Comments on: David, Goliath, and war in Israel

by: the forester

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 15:11:33 +0000

I thought she was going for a symbolic commentary

Yes, it made for ironic reading … but gosh, was it throwing me off! I had to keep checking my equations.

by: Bloogist

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 14:59:14 +0000

I thought she was going for a symbolic commentary

by: Polimom

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 11:49:14 +0000

forester -

Hunh. Hadn’t even thought of it. How funny…. To me, the story of David and Goliath has long-since moved beyond any ethnic or religious demarkations into the status of fable - the classic conflict of the little guy against the big guy.

by: the forester

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 04:44:45 +0000

Just a comment. This post is a bit confusing due to your role reversal: you’ve got David the Jew representing the Palestinians, and Goliath the Palestinian representing the Jews.

by: Polimom

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 03:00:20 +0000

There’s a bit more involved, of course… like the interminable “saving face” issue. Nobody can afford to back down, making this unbelievably dangerous.

There’s the additional problem of who the heck is running the show for Palestine? Cuz I really don’t think the Hamas leadership is calling the shots. They cannot control the madmen within their party.

All of which leaves me - as ever - sad for the people caught in the middle… but I agree with you, Bloogist, in that I don’t see Israel as the boogeyman. I do, however, think they’ve put their backs against a wall somewhat.

by: Bloogist

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 22:33:50 +0000

When governments fire rockets and shoot civilians, it is called war.

Well put. It’s in the fine print of ‘what happens when you become a legitimized power’ handbook, too bad Hamas doesn’t tend to read their memos.

What has been so striking to me in the media coverage (after having read a few bits from Palestinian news sources) is that the media is attempting to spin Israel’s action as attempted ethnic cleansing–which strikes me as utterly absurd, considering the Six-Day War was started because the neighboring nations wanted to push the Zionists into the sea (like Ed.T just mentioned.)

But seeing Hamas calling for international sympathy because “Israel is going to come kill us all” when the principal belief of Hamas is that the nation of Israel should be destroyed and the Jews pushed into the sea is laughable.

Again-Polimom said it well: “Hamas was more naive than even I thought.”

by: Ed T.

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 12:50:03 +0000

I was living in Europe during the 1967 “six-day” war - and in South America during the “Yom Kippur” war. During both of these, I remember the concerns about the conflict spreading - espially during the latter, as it was presumed that the IDF had nuclear weapons - and wouldn’t hesitate to use them if it was clear they were about to lose the war.

In the case of the 1967 war, many of our neighbors/friends in Europe had lived through the Nazi occupation, and the “relocation” of the Jews. So, they watched that particular conflict with utter horror, as they could imagine this being the realization of Hitler’s dream for a “final solution.” Unfortunately, the rhetoric spouted by the PLO/Hamas has done little to assuage such fears, what with talk of “driving the Jews into the sea” and such.

While I don’t expect this war will result in WWIII/Armageddon, I also don’t expect it will do the rest of the world a whole lot of good, either.

~EdT.