Reply #35: Merely questions.

[AliceWonderland]

"The Arabs" was a very vague term, and it was, frankly, difficult to know precisely what cowardly, callous Arabs were being referenced. Even the statement above is a long way from self-evident -- "Arabs was 'as opposed to the IDF' " -- what does that mean? An Arab is anything that is "not-IDF"? Even in this specific kind of discussion, people have quite rightly criticized the conflation of IDF with Israelis, even Jews. That's not acceptable -- no matter what anyone in the IDF does or doesn't do, it's not a reflection on Israelis, and never a reflection on Jews. Groups are variegated. Collective punishment is wrong. Indeed, one could argue that this was a revealing slip. I don't know if I would, but one could.

In any case, demonization leaves us with a sense of inevitable divide, that there's an Other who is less human and deserving of human rights. That can't lead to better solutions.