“I think we should just nuke them all,” said many people yesterday. “After all, that seems to be the only language they understand.” Much as I disagree with an eye-for-an-eye approach, I do understand the sentiment. After all, I grew
“I think we should just nuke them all,” said many people yesterday. “After all, that seems to be the only language they understand.”
Much as I disagree with an eye-for-an-eye approach, I do understand the sentiment. After all, I grew up in the Middle East, where retaliation is a way of life.
Just look at the Israeli-Palestinian on-again, off-again war of many decades. One of the reasons there’s no end in sight is the need to avenge.
When a Palestinian bomb goes off in a Jewish neighborhood, killing civilians, Israel attacks a Palestinian location, killing civilians, to which the only possible outcome is another attack on the Israelis. And so on.
Hatfield-and-McCoy feuds are very common in the Middle East. They can go on for years, each “family” endlessly losing members to the other.
But it’s not all that hopeless. Normally, after many bloody years, the two sides tire of the killing, and initiate a “sulcha,” a reconciliation feast. They call off the feud, and go on with their lives.
But I’m no Condeleeza Rice, and I don’t pretend to know what to do in the aftermath of the Tuesday’s disaster.
I do know, however, know that I wouldn’t want to live again under constant fear of terrorist attacks.
It’s not just the fear, either. It’s the loss of privacy. Such as having every item in your luggage examined closely by airport security personnel.
That’s what it’s like to fly in or out of Israel.
It’s been that way for many years, and I’d be very angry at those security folks if they weren’t thorough with my luggage. And as yesterday’s devastating attack on America’s economy and military proved, at least according to current reports, the event that will most likely change our lives forever was carried out by knife-wielding people.
So you learn to welcome the intrusion on your privacy in Israel. You’re searched and inspected whenever you enter a public facility — movie theater, supermarket, school. You stare at suspicious people (“What’s in his bag?”) and they stare right back at you. After all, you never know who might be a terrorist. Have you ever imagined four airline pilots doing what they did yesterday?
That’s what life is like when retaliation is the only practiced form of diplomacy.
Staff writer Yael Li-Ron can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 226) and yael@pulitzer.net
