Measured Response

Lets try and tackle a philosophical theoretical issue.  Lets assume for a second that one owns great powers of seeing into the future.  And lets assume further that this person is minding her own business while watching this guy walking down the street, knowing, not guessing, that he is on his way to commit a heinous murder.  What should this person do?

This isn’t such a simple matter as you may think.  In fact, it’s a very complicated one.  The options are few.  You stop the person and talk him out of it.  You warn the intended victim to get away.  You call the police.  It is obvious to me that in all cases, without proof or evidence, your pleas would be dismissed by all, the criminal, the victim and the police.  Worse.  One might be tagged “paranoid”, “crazy”, “lunatic”, and then be dismissed.  If this person does it more than once, she might get committed into a mental hospital.  It would seem that the only logical action would be to follow the person and wait for the crime to have been committed, and then call the police.  One may save herself of being called “paranoid”, but then again, she has just watched a crime being committed, a crime she knew about, and did nothing to prevent.

Obviously, this is just bull.  Nobody has the powers to see into the future.  (And the ones who claim they do, should indeed be committed into mental hospitals…).  But we can and must see into the past.

Many voices are crying murder now and are suggesting that the Israeli response to the rocket shooting into southern Israel is not well measured.  That the deployment of a state-of-the-art airforce and military against a bunch of terrorists is not justified, and that the rockets have only managed to cause minor damage and an occasional death.  The response, those voices say, in terms of casualties, is completely out of order.  But is it really?  What if a rocket hits a shopping center in midday?  What if dozens of dead Israelis are counted as a result?  Would then the response be justified?  What if dozens of Israeli children are torn to pieces as a result of a rocket shot into a kindergarten?  Would that justify a severe military action?  And the question is: do we have to wait until it happens?  Do we?

Please understand.  The Israeli forces are trying as hard as they can to target only military posts, terrorists, rocket installations and manufacturing bases.  The Hamas is shooting in the general direction of Israel hoping to achieve as many civilian casualties as possible.  This is no secret and never has been.  Hamas, Hizbullah, Al-Qaidah and the likes, are all stating very clearly: they make no distinction between civilians and soldiers.  They make no difference between military installations and shopping malls, between tanks and buses.  All Jews are legitimate targets.

For all of those crying murder.  When it comes to your countries (and it undoubtedly will, if it hadn’t already), to your population, to your children – would you behave differently?  Would you wait?