Israel as Ender

[Integrating Editor]

I find the comparison of Israel to Ender fighting against bullies to be both horrifying in its implications and singularly inappropriate. First, Ender killed both Stilson and Bonzo. So this comparison suggests that Israel will end by eradicating the Palestinian people. If that is truly how people see it, I don't see how they could support it as a method of war that can be ethically and rationally supported.

Second, Ender was smaller than both of his assailants, so he could not risk a prolonged fight. He had to strike hard and quick. Israel, on the other hand, is currently fighting the Palestinians, a group without even an organized army or consistent funding. The people are generally impoverished (significantly more so than just about any group of Israelis), and most of them are more focused on survival than warfare. Israel will win in any military confrontation with the Palestinians, short of a tremendous shake up in the political order. Even when we include the Arab nations that oppose Israel, the grand collection of them can't put together a military to equal Israel's heavily funded, American-equipped, and nuclear-capable military. Even in Israel's earliest, most vulnerable days when the neighboring countries dared to attack, American and British support kept the Israeli military afloat. Today, especially since the West has ensured that Iran could not develop the nuclear weapons that would make the field more balanced, no one and no coalition in the Middle East could safely challenge Israel in open war. So to assert that Israel could see itself as fully justified in slaughtering the Palestinians is disturbing. Perhaps that isn't what The Soulful Ginger meant to imply, but that is where the analogy leads.

Further, I feel it is disingenuous to condemn without mitigation those who from their perspective are fighting for the right to due process of law, for the rights guaranteed full citizens, for those who are fighting for the chance for a life not surrounded by guards for their children. Hamas and some of the other most militant groups have killed civilians, and they have used tactics not approved of by larger nations. However, they do not have the resources larger nations have. More Palestinian civilians have been killed than Israeli ones, by an order of magnitude. Have some Palestinians done terrible things? Yes. But so did many of the Sons of Liberty, people many Americans now revere. I do understand the Israeli desire for a Jewish state, and I fully support their right to have such a state. However, their current single-state solution with first- and second-class citizens is bound to result in violence.

[Emiliana]

Yeahhhh. I agree. The Palestinians are not blameless, but to say that the Israeli government is just trying to protect its citizens is not cool either. Two-state solution FTW.

[Zedability]

I definitely agree with what Integrating Editor says, but I think maybe the Ender analogy is true as far as the fact that Israel may feel threatened and alone, and react according to the same logic. Even though it isn't actually true, and carrying the Ender analogy too far definitely has disturbing implications, if Israel feels outclassed and threatened by all of its Arab neighbors, it will react that way whether it needs to or not, whether it aligns with the reality of the situation or not.