A Light Unto Nations
Avraham Burg used to be a Speaker in the Israeli parliament. Now he seems quite pessimistic…
The Jewish people did not survive for two millennia in order to pioneer new weaponry, computer security programs or antimissile missiles. We were supposed to be a light unto the nations. In this we have failed. It turns out that the 2,000-year struggle for Jewish survival comes down to a state of settlements, run by an amoral clique of corrupt lawbreakers who are deaf both to their citizens and to their enemies … Israel, having ceased to care about the children of the Palestinians, should not be surprised when they come washed in hatred and blow themselves up in the centers of Israeli escapism. They consign themselves to Allah in our places of recreation, because their own lives are torture. They spill their own blood in our restaurants in order to ruin our appetites, because they have children and parents at home who are hungry and humiliated. We could kill a thousand ringleaders and engineers a day and nothing will be solved, because the leaders come up from below – from the wells of hatred and anger, from the “infrastructures” of injustice and moral corruption.
Why aren’t Tibetian children blowing themselves up?
China proposes terrorism laws after Tibet, Xinjiang bombs
http://www.tibet.ca/wtnarchive/1997/3/6_2.html
“China announced plans Thursday to add harsh
anti-terrorism provisions to its Criminal Law after separatist bombings in
Xinjiang and Tibet.”
How difficult is it to Google for “Tibet Terrorism”. Carbombs and suicide bombs are the traditional weapons of the street, of a people so oppressed and defeated they have no recourse to an armed police force or army with which to inflict injury and terror on an opposing side. Consider the position of a radical Palestinian who seeks to do damage to an Israeli — they have no official military forces and so resort to street violence. Now consider the position of a radical Israeli who seeks to do damage to a Palestinian — they have one of the most lethal and best-equipped armies in the world. They can agitate for more funds, support settler expansion backed by force, or demand “retaliation” missile strikes against Palestinians in crowded streets that will kill dozens of bystanders. One of these actions is commonly called “Terrorism”, while the other is commonly called a euphamism such as “Police Action” or “Targeted Killing”.
Your article is over 6 years old, and referred to some bombing in the past claimed by China.
A google search of “tibetan terrorist attack” returned NO results. Replacing ‘tibetan’ with ‘palestinian’ returned 1200 results.
Seeking justice: Contrasting styles of Palestinians and Tibetans
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/cna/analysis/030902_justice.htm
The Tibetans eschewed the path of terror. The result? Fifty years after China overran their country, Tibet’s future remains in limbo and the old Tibetan government remains in exile. With no country willing to back the Tibetan cause for fear of displeasing powerful China, the Tibetans’ fight for an independent homeland appears to have become a “boutique cause” championed by Hollywood stars. It is not a mainstream one like that of the Palestinians and the LTTE.
So, is the Tibetan cause less legitimate than that of the Palestinians and the LTTE, or is non-violence a weak and ineffectual tool in scoring political points for dispossessed people? In other words, does terrorism, especially the tactic of suicide bombing, pay?