Syrian slaughter and Israeli restraint

[tootrueleft]

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/syrian-slaughter-and-israeli-restraint-1.366703


Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime is slaughtering dozens of unarmed Syrian demonstrators every day. In Israel we cluck our tongues in shock and say he is "slaughtering his own people," but when the Israel Defense Forces killed 23 unarmed Syrian demonstrators in one day, we boasted that the IDF "acted with restraint."

Demonstrators in the Syrian city of Hama and protesters on the Golan border are similar not only in their nonlethal means, but also in their aims. Both are trying to change the established order. And the authorities' response in both places - live fire on demonstrators - is amazingly similar.

In Israel people will immediately explain that the IDF makes every effort not to kill the demonstrators, and indeed the number of fatalities in Syria is much higher, but the means are similar - live fire on unarmed demonstrators. And the fatality count might even prove to be comparable if, God forbid, the Golan demonstrators persist in their rebellion - and Israeli public opinion wouldn't have any problem with that, of course. Even if we resemble Syria, we don't appear that way to ourselves.

[kayecy]

1. At last....Someone in Israel has made the connection.....

At last....Someone in Israel has made the connection.....Assad shooting at unarmed civilians is no different to the IDF's human target shooting gallery.

[shira]

2. Great talkbacks in response to another dumbass editorial...

What a Fool
Ken - USA 09.06.1113:38
1) Assad is not killing dozens...he is killing thousands.
2) no proof 23 were killed or killed by IDF troops. Only the word of Syrian officials. How reliable are they?.
3) IDF troops fired on people trying to storm borders and create mayhem. Assad is firing on his own people whom are demonstrating for democratic reforms. Big difference.....Levy is so skewed in his thinking as to have no credibility. Sophomoric at best

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I wonder what the author would say in face of Jewish nonviolent resistance
TL 09.06.1112:07
What if hundereds or maybe thousands of Jews would march to the Temple Mount armed with nothing but their bibles and religious objects to protest not being allowed to pray in their holiest site. Would we hear support for their nonviolent resistance ?

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Levy likes numbers not ethics
Dan 09.06.1111:40
The common thread running through all of Levy's writing is a refusal to engage in ethical analysis. Doing that would require differentiating between a citizen peacefully protesting his own government (as in Syria) and an incited rabble storming another country's borders. Levy erases all such subtleties and looks only at numbers — the classic refuge of the ethically illiterate.

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Levy is a genius - international borders mean nothing.
Brian Cohen 09.06.1111:38
Is there a difference between Syrians demonstrating for freedom, and Syrians trying to illegally break through an international border fence. Well, if you're Gideon Levy there is no difference.

[oberliner]

3. There is no evidence that Israel killed 23 unarmed Syrian demonstrators

It is sad (but not surprising) that Gideon Levy would repeat this statement as if it was a fact.

The reality, however, is that the only source making this claim is the Syrian government.

No evidence has been provided of any of the components of this statement - the number of casualties, how they were killed, and whether or not they were armed.

The IDF, for its part, has said that the casualty number is lower, that they were not killed by Israeli fire, and that they were hurling molotov cocktails at Israeli soldiers.

I would think that a reporter like Gideon Levy who is rigorously skeptical of the reports put out by the Israeli government would be at the very least equally skeptical of reports put out by the Syrian government.

This is especially true in light of the fact that the Syrian government has clearly put out unsubstantiated (and somewhat suspicious) statements with respect to the details of the conflict within Syria.

[azurnoir]

4. well of course

by now you should know when Arabs kill it's terrorism when Israeli's kill it's self defense at least according to some

we hear the cries of how Israel is not allowed to defend itself but the reality is that Palestinians are not allowed to defend their selves, if they do it's terrorism

[kayecy]

5. IDF must not shoot unarmed people ..........Jerusalem Post!

IDF must not shoot unarmed people ............Larry Derfner, Jerusalem Post

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=224189

<snip>
Myself, I don’t doubt that the Syrians inflated the body count, but on the other hand the IDF doesn’t know how many people were killed, and I – like everybody else who isn’t brainwashed by hasbara – assume that some of the funerals held this week were indeed for people shot by Israeli soldiers.

We can say we gave them fair warning; we can say we fired as a last resort and only at their legs; we can blame Syria for letting them through to the border; we can say Syria is doing incomparably worse things to protesters; we can say this group or that group is even paying people to make these mad dashes for the border.

It doesn’t matter; we don’t have to shoot unarmed people, not when the worst they can do is run around inside our territory for a little while.

And since we don’t have to shoot these people, it’s deeply immoral to do so. The state of Israel is ordering 20-year-old soldiers to shoot, and possibly kill, unarmed protesters. Think about that.

<snip>