http://www.dawn.com/2011/11/24/no-kosher-way-to-annihilate.html
"Thou shall not kill" is NOT "Jews' "most sacred covenant". The commandment is "Thou shall not murder". We Jews are not forbidden the right to kill in self-defense nor the right to slaughter animals for food.
"Thou shall not murder" is a commandment not to commit slaughter your fellow man out of hatred for him. This the Israelis have certainly followed admirably compared to other nations. Not only is the murder and crime rate in Israel's orthodox communities close to zero, Israel's example - too often distorted into the opposite by the media - of acting against aggression yet NOT wontonly engaging in the mass slaughter of peoples whose leaders have vowed eternal enmity towards them has been emulated by other nations, specifically the United States and, lately, the Pakistani Army itself. Isn't that something the citizens of Swat and Wazirstan have to be thankful for?
Pakistanis suffer from many problems. Among them is this: having driven out every Jewish voice from the country, some Pakistanis have been tempted to invent their own interpretations of Jewish Law as a means of ridiculing and demeaning Jews or Israelis. It appears Jawed Naqvi is one of these.
Furthermore, I find it hard to believe that he is acting out of ignorance of Jews, given the close association he cites with them in India and elsewhere (though he may have been misled by dishonest intellectuals like Chomsky); rather, isn't it most likely he is trying to mislead Pakistanis, including himself? After all, I'm not the only one to note that Pakistani intellectuals deal with large amounts of cognitive dissonance every day. Yet that is no excuse for leading his countrymen down the road of aggressive war and damnation, is it?
Respectfully yours,
- Solomon2
http://solomon2.blogspot.com
[emailed to Dawn and Mr. Naqvi]
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Responding to the USS Liberty calumny
"During the 1967 War with Egypt and Syria, the Israeli Air Force knowingly bombed the USS Liberty — an American surveillance ship — and blamed it on the Egyptians." link
The Liberty, operating just outside Egyptian waters, was indeed attacked by Israeli warplanes. It was a "fog of war" mistake:
The Liberty was not far away when an ammo dump on shore suddenly exploded - thought to be by a bombardment from ship. Although identified earlier as an American warship, the Israelis did not maintain contact - they were looking for Egyptian warships and subs - and the Israelis thought, talking to the U.S. naval attache, that the Liberty was gone from the area; however, these orders had been mis-routed. The Liberty remained offshore but after the explosion proceeded (by unhappy coincidence, having reached the eastern end of its patrol area) towards Egyptian waters at high speed, and was then mis-identified as an enemy vessel fleeing the scene of an attack.
These facts are available from both U.S. and Israeli official sources and U.S. documentation. [Ref: Michael Oren, Six Days of War] I hope all readers note that very few, if any, Pakistani, Muslim, or Arab writers exerted themselves in the slightest fashion to unearth the true story, as best as it is known.
Over and over even "liberal"-minded Pakistanis miss the truth about Israel and its actions, preferring to wallow in demonisation instead. How many realize that the mind-set necessary to do this is EXACTLY the mind-set that invents reasons to bomb mosques and rape and kill innocents in their own country? The same mind-set that gives the O.K. to corruption rather than good government? I guess such thoughts, too horrible to evaluate, simply vanish on contact - and so Pakistan's terrible decay continues and its citizens continue to sink into a vast moral morass.
The Arab writer, Abdulateef al-Muhim, formerly a Saudi naval commodore, has often wondered how history would have been different had the Arabs recognized Israel in 1948 instead of vowing to eliminate the country and exterminate its Jewish population.link So do I: perhaps there might never have been a Saudi-supported Pakistani curriculum promoting the distortion of fact and fraud on an ummah-wide level. Muslims would have realized that by supporting extermination-minded Muslims against Jews that they are supporting criminality, not justice. Can Pakistanis gather the strength to change their own nature?
***
The Express Tribune refused to publish the comment.
UPDATE 11/21/11: My comment was published, after all.
The Liberty, operating just outside Egyptian waters, was indeed attacked by Israeli warplanes. It was a "fog of war" mistake:
The Liberty was not far away when an ammo dump on shore suddenly exploded - thought to be by a bombardment from ship. Although identified earlier as an American warship, the Israelis did not maintain contact - they were looking for Egyptian warships and subs - and the Israelis thought, talking to the U.S. naval attache, that the Liberty was gone from the area; however, these orders had been mis-routed. The Liberty remained offshore but after the explosion proceeded (by unhappy coincidence, having reached the eastern end of its patrol area) towards Egyptian waters at high speed, and was then mis-identified as an enemy vessel fleeing the scene of an attack.
These facts are available from both U.S. and Israeli official sources and U.S. documentation. [Ref: Michael Oren, Six Days of War] I hope all readers note that very few, if any, Pakistani, Muslim, or Arab writers exerted themselves in the slightest fashion to unearth the true story, as best as it is known.
Over and over even "liberal"-minded Pakistanis miss the truth about Israel and its actions, preferring to wallow in demonisation instead. How many realize that the mind-set necessary to do this is EXACTLY the mind-set that invents reasons to bomb mosques and rape and kill innocents in their own country? The same mind-set that gives the O.K. to corruption rather than good government? I guess such thoughts, too horrible to evaluate, simply vanish on contact - and so Pakistan's terrible decay continues and its citizens continue to sink into a vast moral morass.
The Arab writer, Abdulateef al-Muhim, formerly a Saudi naval commodore, has often wondered how history would have been different had the Arabs recognized Israel in 1948 instead of vowing to eliminate the country and exterminate its Jewish population.link So do I: perhaps there might never have been a Saudi-supported Pakistani curriculum promoting the distortion of fact and fraud on an ummah-wide level. Muslims would have realized that by supporting extermination-minded Muslims against Jews that they are supporting criminality, not justice. Can Pakistanis gather the strength to change their own nature?
***
The Express Tribune refused to publish the comment.
UPDATE 11/21/11: My comment was published, after all.
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