Posted on 12/06/2007 8:34:49 AM PST by RDTF
SDEROT - Do Americans really understand what terrorism is, what it does to a society, and how it can be defeated?
Five young Israeli soldiers -- nineteen- and twenty-year-olds stationed in Sderot, a small town bordering the Gaza Strip -- say Americans have much to learn. These members of the Israel Defense Forces should know: part of their job is to protect and comfort the traumatized youth who live here in the city where Kassam rockets fall from the sky.
-snip-
"Terrorism is a fact of life here," says Yuval's twenty-year-old commanding officer, Rehut Eisenberg. Unlike Americans who recently suffered one big attack at home, in Israel, "We don't wonder when or if an attack will happen, we just worry about where it will happen."
Americans are only beginning to realize what they're up against, Inbal Nachum of the Home Front Command says forebodingly. "Americans don't understand -- you don't understand -- what it is like… [when terrorism] just is...just is the reality."
-snip-
These soldiers say America has yet to grasp terrorism's full implications, or to feel its presence in the way Israelis have: police checking shopping bags and backpacks at malls, a voice in the back of your head telling you to avoid crowded spaces, and lengthier interrogations at travel hubs.
The question in Sderot is: How do you maintain community and a sense of security in the face of this? How do you avoid fostering fear or hatred in youth?
-snip-
"With a professional army all the way in Iraq," says Yuval, it's easier for Americans to forget the psychological damage such violence causes. When -- or perhaps if -- terrorism strikes American soil again, America should do more than retaliate, they should also build up a community capable of bouncing back time and again.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.washingtonpost.com ...
Some Americans get it real good!....others want to ignore it!
I see a big difference between us and the people of Israe. If this were to happen here, our people would ballistic. Imagine this happening from south of our border. Mexico would longer exist. Israel has been putting up with this for years on end. Since they haven’t done anything about it, it will continue and we will continue sending them billions of dollars a year to their politicians. We’ve been doing it since 1947, it’s time for Israel to fish or cut bait.
denial and rationalization are very basic psychological defense mechanisms. It’s much easier to be selfish and go on about your life in ignorance... after all, even if there is another attack, it probably “wont hit me” anyway.
They don’t “get” why Communism is a bad thing either. They see it as a charged “buzzword” akin to calling Bush or Rush a “fascist”.
What do you do? Launch back on a 100 for 1 basis. Sooner or later you will get to someone or something that these cockroach pali's do care about.
It’s easy to understand your frustration with the situation — the U.S. has been Israel’s staunchest ally, while the rest of the western world would have abandoned it in the interests of appeasement. That’s something for the U.S. to be proud of, and for the rest of us to be ashamed of. (Canada is finally on the right side of history again, under PM Harper and his minority Conservative government.)
Agreed. We would go ballistic in a way that Israel will not or cannot do. There is a reason that they say don’t F with the US.
Unlike Israelis, Americans aren’t of a mind set that allows terrorists to kill us routinely and not retaliate. We don’t want to die, we would rather make the people who are trying to kill us die instead, so no, we aren’t like Israelis.
What does the international community have to do with the idea of how a country responds when attacked? Unless Israel deserves the condemnation of the international community. The world has nothing to say about what we would do if we were being attacked like Israel is. If Syria launched rockets on the US, we would go in with everything we had. Israel backed off and pulled out of Syria. They sit there and take the rockets launched at them from Gaza and fire a few more back at them or send one or two planes over and blow up a couple of launching sites.
Yeah, us silly Americans are just too stupid to grasp the obvious. Some a**hat is always and forever making that claim somewhere.
which is why terrorism is such a big problem in Israel. there are too many socialist Israelis who get in the way of any long term solution. It isn’t international pressure. Israel should have fixed this long ago, they haven’t because they haven’t had the will. thats all.
Most Americans couldn’t tell you what Sharia Law is, find Afghanistan on a world map, tell you the date the Declaration of Independence was signed, or give you the name of the Vice-President.
No wonder most of them are clueless about terrorism. They are historical and geographic ignoramuses - one of the reasons Demicrats win elections.
It happened in New York. It has probably happened elsewhere in the US we aren’t being told about. “nothing to see here.” If it happened from Mexico, we would be upset. Some redneck would take it out on some illegals. CNN would talk about our horrific overreaction to the crime and Mexico would sue us for reparations with the ACLU’s full backing. The American people would rally against the first Republican that the media tags the attack on and go back to watching the latest on Britney Spears.
It is nice to think that we would act decisively, but, especially if Bush is not in office, I’m afraid we wouldn’t.
Patient???? 60 years of patients? I call this stupidity or better yet, they don’t want to give up our money. Yes, they are friends of the US, but they also want our money. When do they stand on their own or give up the ship?
Ours is a big country. Their’s is very small. They are extremely patient, but, at least in theory could be run over very quickly (don’t believe it is that simple from a biblical perspective, but most Israelis aren’t biblicists). Our country would take a huge force to make a dent in it. I suspect is something happenend on the left coast, most of us would hem and haw for a few weeks and then look for what entertainment is available on Broadway. If they went after the children like they have in Russia and Israel, it would garner more ire, but I still don’t think it would make us want to go nuclear. Anyone who would want to go nuclear already gets it today. Those who don’t simply won’t until it is too late.
Britney and Brangelina are more important! Geez, half of us here, yes right here, didn’t get the tragedy of Elian Gonzalez, even though his family in Miami tried to explain the horrors of Communism. But no, we fell for the Reno-Rodham inspired propaganda that Elian’s cousin here was a whore, and off he went back to Paradise, just like Simas Kudirka before him!
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