Thursday, January 01, 2009

The New Rules of War:

Victor Davis Hanson translates what he calls

".. the Jenin reinvention of the rules of war:

(1) proportionality: Hamas is allowed to keep trying to kill as many Jews as it can to “balance” those lost to far more lethal Israeli countermeasures.

Rule I. War is a tit-for-tat game, where fairness is defined as killing no more than you lose.

(2) Civilians and warriors: there is no such difference. Hamas’s terrorists who shoot rockets against Israeli families burrow into their own civilian infrastructure. They are tragic innocents to the world when they are killed and heroes to their own if can they kill innocents Jews through their barrages.

Rule II. The age of uniforms and battle lines is over, replaced by the civilian shield as the best mechanism of defense against Western mastery of traditional arms.

(3) War that is lost on the battlefield can be won through the international media. The Palestinians have counted on six truths in the international arena:

a. the world remains largely anti-Semitic;

b. the world appreciates the strategic calculus that Arabs are numerous with oil; and Israel is tiny without it;

c. Westerners fear Islamic terrorists, not the IDF;

d. The West is prone to self-loathing, and romanticizes any who best capture the mantel of victimhood; the Palestinians have brilliantly reinvented themselves by claiming a status akin to women, gays, Hispanics, and blacks—fellow victims of rich white male Westerners;

e. Any culture abroad whose hospitals Westerners would not like to be operated in are idealized; any who emulate Western technological supremacy are shunned.

Rule III: Just copy any group that sets up shop on an American campus free speech area, and the resulting sympathy is worth a division.

[-]

A final note: some of the most vicious anti-Israeli sentiment comes from Europe, especially countries like Spain and Greece. Yet I remember Morocco and Spain nearly shooting at each other in 2002 in a dispute over an uninhabited rock in the Mediterranean, and Greece goes ballistic every time Turkey customarily overflies Aegean airspace. Israel alone is not supposed to respond to rocket barrages; our conclusions can only be that the world deems it an illegitimate state worthy of destruction, and will allow its enemies to keep trying until they succeed (Why else would a British television station invite Ahmadinejad to answer the Queen’s Christmas address—a thug who promised the destruction of Israel, is seeking the means to do it, and whose terrorists recently kidnapped British sailors?) (all here)

_________

And once again, proportionality...


6 Comments:

At 5:54 PM EST, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yes, only the deaths of Jews are tragic. Two Jews to four hundred Arabs dead, not a bad score eh?

 
At 6:28 PM EST, Anonymous Anonymous said...

1.6 billion Muslims to 16 million Jews. The Israelis need to up their ratio.


Noga you might find this interesting. First Centrist Leftwing party in Europe to make this declaration. I think its fantastic.

From the left, a call to end the current Dutch notion of tolerance - Internation Herald Tribune

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/12/29/europe/politicus.php?page=1

 
At 2:14 PM EST, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Why do you hate Mulsims so much? Ideologically you aren't any different from the Nazis or the Klu Klux Klan, the only difference is that you are a Jewish supremacist instead of a white/Aryan supremacist and you hate Muslims/Arabs/Palestinians instead of Jews. You should be ahsamed.

 
At 3:22 PM EST, Blogger The Contentious Centrist said...

Anon, don't you think your comment is vastly disproportionate, and even irrelevant, to what is being presented in this post? After all, there is nothing in it to suggest Jewish supremacy or hatred of Muslims/Arabs. How come you deduce so much hatred and monstrosity from it? Could it be you are projecting? Do you know what projection is, in Freudian theory?

"In psychology, psychological projection (or projection bias) is a defense mechanism in which one attributes one’s own unacceptable or unwanted thoughts and/or emotions to others"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_projection

 
At 8:49 PM EST, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"1.6 billion Muslims to 16 million Jews. The Israelis need to up their ratio."

No, no, nothing to suggest a hatred of Muslims or Arabs there. Of course, that comment doesn't warrant a response from you.

 
At 10:08 PM EST, Blogger The Contentious Centrist said...

Anon: In your fear of Joos you share a great deal more with NWO than he does with me. But then, you seem to be an idiot who gets all upset when someone makes a suggestion that the Jews might kill more Muslims than Muslims kill Joos.

NWO is no friend of the Jews. He is actually as much paranoid about them as you are. But even a despised and suspected minority has its uses, or so he thinks. Why would I want to respond to him? He said much worst things about Joos and I responded as politely as I could, at the time. Just as I responded politely to your idiotic vitriol, instead of just telling you to f*ck off.

 

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