> -----Oorspronkelijk bericht----- > Van: John D. Giorgis [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Verzonden: woensdag 27 maart 2002 14:40 > Aan: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Onderwerp: Child Soldiers RE: This week in the Middle East
> >I know it is popular among the rabid pro-Israel crowd to equate > >"Palestinian" with "terrorist", but unlike what those people think, > >the international community is *not* calling for negotiations with > >terrorists; they are calling for negotiations with what they see as > >the legitimate Palestinians leadership. > > A leadership that continues to support terrorism with their actions, > even while they make token declarations for the cameras. The Palestinian Authority is blamed for the actions of terrorists, and is accused of being incapable of dealing with them. The same can be said about Israel, though. A while ago a Palestinian school (and therefore: Palestinian children!) was targeted by an Israeli terrorist group; one can therefore now argue that Israel is supporting terrorism and supporting the deliberate targeting of children, since even the once feared Mossad apparently was not aware of the group's existence (it is their *job* to find such groups before they can do any harm -- did they fall asleep or something?). > Actually, if you were to follow news reports closely, you would know > that some of the recent killings have been made by the Al Aqsa Martyr > Brigades, part of Arafat's Fatah movement. And apparently, a part that is no longer listening to Arafat. Each time a bomb goes off, Arafat strongly condemns the attack -- not that it matters much, though, since the pro-Israel crowd is by now convinced that every Palestinian is a terrorist... > >You know, if there is one thing I find sickening, it is the > >neverending hammering on "Israeli girl killed" and "Palestinian child > >throws grenade". Why do people like you keep hammering on that, but > >conveniently never mention all those Palestinian children killed by > >Israel? > > Because there is a difference between a child killed at a Party and a > child killed who is attacking soldiers. You recently posted a link to an article called "Give War a Chance". Did you bother to read the responses from readers of that article? One of them mentioned, among other things, a Palestinian woman and her three children who where killed when an Israeli tank blew up the pickup truck they were in. Sounds like cold-blooded murder to me. BTW, something else that specific reader mentioned was the death of a Palestinian doctor who was killed when an Israeli Apache gunship fired on his ambulance. Ambulances tend to be quite distinguishable from other vehicles; when did it become OK to fire on an ambulance? That not only smells of murder, that also smells of a war crime. > Simple questions: > > 1) Do you believe that the people who gave @10-year-olds grenades and > told them to run towards Israeli attacks with them should be condemned? Yes. > 2) Why do you think that your government did not condemn them? I do not know whether or not they condemned it. But given earlier reactions to violence, I am convinced that they would condemn it. > 3) Is an Israeli soldier morally justified in killing a child who is > throwing a grenade at him or her? > > 4) Is an Israeli soldier morally justified in killing a child who is > throwing an object at him or her that looks like a grenade? When a soldier is attacked, he certainly has a right to defend himself. However, especially when a child is throwing something, ducking for cover should be a soldier's first priority, not shooting at the child. But then, those Israeli soldiers are members of an occupation force and should not even be there in the first place. I am not going to feel sorry for them if they get killed. > >Then what do you propose the Palestinian Authority should do with > >their prisoners? Jail them all for life because they *might* use > >violence against Israel once they are released? > > And finally, Jeroen, what do you think should be an appropriate > punishment for someone caught by authorities with bombs in his > apartment and detailed plans for blowing up a bus with them? A long jail sentence would be appropriate. But that still does not answer my question. > In the United States, it would be jail for a very long time. In > Palestine, it is apparently jail for a few days. They could be released as revenge for Israeli agression. Or they could be released because their was no (or insufficient) evidence to keep them in custody any longer. Are you so intimately familiar with every case that you can tell whether the release was justified? And now, a few questions for you as well: 1. Do you feel that Israeli terrorists attacking Palestinians should be condemned? 2. What do you think should the Palestinian Authority do with people that are suspected of planning a terrorist attack? Jail them for a long time (or even execute them) based on that suspicion alone, or give them a fair trial and release them if the accusations can not be proven? 3. Is a Palestinian who is living under Israeli occupation justified in fighting Israel? 4. If Israel destroys a specific building, and it later turns out that the destruction was not justified, should Israel repair the damage? 5. If innocent Palestinians (like the ones I mentioned above) are killed by Israeli troops, should those soldiers be jailed? 6. If so, should they be tried by Israel or by the Palestinians? Jeroen _________________________________________________________________________ Wonderful World of Brin-L Website: http://www.Brin-L.com Tom's Photo Gallery: http://tom.vanbaardwijk.com
