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Location: Israel

Friday, July 14, 2006

Proportionate Response... Cat Scratch Fever

The UN or EU request for Israel not to respond disproportionately to attacks on its citizens and sovereign territory is absurd.

It is logically impossible for Israel to give a proportionate response to the attacks it suffers.

If Hamas shoots rockets at Israel - regardless of the damage, deaths or injuries caused - the only proportionate response that might satisfy Israel's critics would be a bunch of Israeli citizens or reservists shooting home-made or stolen rockets into Gaza. But such a response could not be authorized by Israel.

There's no possibility of a proportionate response to terrorism from a nation that, like Israel, has a national government - even though Israel's enemies do describe Israel's responses as terrorism....

Really, I don't know much about military matters. And I seldom if ever need to use anything other than reason to eliminate what bothers me. But I have had some experience using force, violence in response to personal attacks:

If a cat scratches me, I give it a slap. If it scratches me again, I slap it again, perhaps a little harder. I don't make a decision to use proportionate force because I am so much more powerful than the cat. I don't resolve to use only my little finger to flick the cat's tail. I try to deter the cat from scratching me. I don't try to kill the cat - and Israel doesn't try to destroy the Arabs: it's just trying to stop them from scratching.

Since Israel is universally reputed to be overwhelmingly more powerful than its neighbors, perhaps its critics could even profit by considering what a man does when a mosquito bites him. And, remember, the mosquito is not trying to destroy the man; it's merely trying to survive, trying to gain sustenance.

Tell me: What is the correct, proportionate response that you critics of Israel employ when a mosquito buzzes near you?

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