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| Violence |
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In addition to their skill in getting communities to
consider resolutions without the input of the public, Israel's detractors have
another specialty: making emotional, heart-rending presentations of Palestinian
suffering, complete with passion, photos and tales of violence inflicted upon
the innocent.
One image that never seems to accompany their
presentations, however, is this one: |
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| This picture was taken on August 9, 2001 when a
Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at Sbarro's Pizzeria in downtown
Jerusalem. In case you are having trouble discerning faces amidst the body
parts in the scene above, here are four of the 15 victims of the blast: |
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Yocheved Shoshan,
Age 10 |
Hemda
Schijveschuurder,
Age 2 |
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Avraham
Yitzhak
Schijveschuurder, Age 4 |
Tehila Maoz,
Age
18 |
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| Israel's critics often request that we try to get
inside the heads of someone who decides to blow himself up at a pizzeria, bar
or school bus, asking us to imagine the pain and suffering required to drive
someone to such a murderous act. Ironically, the people responsible for mass
murders like those shown above have no trouble getting into the heads of their
victims: |
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The image above shows a human skull, including the
nail a Palestinian bomber thoughtfully placed around his explosives to maximize
the body count of innocents. Screws, broken glass and even AIDS-infected blood
have all been used as shrapnel by human bombs in order to ensure maximum
civilian casualties.
Non-Violence
When looking at these
ghastly images, think for a moment about the Dali Lama, the spiritual and
political leader of the people of Tibet, a nation occupied by the Chinese since
1959. Even with the mass expulsions and repressions that have been visited upon
innocent Tibetans over the last four and a half decades, the Dali Lama has kept
his people on the path of non-violent resistance, the same non-violence that
helped Martin Luther King free the South and Nelson Mandela free South Africa.
And all of his efforts and all of the efforts of the Tibetan people to
stay this non-violent course have been rewarded with hundreds, if not
thousands, of "Free Tibet" bumper stickers coupled with almost no political
action. For example, the drive to divest from China because of their occupation
of Tibetan land has yet to come up before a fraction of the number of
institutions that have been asked to divest from Israel in just the last two
years.
As we bring up and educate our children with the virtues of
turning away from the fist, the knife and the gun, leaders of cities, towns,
universities and churches are being asked to send a very different message to
the world; that blowing up Pizzerias shall be rewarded, and a lifetime of
non-violent resistance ignored. |
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