Souls of the Fallen

[nn2004]

http://haganah.org.il/israel/archives/000911.php


September 10, 2003

Last night Dr. David Appelbaum and his daughter, Nava, went to Cafe Hillel on Emek Refa'im Street. They stopped in a cafe, briefly, to buy some cookies.

Neither of them walked out alive. Their lives were cruelly cut down together just a day before Nava's wedding night. In lieu of celebrating her marriage, today the Appelbaum family mourned at their funeral. Although words cannot adequately express the magnitude of this atrocity, they are all we have and must therefore suffice.

More than 20 years ago Dr. Appelbaum moved to Israel from Cleveland, Ohio. In addition to being a brilliant Torah scholar, he was also an exceptional physician. But he was so much more.

Upon hearing the news of the bombings, the streets of Gaza City were filled with rejoicing and celebration. Images have already been captured of Arabs firing assault rifles and distributing sweets in celebration of the slaughter.

[mike_c]

1. ultimately, there is only one solution to state apartheid....

Israel must go the way of South Africa if it wants a one state solution.

[The Magistrate]

2. You May Have Won Today's 'Stunning Non-Sequiter" Prize, Sir

Though it is still early, you are surely setting the pace for the field.

Do you, perhaps, have any comment on the killing of these people, and whether it advanced in the slightest the legitimate aspirations of the people of Arab Palestine?

[MariMayans]

3. I did come across something..

where a Palestinian was stating that if Jews think Palestine is the only safe place in the world for them that the bombings were necessary to disabuse of them of that notion so they would stop coming.

This is completely outside morality of course, but it was striking to me because it was the first time I had ever heard a coherent motive outside revenge for these bombings.

[damnraddem]

4. I thought it was a wonderful response.

The types of tragedies recounted in the thread will continue until something reasonable is negotiated. To look at them in isolation from that reality is to ignore the roots of the next tragedy -- to encourage its occurrence.

[mike_c]

5. yes, I do....

These people were victims of the state aparthied that Isreal imposes on it's arab citizens and on the Palestinians crammed into the occupied territories.

Until the Israeli's, like the Afrikaners, understand that oppression and apartheid will only breed violence and hatred, they can expect little more than continued reprisals from Palestinians.

I do not believe that the Israelis, or at least the Likudists, are at all interested in a two state solution, and any one state solution will have to either be propped up by permanent apartheid and state-sponsored racial oppression, or Isreal will have to go the way of South Africa and cede political power to the Arab majority (who I also believe have the most legitimate claim to such power, notwithstanding the Israeli reliance on biblical justifications for seizing control of Palestine).

[The Magistrate]

6. An Interesting View, Mr. C

By its light, one sees that Israel is responsible for all actions by armed Arab Palestinians: these, like an unsupported object must fall towards the earth's core, can do nothing but react as they do to the actions of the Israeli state. In other words, only Israelis are moral agents, responsible for their deeds; Arab Palestinians are mere objects, unable to choose for themselves, and cannot be held responsible in any way for their actions, which are in fact mere reactions: not humans, but some odd combination of infant and autonamaton.