The Real Horror
For whom does one have compassion? Most people feel some degree of compassion as human beings, for others whom an accident or misfortune has placed in an unenviable position. People who experience dreadful occurrences, who have been placed in situations which are life-threatening, or who grieve for relatives who perish under any circumstances.We normally feel badly for these people, no matter where they live, for the circumstances under which they live, which attenuate their lives in the most deleterious of ways.
But what can one say for the values, the lack of compassion, the compulsion to hate, eliminating all vestiges of normal human response in the face of disaster on the part of others? Can one truly feel compassion at the misfortune of people who blatantly celebrate the dread misfortunes of others?
Or is that sense of compassion somehow misplaced, entirely driven out by the clear knowledge that those to whom we reach out with the emotion of understanding and regret, can evince no such feelings for others...?
The clearly recognized agenda of terrorists is twofold; to instill terror in the minds of their enemies, in a determined bid to minimize the quality of their lives, leaving those enemies in a constant state of traumatized dread; to accomplish that state of dread by using any means, including self-sacrifice, to destroy the lives of as many of the perceived enemies as possible.
No ethical or moral or spiritual compunctions against targeting the truly innocent, the most vulnerable of any population, the children, the elderly, the women. These terrorists, self-appointed avengers of whatever crime or dishonour they believe has been committed against them, have no pity, no sense of humane determinism, no qualms whatever about what it is they set out to do.
They objectivize their targets, considering them to be beneath their contempt, as representatives of the enemy, and as such, quality targets. The more vulnerable the targets, the greater the triumph, certain to bring greater grief to the enemy.
But what about those who stand behind those terror groups? That shadowy group of others whose interests the militias claim to be representing? Whom, when it is seen as fit, are themselves offered up as sacrifices for the greater good of achieving the terrorists' goal?
Logic would have it that most people are individuals of conscience, unlike the psychopaths whose pathological hatred leads them to dedicate their lives to death.
Their response must surely tell us something.
This very day two terrorists made their secretive way into a rabbinical seminary, the Mercaz Harav seminary - a theological school within Jerusalem - opening fire on those inside. It was confirmed that at least eight people have lost their lives as well as one of the terrorists.
It's a scene of chaos and fear. Mission accomplished: people have been murdered, the populace has been terrorized. Two gunmen were said to have unleashed their deadly fury at Israel's Jews in a dining hall at the seminary.
Paramedics arriving in ambulances had their hands full treating injured people, four of whom are listed as being in serious-to-critical condition. It's clear then, that there may be additional deaths arising from this assault.
Israelis live with the very real knowledge that deadly assaults can occur to target any number of them anywhere, any time. They are on guard, their lives are fraught with danger, and their minds are never free from the understanding that life can be too short. They post guards, attempt to ensure they can protect themselves as much as humanly possible, and sometimes they succeed, sometimes they don't.
A student at the seminary, Yitzhak Dadon, standing guard on the roof of a nearby building, was armed with a rifle. He watched as one of the gunmen exited while shooting his automatic rifle. "...the terrorist came to the entrance and I shot him twice in the head", he said.
Evacuating wounded from the scene (Photo: Gil Yohanan)
One of the gunmen, according to Jerusalem police spokesperson, Shmuel Ben Ruby, appeared to be wearing an explosive belt which later turned out to be additional ammunition. The agenda that day clearly did not include an intent to self-destruct; merely to destroy as many Jewish lives as possible without accomplishing the much-vaunted act of martyrdom.
That those who demand the world look on with sympathy to the plight of Gaza's Palestinians, while at the same time provoking a defensive response from a country whose people are continually embattled is critical enough. That the very same suffering Palestinians who feel so entitled to compassion for their terror-constructed condition, cannot feel compassion for others bespeaks a failure of humanity.
This is monstrously abhorrent. This condition bespeaks a complete breakdown in a basic human impulse to feel for others. A humanity degraded beyond understanding. Savagery on a scale harking back to times primeval. Where Israel regrets that it is compelled by a savagely intransigent enemy to respond in kind, the terror militias celebrate a triumph of achievement every time they've been responsible for killing someone.
The terrorists sprayed gunfire everywhere in the yeshiva, intent on delivering death on as wide a scale as possible. Such triumphantly exuberant news travels fast in that taut atmosphere. In Gaza City, resident Palestinians were quick to flood into the streets, firing rifles in celebration, handing out sweets.
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, March 06, 2008
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