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Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Insomnia On Skimming Hannah Arendt and Worrying about Gaza and Involuntarily Imagining the Lyrics to "Some States Are Bigger Than Others"

Posted by Brendan Kiley on Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 3:17 AM

From an essay by Arendt—Zionist, then not; lover to pre-Nazi Heidegger, then friend to post-Nazi Heidegger; all-around genius—titled "The Perplexities of the Rights of Man," part of her On the Origins of Totalitarianism:

The Rights of Man, after all, have been defined as 'inalienable' because they were supposed to be independent of all governments, but it turned out that the moment human beings lacked their own governments and had to fall back upon their minimum rights, no authority was left to protect them and no institution was willing to guarantee them.

She was writing about Jews in Germany.

Then I can't get this quote, from a woman in Gaza (about Israeli white-phosphorus bombs—its use against civilians is banned by international war treaties), out of my head:

"One landed in my kitchen and caused a fire," said Zohair Mohammed abu Rejila, 35. "I went to put it out, but another one landed on Mayar, my baby daughter. It was like a block of fire, a piece of plastic on fire. When I knocked it off her, it exploded and out came this heavy white smoke with a very bad smell."

Then this keeps running amok through my callous, callous brain:

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Clearly you support terrorists.

Posted by wf on January 13, 2009 at 3:03 AM

Israel = The Fourth Reich

Posted by Cato the Younger Younger on January 13, 2009 at 6:40 AM

Israel = 4th Reich

Posted by Cato the Younger Younger on January 13, 2009 at 6:41 AM

@1
Brendan, like most of us, is simply thinking through this confusing situation/world.

Stuff White People Like (review)
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/…

Posted by Darwin on January 13, 2009 at 6:42 AM

That's a good point that "inalienable rights" really don't exist. Good thing to remember.

Posted by Urgutha Forka on January 13, 2009 at 7:38 AM

Cato, don't be an ass. You know you're only using Nazi terminology to piss off any Jews that might be reading. If this was any other ethnically-based conflict, even if it was exactly the same in action, it would never occur to you to make that comparison.

Posted by Abby on January 13, 2009 at 8:01 AM

ha there Abby goes again-
Brendan, she's right. now FUCK OFF with your implicit Nazi comparison.

let me get this straight...for comparison to hold, then European Jews must have been lobbing rockets at Germans? right.

Posted by onion on January 13, 2009 at 8:19 AM

Here we go again, when Israel breaks international law the "Holocaust Card" is played. Israel can do no wrong because of the wrong done to Jews in Europe.

Instead of burning the Palestinian refugees in ovens at a concentration camp (messy and leaves evidence) Israel burns them in refugee camps in their own homes with White Phosphorous (messy but no one will really care).

Pick you country, pick your time in history and you'll always find one group of humans beating the hell out of another group. It's time to move to another planet.

Posted by Sargon Bighorn on January 13, 2009 at 9:13 AM

@7: I'm not saying the situations are comparable. I just noted the quote about rights.

And Abby, clearly, is more eloquent and thoughtful about the situation than me and you and everyone we know.

Posted by Brendan Kiley on January 13, 2009 at 9:16 AM

@8: I'm just saying that it's a flawed, lazy comparison which only serves to piss people off. It's not apt enough to do any good. Call Israel whatever you'd like, but Holocaust comparisons in this situation are the same as Holocaust comparisons on the Internet anywhere- a result of not enough thought, poor analogy-making, and a desire to make whoever you're arguing against so irrational with rage that they can't make valid points any more, and you win by default.

And, well, it does seem to be a comparison that only comes up when Israel are involved, not when any other group is beating the hell out of another group.

Posted by Abby on January 13, 2009 at 9:21 AM

Most other groups on the receiving end of genocide in the recent past haven't turned around and started their own, though.

Posted by Greg on January 13, 2009 at 9:24 AM

That is right, We must never question Israel EVER!!! Well, that is what Abby thinks apparently.

Abby, you should watch BBC instead of Fox news for your information about the conflict.

Posted by Cato the Younger Younger on January 13, 2009 at 9:33 AM

since the Holocaust references, are verboten, hows about Apartheid w/ U.S. supplied munitions?

are we cool w/ that?

Posted by chunky nugget on January 13, 2009 at 9:39 AM

@11 Have you ever heard of Rwanda?

Posted by poo poo on January 13, 2009 at 9:45 AM

@12: actually, I tend to read the Guardian. And I think 13 has it probably more right, if we're going to have to give it a name from the past.

I'm not saying we shouldn't question Israel- I think we should definitely question Israel. I'm just saying that it needs to be done in the right way, that we have to recognize the complete fucked-upness of all sides involved. No one is pure here, and it's not nearly as simple as putting one side as saints and one side as villains. It's that kind of attitude which will ensure that nothing ever gets accomplished.

Posted by Abby on January 13, 2009 at 9:45 AM

If Iran really backs and influences Hamas, is this fight really so disproportionate?

Posted by No fan of the Jews, but still... on January 13, 2009 at 9:46 AM

@14: Please explain how one example satisfies the criteria of "most."

Posted by Greg on January 13, 2009 at 9:50 AM

@17: I think you could also argue Bosnia, although I'm no expert on the Balkans so I'm probably not the best one to do it.

Posted by Abby on January 13, 2009 at 10:02 AM

16:
as it stands now yes, it is that disproportionate.

952 dead with about a quarter of them children and over 4200 injured.

to 13 Israeli ---10 military and 3 civilians

amid all the talk of Iran "backing" them lies an important point... there has been an effective blockade; and Palestine, Gaza in particular is fucked.

Posted by newest numbers on January 13, 2009 at 10:11 AM

If Iran is backing Hamas, why does Hamas only have a tiny amount of crappy short range rockets? If that's all Iran can do, I'm seriously disappointed in them. On the other hand, it's probably all just a lie to justify further murdering of Palestinians under the false pretense of a 'broader attack' from the muslim world.
This, of course, after Israel broke the cease fire that 'terrorist hamas' was honoring. Oh well, who needs peace or justice?

Posted by Stoppin ze throwinze on January 13, 2009 at 10:50 AM

@14,

Rwanda is a bad example. Try again.

Posted by keshmeshi on January 13, 2009 at 10:59 AM

Don't they think of it as Jew vs Arab? We're working on getting the Arabs in Iraq and Israel is working on Arabs in Palestine.(As in, somewhat pounding them into the ground.) But how many Jews are there really in the Middle east? Aren't they kinda surrounded, as always? Palestine needs to be a country and they need just as much rights as any other people with a country and property.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?…

Posted by goodbyeGitmo on January 13, 2009 at 11:15 AM

@16, so, if Iran is for it, you're against it? Is that all it takes to sign away so much Arab blood?

Everything would be better today if Shrub hadn't snubbed their offer of detente back in 2003.

Abby is right. The case for Palestine needs to be based on Palestinian legitimacy, not Israeli illegitimacy. Palestinian claims to justice are only weakened by pointless comparisons. Those who support 2 countries side-by-side should stop talking about Israeli right to existence and start talking about Palestinian right to existence.

Posted by Read it in Haaretz on January 13, 2009 at 12:56 PM

Hamas has declared an act of war by firing those rockets and killing Isrealis, and Isreal has to respond to that act of war. The point of war is to make your enemy surrender. Isreal is trying to keep the civilian casualties as proportionate as possible while getting its enemy to surrender, which is difficult. Foreigners with no real stake may have difficulty understanding this.

Posted by sockpuppet on January 13, 2009 at 12:57 PM