by Ray Cook
How often do we hear that
The argument goes like this: Gazans are not responsible for the actions of Hamas, who govern the Gaza Strip; the rockets and suicide bombings and kidnappings are not the fault of the ordinary citizen. Therefore
This is a strange argument, especially as Hamas were elected by these same innocent citizens. When
In fact, the idea of collective punishment originates in the American Civil War and General Sherman's Special Field Order 120, article V:
To army corps commanders alone is entrusted the power to destroy mills, houses, cotton-gins, etc…, and for them this general principle is laid down: In districts and neighborhoods where the army is unmolested, no destruction of such property should be permitted; but should guerrillas or bushwhackers molest our march, or should the inhabitants burn bridges, obstruct roads, or otherwise manifest local hostility, then army commanders should order and enforce a devastation more or less relentless according to the measure of such hostility.
In more recent times
Indeed, the provisions of the Versailles Treaty after the end of World War I could be viewed as a collective punishment of the German people which was a major cause of World War II, as was the forced ethnic cleansing of Germans from
In light of the hundreds of trucks and thousands of tonnes of humanitarian aid passing through checkpoints between
Those who accuse
I suspect the answer is that BDS is, for many of its supporters, not simply a tool to pressure
Israel is under attack on many fronts: militarily (Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran by proxy via the both of the former), politically (UN Security Council, UN Human Rights Council, antipathy in Europe, South America and the Muslim world), legally (Goldstone Report, challenges to Occupation, security wall, blockade etc.), academically (academic boycotts, disinvitations etc.) and finally by fanatical Islamism (calling for Israel's destruction and a new genocide of the Jewish People by Hamas, by historical revisionism denying Jewish connection with the Land, blood libels, brain-washing of children to hate and revile Jews by, inter alia, the Palestinian Authority).
And so this demonization continues, which seems to be the main focus and raison d'être of so many radical Muslims and their fellow travelers of various stripes.
The
And now we have the disgusting spectacle of a unanimous decision by the Unite union in the
Even the Palestinian Authority doesn't go this far as reported by YNetNews:
The Palestinian finance minister stressed Sunday that the boycott on Israeli products pertains only to goods produced in settlements, and that the Palestinian Authority desires to maintain ties with the Israeli market.
"We have excellent ties with the Israeli market and we want to continue this cooperation and even expand it," Dr. Hasan Abu-Libdeh said at a conference held at the
Do I hear the distant echo of the 1930's?
Ray Cook
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