right, and the governments that support terrorism. As horrible as these acts are however, you must look at the person committing the act in context, especially when attempting to categorize them as “cowardly savages who seek Paradise by blowing themselves up while killing Jewish infidels.” Personally, I have called the likes of the 9/11 terrorists much worse then “cowardly savages”, but I believe that title is way too harsh and unforgiving to give to those young, impressionable Palestinian adolescents that are recruited to carry out these horrific bombings. These adolescents have little education, little life experience other then strife and hardship, and are probably fed a very corrupt version of the Koran. They have the whole Arab world screaming out that the Jews are the oppressors (with the exception of a few minority groups and politicians), they see that they live on the front line between them and the “oppressors”, and they are told that they will be forgiven for committing suicide and that they will ascend to Paradise – leaving their life of strife behind. If anything these youths are the just another victim to this horrible cycle of violence.

I support Israel’s right to respond to these attacks, as long as they are attacks against the Hamas leadership – those who are really in control, those who are manipulating their people and recruiting these bombers. But these helicopter strikes, they are just being used to try and intimidate the Palestinians and other terrorist groups. Are you seriously going to tell me that during the 70’s and 80’s the Moussad could basically find and assassinate most of their targets and now they cannot quietly take out a known terrorist in their own back yard? If we are truly going to attain a state of peace in this region, the Israeli’s have to stop playing into hands of these Muslin Imams you mention in the second article. You think these Islamic clerics want a short list of names of terrorist leaders who have been assassinated, or do you think they want televised explosions, ambulance crews rescuing innocent bystanders, the bodies of children in the streets? They want the media compatible scenario, and the Israeli’s keep giving it to them. And you’d be hard pressed to convince me that the Israeli’s are capable of just taking out these leaders in a less televised method.

Samuel, with all due respect, you are not analyzing the purpose of Israel's recent retaliations very deeply.

They are aimed at Hamas members, as high up as can be had. There are (relatively) innocent "Palestinians" injured in the attacks as well, but only because the terrorist organizations are choosing to hide among civilians. The point is not lost on the world that Israel is targeting combatants while Hamas (and groups like it) are deliberately targeting civilians.

What Israel is hopes three-fold. The first, as I mentioned, is to display to the world what Hamas really does.

The second is to show organizations like Hamas that THEY will be found and dealt with similarly; in the past, officers have sent out uneducated pawns to blow themselves up while the officers remained safely away. Now the officers won't be safe, and perhaps they'll think twice about their actions (probably not, but it's still worth a shot).

The third is to make the "Palestinian" civilians decide to fish or cut bait, as it were. If the "Palestinians" truly want peace, they will turn on the terrorists themselves, and expel them from their midst to keep from being used as shields by the terrorist groups. If the "Palestinians" don't truly want peace, they will continue to harbor the terrorists, and the whole world will see, once and for all, that the idea of a peaceful Palestinian State is pure fantasy.

As for being offended by the title to the article, you'll have to ask yourself whether continuing to do the same things we have done for 35 years -- which is what the roadmap does -- and hoping to have a different result is madness. If you use the same recipe, you're gonna bake the same bread.