Posted on 04/11/2004 4:09:47 PM PDT by yonif
Ten years ago, the massacre began in Rwanda. In a country shared by two tribes. Some members of the Hutu tribe rose up against their neighbors and colleagues from the Tutsi tribe and began killing them with whatever weapons were available: pistols, rifles, stones, knives and machetes. Incited by inflammatory radio broadcasts, which also revealed locations where people were hiding, they accused people who refused to participate in the killing of collaborating with their bitter enemies. Within 100 days, the tortured bodies of 800 thousand Tutsi piled up. Eight thousand people were murdered every day, a rate faster than that of the Nazi death machine which devastated European Jewry.
Not one country or international body lifted a finger to prevent or halt the massacre, even though the signs of what the future held were clear. The Foreign Ministries of western countries, especially the United States, Britain, France and Belgium, were well aware of what was happening. Representatives of the United Nations, headed by Kofi Annan, were well-informed on the situation. Even before the killing started. Later when the slaughter began, Washington, London, Paris and Brussels closed their ears.
The UN Security Council met several times. The meetings dragged on maliciously until it was finally decided that there would be international intervention. However, no date was set for it to begin. The Hutu were able to continue the bloodshed unhindered. The few international forces in the area were instructed to disengage, not to get involved. The slaughter went on and on. Courageous television reporters managed to interview potential massacre victims who begged for their lives before the world, but the world was silent.
Today, on the tenth anniversary of Tutsi Holocaust, we should remember that all of the fiery moralistic speakers against our behavior in the territories did not lift a finger. They did nothing. We should remember that far fewer words were written in the world press about the massacre in Rwanda than are written about the IDF road blocks in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. Much less criticism was heard against that campaign of racist slaughter than against the Israel Air Force’s targeted killings of murderers.
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These words were not written only to remind us of the hypocrisy and simple immorality behind every passionate statement issued by some foreign ministry and every self-righteous newspaper article about us. Today, we should remember that holocaust and how the world looked away, because it ought to remind of something very fundamental that I think has gotten lost in the clamorous debate over our own methods. Simply put, only force and our determination to defend ourselves and, if necessary, to take the offensive, stand between us and the fate of the Tutsi. It seems that we have forgotten the basic assumption in the conflict between us and the Palestinians and Arabs. We are not the ones who are plotting indiscriminate slaughter and annihilation that does not leave a trace. It is the other side.
We are the only country in the world that supposedly respectable members of the United Nations openly and officially say must rightfully be destroyed. We are the only country in the world that newspaper articles, speeches, radio broadcasts and television programs throughout the Moslem world preach against with hatred, blatant racism, blood libel and calls for annihilation. We are the only country in the world subjected to resounding propaganda that is identical (not similar, identical) to the Nazi propaganda against the Jews.
Take the force of sophisticated weapons, tanks and rifles away from Israel and just imagine the clear result. We would share the fate of the Tutsi at the hands of their neighbors. In the midst of all of the discussion and debates about what we should do in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip and how the country should look in the future, it would be worthwhile to remember this basic fact. Carried away by criticism at home and abroad, by human empathy for the suffering of others, by the weakening effects of conscientious objectors, by the adventures of the few who were enchanted with now the now collapsed Oslo Accords, by unjustly placing the blame on the shoulders of Israeli governments and by giving too much credit to the Arab side, we tend to forget where the conflict began. We may advance ideas for cutting back, disengaging, withdrawing and painfully uprooting settlements but we should not delude ourselves that these will quickly propel us into a world in which everyone can sit under his vine and fig tree. For many years to come, we will need to continue living by the sword, in varying degrees, in order to protect our own lives. For even if we are as sweet, serene and soft as possible, the murderous hatred directed against us will not fade away. If we forget, we will give the world another opportunity to remain silent in the face of slaughter.
I assume the above-cited country is Israel? Or is it America?
Bingo! Another misuse of the word. Up until the 1940's you could look in any dictionary and see the proper definition for 'holocaust' as being "a sacrifice consumed by fire or a thorough destruction involving extensive loss of life especially through fire" then it was co-opted by Others for the WWII slaughter of the Jewish people (justifiably the crematoria involved fire) but, to be accurate, 'holocaust' ought not be applied to every large loss of life just for the sake of making it sound worse. Neither should the "holocaust industry" latch-on to the word like it was their invention. For the crematoria, it works; for Dresden, it works; for Berlin, it works; for Tokyo, it works; for the two 'big booms' in japan, it works. For the internecine wars in Rwanda, it doesn't work.
When most of the killing on a large scale over the last century, has been the "product" of big governments that came from expansion of power among groups of people who lusted for power.
Lust for power.
That is what we are up against.
Terrorist attacks are among the many weapons used by such groups that lust for power; the attacks themselves are, what you may say, "power trips."
It's about power, much, much more than it is about "the economy."
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