Sunday, July 10, 2005

Good terrorists, bad terrorists

The Sun doesn't include Israel in a map of countries recently affected by Islamic terror (although it does, incidentally, include the Kenya attack and the attacks on Turkish synagogues). Tony Blair connects the London bombings to 'critical issues in the Middle East.' Numerous newspaper reports compare Londoners' experiences to those of the people of Madrid and New York -- but not of Jerusalem or Tel Aviv.
Hold on. Weren't these attacks going to make Londoners feel closer to Israelis -- for once, make them understand a bit about what Israelis have been through for the past 4 years?
Ha'aretz's sobering explanation:
A senior Economist writer... said, "The British simply don't want to see themselves like Israelis." [Writer Jonathan] Friedland agrees: Many Britons simply feel that "Israel is not like us."
In other words, for some people at least, there are still good terrorists and bad terrorists, people who 'deserve' to be hit by terror and others who are innocents. Israel -- like Russia with the Chechnians -- is still perceived as the aggressor, and therefore terrorism against it is 'forgiven,' much as Irish Americans forgave the IRA for so many years because they were perceived as 'victims.' Israel clearly has still not got the idea across yet that the struggle against it is not just over the Palestinian question, but over its very existance.

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