Yes, indeed, just one percent of the good Prof's brain would improve mine enormously. I have had reason to quote him before but for the life of me I can't quite remember why. However, I just know it would have been with approval because the man has the ability to cut through the crap and point his mental scalpel at the heart of any affair.
Take Gaza for example. Do you, like me, have the notion that the Gaza strip is one great built-up area? If so, Big Fail! Just because Hamas conducts its military operations against Israel from inside cities which causes enormous civilian losses when Israel is forced to retaliate don't think there aren't plenty of open spaces which they could use, as these maps indicate:
Anyway, Prof. Dershowitz poses three questions, as follows:
“Why don’t the media show the relatively open areas of the Gaza Strip?”
“Why doesn’t Hamas use sparsely populated areas from which to launch its rockets and build its tunnels?”
“Why does the United Nations try to shelter Palestinian civilians right in the middle of the areas from which Hamas is firing?”
The answers, of course, are so simple that even a nitwit like me can provide them. First, because the media are lazy and corrupt in the sense of not wishing under any circumstances to lose their slots inside Gaza in order to show us all 24-hour Shlock-Horror footage. Second, because that would mean that the casualty rates for Hamas fighters would rise and that of civilians fall, the exact opposite of what their fighting manual specifies! And third, because the UN is sympathetic to Hamas and hostile to Israel, and if a few kiddie-winkies get blown to shreds, well, the Jews will get the blame not them!
His conclusion is spot on: International law must be enforced against Hamas for using civilian targets as cover for their own attacks against Israeli civilian targets. If that were done, Israel would have no need to defend itself as the attacks would stop.
The chances of any of that happening are roughly equal to finding a pork chop in a synagogue!
I once found a ham roll in a synagogue....well, I knew it was there. Belonged to a mate of mine who fancied a ham roll for brekky most days. I personally certified it kosher, so that's alright.
Posted by: Andra | Friday, 08 August 2014 at 00:11
My Dear old Dad served in the Islands during WW2. DoD's simple rule 1. If you are hungry and its edible it is Kosher. One of his friends [who became a Rabbi after the war] had served in the AIF in the Western Desert. Loved a good rasher of "flat nosed sheep" regularly captured from the rapidly departing Italians.
As for Gaza - nuked till it glows could be an option. And that's the soft option as it is the only way those barbarians will leave Israel alone.
Posted by: AussieD | Friday, 08 August 2014 at 01:30
Andra, you are multi talented!
AussieD...succinct as usual. If the Hamasites ever got hold of nuclear material, they would blow themselves to oblivion by delightful accident.
Posted by: Whitewall | Friday, 08 August 2014 at 01:38
'If the Hamasites ever got hold of nuclear material, they would blow themselves to oblivion by delightful accident.'
Didn't the Yanks almost nuke themselves once? (January, 1961). And before that they planned to nuke the moon.
Posted by: Louise | Tuesday, 12 August 2014 at 15:53