Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Celebrating one's own terrorists

Today the Arab terrorist Sami Kuntar is being released by Israel in exchange for the remains of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, two Israeli soldiers kidnapped and killed by Hizbullah. There is much rage in Israel about the hero's welcome that Kuntar (who killed a 4-year-old boy by smashing him against a wall) will receive in Lebanon.

And all would be OK if it were not for the implicit assertion that while the Arabs honor their terrorists, Israel doesn't. "Where are the official honors for Baruch Goldstein?," the reasoning goes.

In the first place we must observe that Israel is a country with an army. When you're a people without planes or tanks, it's quite hard to make a murder look like collateral damage. When you've got an army, it's much easier. To put it crudely, any Israeli pilot, or soldier on a tank, can intentionally kill civilians and then claim he was targetting something else. It's his word against the Palestinians', and it is quite possible --I'm not saying certain, but possible-- that some of the soldiers who get military honors in Israel (who knows, maybe even Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser) are actually cold-blooded murderers.

But of course the point can be made that, in any event, Israeli soldiers are not honored in the knowledge that they willingly killed someone innocent.

However, before the creation of the State, certain Jews were involved in serious terroristic activity, willingly killing civilians. The Palestine Post archives can help us in finding a few examples. There, you can access scanned versions of all issues of what now is the Jerusalem Post.

For instance, on 19 Feb 1948 we find on the first page:



The bomb at the marketplace on the weekly market day was later claimed by the Irgun, a Jewish terrorist group.

On 1 Apr 1948, also on the first page, we can read:



As can be seen, the Stern gang, another Jewish terrorist group, was responsible for the mining of this train.

On 14 Dec 1947, among many stories of attacks against Arab civilians reported on the first page, we read:



This attack on a crowded lane between a movie theater and a café was perpetrated by the Irgun (in the article called IZL, Irgun Zvai Leumi).

But of course, we know that both the Irgun and the Stern gang were repudiated by the Israeli society, weren't they?

Nope.

In 1980, the State of Israel honored the terrorists that killed 40 Arabs on a train and 6 Arabs in a marketplace and another 6 Arabs in the street (among countless other atrocities) by awarding them State ribbons. Here's the Lehi (Stern gang) ribbon:



And here is the Irgun ribbon:



So that Israel honors its own terrorists, just like the Palestinians do; it only hopes people won't notice. But in the Internet world, with all that scanned evidence scattered all over the web, relying on the people's bad memory may not be so good an idea.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tito, Tito, dejá de hacer lío, ¿Qué hasta yo me tengo que enterar? ¿Tiene que venir tu abuelo a enderezarte un poco? No sabés lo que me costó esto de escribir en la Internet. Te pido que por favor por lo menos me leas hasta el final.
Yo sé que tu abuela y yo no conseguimos mucho transmitirte como ser un buen judío y por esto espero que sepas perdonarnos. Tu viejo, por otra parte, siempre fue medio tarambana, siempre con la revolución, la revolución… y nunca le importó un pepino su judaísmo. A mi nuera no le podía pedir que te eduque en algo que le era ajeno, ella también estaba en su derecho de mantener sus propias creencias. Y así creciste vos, un árbol medio seco por tener las raíces fuera de la tierra, Éramos felices cuando todavía decías que eras judío.
Pero ahora me entero, Tito, ¿que estás haciéndote pasar por árabe para atacar al Estado Judío? ¿Vos que ya sos todo un profesor universitario? ¿“Ibrahim Ibn Yusuf” de Rosario? ¿De dónde salió eso? Suerte que tu abuela Tuna no está para enterarse ¿A vos te parece que mi viejo Yosef se hubiera mudado al culo del mundo, y que me perdonen los mendocinos, pero eso era el culo del mundo respecto de donde él vivía, si Israel hubiera existido en su época? ¿Que hubiera cruzado el océano a vivir en una tierra cualquiera y ajena, si podía en cambio tocar las piedras de Sión?
Tito, ya pusiste en claro que de vos no puedo esperar bisnietos judíos. Lo que espero al menos es que no le hagas creer a la gente que tus antepasados son musulmanes. ¡Qué Yusuf ni que Ibrahim, Tito!. Y respecto a tus hijos, si no te importa que no sean judíos, espero que por lo menos los eduques para que sean buena gente y no unos difamadores anónimos... Mirá, no me hagas hacer más malasangre. Mi nieto, el que yo conocí, no era un mentiroso de profesión. Pedí por favor disculpas a la gente y dejá de confirmar el estereotipo del descendiente de judíos que en lugar de recordar sus raíces con respeto y con amor se dedica a desparramar su odio contra el pueblo de Israel para creerse que "no se perdió de nada".
Con cariño,

El abuelo Salo.

*****

Come on, Alberto José Miyara, aka "Ibrahim Ibn Yussuf". You are embarrasing yourself. You, an engineering teacher at an Argentinian University in Rosario making the director of the Archives of Yad Vashem waste his time, telling him that you are an Arab.

But Alberto, you have zero of an Arab in you. You are a half Jew (on your father's side) and half Christian and a total tit. Citing Popper! The nerve! I hope your students or your prospective employers google this when they want to know more about Alberto José Miyara.

Here you are "Abraham Benyosef"
http://elcomandante.wordpress.com/2007/01/02/diccionario-para-entender-el-conflicto/#comment-1070

And here, less than eight hours later, but on the same thread, you become "Ibrahim Ibn Yussuf".
http://elcomandante.wordpress.com/2007/01/02/diccionario-para-entender-el-conflicto/#comment-1173

You certainly have some issues.

Ciao!

Anonymous said...

Talk about being obsessive! Some people really don't like having facts published.

Anonymous said...

What wonders? - Was it not the entire Arab world that responded with war against Israel when Israel constituted? You can' t compare these attacks - never - with those attacks today! That is not honest!

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