לוחם הקודש You know, sometimes irony gets too ironic...
Those who oppose the religious right have been especially concerned about the influence of the military’s chief rabbi, Brig. Gen. Avichai Rontzki, who is himself a West Bank settler and who was very active during the war, spending most of it in the company of the troops in the field.He took a quotation from a classical Hebrew text and turned it into a slogan during the war: “He who is merciful to the cruel will end up being cruel to the merciful.”
A controversy then arose when a booklet handed out to soldiers was found to contain a rabbinical edict against showing the enemy mercy. The Defense Ministry reprimanded the rabbi.At the time, in January, Avshalom Vilan, then a leftist member of Parliament, accused the rabbi of having “turned the Israeli military’s activity from fighting out of necessity into a holy war.”
Now, I am pretty sure nobody in power believes that they need to listen to this crazed, old Irish guy from New York State.
But, if Israel adapts this nonsense as its policy, tacit or expressed, then we need to re-visit the whole Middle East-Israel-Special Relationship crap. Next time the bastards want money, send them DVDs. Religious DVDs...Ben Hur, The 10 Commandments, Solomon and Sheba, Sampson, The Greatest Story Ever Told, Barabas, Life of Brian...and, a copy of The Great Dictator .
Seriously, if they want American military aid and guarantees, let them get it the same way the Saudis do, pay for it. We had a reasonable obligation after the Holocaust to provide assistance to the Isrealis and did a fairly lousy job of it initially, but have been staunch stooges ever since. There is no difference between Avachai (isn't that a type of tea?) Ronzki and Achmajenabad, except that his name is easier to spell. Seriously, if "Never Again" is only for Jews, it's meaningless.
Now, I suspect that this is another example of the " the best lack all conviction, the worst are full of passionate intent." However, Holy Wars aren't holy; Aquinas had a pretty good explanation of the just war -- the attacks on Gaza are interesting because the Isrealis are the aggressor. Arguments that they are not because of rocket attacks that kill a few yearly kind of fail the proportionality test.
The strict conditions for legitimate defense by military force require rigorous consideration. The gravity of such a decision makes it subject to rigorous conditions of moral legitimacy. At one and the same time:
- the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain;
- all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;
- there must be serious prospects of success;
- the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. The power of modern means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.
I am not advocating that we direct Isreal's policies, politics, or actions. But, at least we shouldn't support policies, politics, or actions that violate common sense and the rule of law. If we advocate international law, and international law defines war crimes, and the Israelis engage in behavior that violates international law and commits crimes and aggressive war against a relatively defenseless group of people, then we need to do something besides tsk/tsk/tsk but continue our historic support. Else, we become at best lacking conviction if not accomplices in passionate but irrational and evil intent.
Nor am I a big fan of reparations and trying to undo history. A helluva lot of pain has been inflicted on the world by those two little ideas. I do have a personal bias toward not doing evil things based on the precedent of other evil; and, I am opposed to the influence of relgion on war and vice versa. Tiffany dislikes war because it wakes her up and makes her cranky and then her face breaks out. If you accompany slaughter by religious justification and complaint, then she really gets angry. I prefer to let her sleep her dreaming, unfulfilled dreams than piss her off.
The American record on religious extermination isn't great. Sand Creek was in many ways paralell to the most recent invasion of Gaza. Most of the Isreali Defense Forces are reservists; the US forces at Sand Creek were reservists. The impact of a fundamentalist and triumphalist Jewish faith on the forces attacking Gaza are linked to war crimes and atrocities; Chivington, the commander of the forces at Sand Creek was a minister and the presiding elder of the Methodist Church in the Rocky Mountain District. In both cases, the cause of the attack was, shall we say, disproportional to the response...and the results, not exactly what was anticipated. There is a direct line between Sand Creek and Little Big Horn and beyond all as a result of this...
The beginning of the American Civil War in 1861 led to the organization of military forces in Colorado Territory. In March 1862, the Coloradans defeated the Texas Confederate Army in the Battle of Glorieta Pass in New Mexico. Following the battle, the First Regiment of Colorado Volunteers returned to Colorado Territory and were mounted as a home guard under the command of Colonel John Chivington. Chivington and Colorado territorial governor John Evans adopted a hard line against Indians, accused by white settlers of stealing stock. Conflicts between settlers and Indians in the spring of 1864 included the capture and destruction of a number of small Cheyenne camps.[11] On May 16, 1864, a force under Lieutenant George S. Eayre crossed into Kansas and encountered Cheyennes in their summer buffalo-hunting camp at Big Bushes near the Smoky Hill River. Cheyenne chiefs Lean Bear and Star approached the soldiers to signal their peaceful intent, but were shot down by Eayre's troops.[12] This incident touched off a war of retaliation by the Cheyennes in Kansas.[11]As conflict between Indians and white settlers and soldiers in Colorado continued, many of the Cheyennes and Arapahos (including those bands under Cheyenne chiefs Black Kettle and White Antelope who had sought to maintain the peace in spite of pressures from whites) were resigned to negotiate peace. (AXE comment and Snark: Not a bad paralell. The size of the reservation that the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho were "given" was 1/13th the size of their original grazing and hunting grounds.) They were told to camp near Fort Lyon on the eastern plains and they would be regarded as friendly.
It appears that the investigation into what happened in Gaza may have some paralells to the aftermath of Sand Creek...except, in Isreal, every fanatic gets a second and third and fourth and fifth act. Until they die...
Soldier Blue - 1970 - The Massacre - More free videos are here
As to Colonel Chivington, your committee can hardly find fitting terms to describe his conduct. Wearing the uniform of the United States, which should be the emblem of justice and humanity; holding the important position of commander of a military district, and therefore having the honor of the government to that extent in his keeping, he deliberately planned and executed a foul and dastardly massacre which would have disgraced the verist [sic] savage among those who were the victims of his cruelty. ( AXE comment and concern: Chivington was a purely local yokel. The chief chaplain of the IDF is something more than that. One is forced to wonder if this was in fact a strategic decision, to kill and destroy without restraint. If so, the Hague should have some questions. )Having full knowledge of their friendly character, having himself been instrumental to some extent in placing them in their position of fancied security, he took advantage of their in-apprehension and defenceless [sic] condition to gratify the worst passions that ever cursed the heart of man. Whatever influence this may have had upon Colonel Chivington, the truth is that he surprised and murdered, in cold blood, the unsuspecting men, women, and children on Sand creek, who had every reason to believe they were under the protection of the United States authorities, and then returned to Denver and boasted of the brave deed he and the men under his command had performed. In conclusion, your committee are of the opinion that for the purpose of vindicating the cause of justice and upholding the honor of the nation, prompt and energetic measures should be at once taken to remove from office those who have thus disgraced the government by whom they are employed, and to punish, as their crimes deserve, those who have been guilty of these brutal and cowardly acts. ( AXE Comment and Snark: Ironically, Chivington escaped prosecution as a result of amnesty declared following the Civil War, an amnesty declared in the spirit of "With malice toward none, with charity toward all..." and primarily intended for the forces of the Confederate States.")
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