January 10, 2009
LOSING THE THREAD OF YOUR OWN THOUGHT:
The Dogs Of Sovereign War (Lionel Tiger 01.07.09, Forbes)
Sovereignty is both an important privilege and an equally serious obligation.A vast amount of human thought, legislation, warfare, tragedy, pride and joy have been part of the role of sovereignty in social arrangements. Wars involve abuse of sovereignty; the United Nations and a variety of other organizations exist to mitigate the often fierce clarity and danger of such abuse. Territorial integrity is the source of vast realms of national behavior, which is usually benign and ends up in anthems, national play-offs, dirndls and dances. [...]
[In "the current tragedy in Gaza"] there are two sovereignties, each entitled to freedom of action within their territories and in the context of their customs and economies. But the Hamas government in Gaza declared Israel completely illegitimate. It also, as a matter of formal national policy, asserted it wished to destroy it and thus violate its sovereignty in the direst possible way. In this, Hamas is supported and abetted by its financial and weapons sponsor Iran, which shares the same profound allergy to Israel, and is clearly racing to create and enable nuclear weapons, which could generate precisely that devastating result.Iran and now Hamas want to do with Israelis what Germans wanted to do with Jews, and succeeded in doing--exterminating as many of them as they could tear from the tapestry of Europe. Germany confected a bioracial basis for its hygenic adventure: eye and hair color, facial shape, religious and behavioral history, whatever. Hamas, Iran and others have a far simpler diagnostic: jihad.
Of all the infidels who can be, and should be, exterminated proudly, the Zionist entity is No. 1.
It is quite proper to analyze the war through the lens of sovereignty, buy Mr. Tiger alternately fails to do so and gets sovereignty wrong. To begin with, Israeli is quite different than Jewish, as opposition to Israel is quite different from anti-Semitism. Move Israel to South Florida and return the land to the Palestinians and they'd not care a whit about the Zionist entity anymore.
Second, even setting aside the sovereignty implications of the creation of Israel, it is precisely the denial to the Palestinians of "territorial integrity" and "freedom of action within" that territory that absolves them from the responsibility of a sovereign nation. They have no "serious obligation" until they enjoy the "important privilege." Since we have power, we'd like to think that we can extract the obligation while withholding the privilege, but that's a delusion.