COLLECTIVE GUILT? OR COWED JEWS?

BBC News article: "300 British Jews have signed a petition condemning Israel's military actions in the Gaza Strip."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5154838.stm

"The petition, which appeared as a full-page advert in Thursday's Times Newspaper, condemns the way Israeli forces have responded to the capture of Cpl Gilad Shalit. "


Okay, dat's veddy nice....


Why the heck should British Jews 'apologize' for what Israel is doing?
[Or feel that somehow they have to atone in some way by 'protesting'? ]

I do not intend to apologize for anything that the US does, or the Netherlands does, to anybody.


I assume that the atmosphere in Britain has turned a lot colder towards Jews because of Gaza.
Should I then, in like fashion, start slamming expat Brits here in SF for what their government does?

[That would make more sense, in a perverse way, as many of those expats are British subjects. British Jews, by and large, are not Israeli citizens (but, oddly enough, British subjects too, just like the expats).]


The twisted logic that holds that Jews have ANY responsibility whatsoever for the actions of Israel (a sovereign state, with its own independent government), would impose collective responsibility on people - which means that the local Palestinian smoke-shop owner on California and Polk is responsible for the safe return of Corporal Shalit.


Preposterous!


And by the way, Hamas controls the situation, and can call a halt to IDF activity immediately. Hamas holds the trump card - all they have to do is release one man.

If any group deserves collective punishment or has collective guilt for what is happening in Gaza, it is Hamas.

---------------------------------------------

The Times advert is signed by Harold Pinter, film director Mike Leigh, historian Prof Eric Hobsbawn, actress Miriam Margoyles, and other well-known figures.
A large number of academics are also signatories.

Dan Judelson, spokesman for Jews for Justice for Palestinians, said: "We simply do not see how Israel can defend attacking civilian targets such as water works and power supply."

Would it be better to target schools, hospitals, and crowded souqs?

No offense, Mr. Judelson, but it is precisely because the infrastructure is in the cross-hairs that this incursion has had so remarkably few civilian casualties.

I am sure your fellow Britons would appreciate more dead civilians, as long as the water works and power supply were unaffected, no?

After all, dead civilians are cheaper for the donor countries of the EU than repairs, and any place that has functioning utilities is a good investment opportunity.

Especially if the rowdy populace has been thinned out a little.


Should I point out here that I've lost my tolerance for European hypocrisy? That I find that glib uber-civilized smarm of the Euro-left nauseating? Or can y'all figure that one out without help?


No wonder the colonial possessions thought y'all were a bunch of right bhainchotes.


---------------------------------------------

Final note: the local Palestinian smoke-shop owner around the corner is a very nice gentleman (his brother is a gloomy old puss who vends cheap liquor to the local yobbos around the other corner), and at the prices he charges for tins of tobacco (Dunhill Standard Mixture, EMP, London Mixture, etc.), I would not step on his toes even if I thought it in any way proper to hold him responsible for what some of his deranged cousins in Gaza are doing.

So don't even think of suggesting 'collective responsibility' to me. Go piss in your own backyard. Shame on you.