My Right Word: This Is Not The Way to Protest...

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

This Is Not The Way to Protest...

...neither is it the way to demonstrate or protect Jewish property in Hebron.

Moreover, the more they act violently, the more the chance that they will directly contribute to the loss of the house.

More here and here.

And a different take here.

1 comment:

mnuez said...: The way I see it, there are four quadrants here, vertically labeled "kavanah" and horizontally labeled "results".

The upper left quadrant comprise the most numerous group of such violent activists. These are people (mostly male between the ages of nine and thirty) who have a violent streak within them and have a blase attitude about the suffering of others. They're happy biryonim who sing cheerfully "michama l'dror - artzeinu milchama - v'im met hadror, t'chi hanikama!" with a smile on their face. Results are little more than an afterthought to them, they're violent and ugly regardless.

The quadrant to the immediate right of this large and festering mass of shababniks are those whose intentions are good but who have poor analytical skills. They believe that indiscriminate and intermittent violence will have some revolutionary effect. They allow their deep and desperate hopes to conquer rationale and their innate repugnance for violence. They imagine themselves Pinchas ben Elazar ben Aharon and thus they pick up yidei eisav and can often be found in internal solitude, mixed in with the mob. Baruch Goldstein comes to mind.

The bottom left quadrant is composed of those whose internal ethical structures aren't as pure as they ought to be but who are lucky enough to find themselves in that rare situation where the scene somehow came to be dominated by those to their right. Thus, history judges them well and only their wives know the truth.

The lower, right-hand quadrant is the one to which all of the other groups claim to belong. Not only are their hearts pure but their minds are clear as well. They engage in violence (even occasionally in indiscriminate violence, the type that we often refer to as "terrorism") as their last resort, were they living in more normal times they would never dream of lifting up a hand to anyone. Viewed from a distance their actions can be confused with those of members of the other groups, but viewed from the scene - and from the judgment of history - they can not be.

Those with wrong kavanahs and analysis repulse me and should be excised from our communities, ubiarta harah mikirbecha. Those with correct kavanahs but weak minds need the strong guidance of their betters. They're naive, malleable and tragic figures who deserve our love and care and who require it in overwhelming quantities if they're to be removed from the pernicious influence of their neighbors and their own shallow analyses. Those with wrong kavanahs who happen to be fighting the right battle should be kept under close supervision... while those, such as Menachem Begin in the days of The Revolt deserve our emotional, spiritual, monetary and physical support.

I don't however know if the situation as it currently exists is one in which there is a place for such individuals, so until proven otherwise, I agree with your stance in this post.

chazak,

mnuez; Thu Dec 04, 09:18:00 AM