Taste of atrocities

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Most war crimes in history are committed by psychopaths who shouldn't have been allowed to come to power in the first place. Hulagu and Nero, Hitler and Mussolini, George Bush and Ariel Sharon are but a few examples. The horrors they inflict on their own people as well as others only end once they are removed from power.

The real tragedy, however, is when atrocities are authored by or in the name of nations rather than individuals, as in when a nation decides that its own survival depends on the destruction of others. Such a situation is not merely tragic for the innocent victims, but demeaning of all humanity. Public polls show that most Israelis support the recent brutal attacks in Gaza. Practically covering up the crime, the Israeli media refrained from publishing pictures of the innocent victims of Israeli war crimes.

Israeli peace movements had nothing to say about the atrocities. Here is a case where an entire nation knowingly engaged in war crimes. The Israelis actually pressed their own government to attack the Palestinians on the pretext that the firing of rockets by Hamas had to be stopped. This means that the blame for the recent atrocities doesn't rest with one individual but with the whole nation. The Israelis are more extreme than their leaders, and they regard the Palestinians with nothing but hatred and racist contempt.

This situation may shed light on some anomalies in Israel's history. For example, Israel tends to make peace under extremist governments and war under supposed moderate ones. Menachem Begin, a former leader of Irgun- Zvai Liumi, which was known for its terrorist tactics, signed a peace treaty with Egypt. Sharon, also an extremist prime minister, pulled the army out of Gaza unconditionally, despite the opposition of right-wing groups. In contrast, most of Israel's wars against the Palestinians and the Arabs were waged by the left.

It is ironic indeed that Bush has sought to divide the Arab world positively according to "moderates" and "extremists". Even in its internal dynamic, there is nothing moderate in Israel.