to reach holocaust? If 6 million is the number, then there have been lots since the Germans killed the Jews. The Germans killed a lot of Russians. The Russians killed a lot of Germans. The Russians killed more than 6 million Russians. The U.S.A. killed lots of Japanese, Panamanians, Colombians, Vietnamese, Lebanese, and Iraqis. Plenty of other examples.
How many dead in Rosenbaum's second holocaust? How much of the "historical experience" of other holocausts does he "empathize" with? Is that a fair question? The article is about Jewish dead, not Cambodians or any of that crap. Be fair to Ron.
But that's how he attacks his subject; exclude the middle, pick examples out of context, and create one straw man after another.
If he objects to the word, "stranglehold," when was the last time funds for Israel were cut? Oye.
<Despite their many caveats, one comes away from the book feeling that the authors—who subscribe to the "realist" school of foreign policy, which subordinates moral questions in international affairs to considerations of power—believe that the world rightfully dislikes the Israeli regime>
Could ve include mebe just one little itty bitty caveat, vhatta ya say? Or what should we use instead of power? Whose morals, I ask you? Because it is absolutely true that the British took the best land in Palestine, ran off or subjugated all the Arabs on that land, and then the new owners methodically exercised military power ruthlessly, I guess you could say less than "realistically," and thus, by Rosenblum's own logic, immorally, to expand that territory and continues to this day. Are the Palestinians and Hamas and Hezbolah guilty of crimes against Israel and Israeli women and children? Well, that depends on your definition of crime. Or perhaps terrorism.
So lets call in an expert. And first of all we must acknowledge that the only qualified experts on morality, terrorism, "moral imagination (lets not analyze that construction--we might end up somewhere northeast of Breslau, or maybe deep in a De Beers diamond mine near Pretoria) and law are Americans. Since Rosenbaum suggests the Arabs making the threats about the existence of Israel have nuclear weapons (even though Hamas {ethnic Hitler's one must assume}, the Lebanese, Hezbolah, etc. don't), lets call in the world's number one expert on the use of the atomic bomb, current favorite of GW Bush (let that simmer on the back burner):Harry S. Truman, President of the United States, 1945-1953. From the Truman library:
Mr. Harrison explained he had recently received through Dr. A.H. Compton a report from a group of the scientists at Chicago recommending, among other things, that the weapon not be used in this war but that a purely technical test be conducted that would be make known to other countries. Mr. Harrison had turned this report over to the Scientific Panel for study and recommendation. Part II of the report of the Scientific Panel stated they saw no acceptable alternative to direct military use. The Committee reaffirmed the position taken at the 31 May and 1 June meetings that the weapon be used against Japan at the earliest opportunity, that it be used without warning, and that it be used on a dual target, namely, a military installation or war plant surrounded by or adjacent to nearby homes or other buildings susceptible to damage.
I point to the clause that notes the atomic bomb will destroy "homes and other buildings." Since the military aspects of the target(s) have been previously identified, what could these other targets be but schools, hospitals, or flower gardens? Who's number one, baby?
So lets not get carried away with the second holocaust. Israel might negotiate more sincerely without an arsenal second only to Big Daddy's. Are the Saudis our allies or not?
Oh, and by the way, if an avid student of Middle Eastern history were to look real close, that student would discover who it was that is credited with the invention of the suicide bomb delivered to crowded public space by a truck.
