A: double standard of the press, total lack of moral clarity when it came to reporting on Israel and the Palestinians, press refusing to even use the word "terrorist" to describe Palestinians who blew up kids in a pizza parlor, willingness of press to believe propaganda about non-existent "massacre" by Israelis in Jenin...

 

 

 

 

A: A headline such as "Israelis & Palestinians Die in Violence" used to describe terrorists shot dead during a terror attack in which Israeli civilians were murdered. The justified killing of the Palestinian terrorists is equated with the unjustified murder of Israeli civilians. 

 

Palestinian terrorist intentionally murdering teenagers at the Dolphinarium disco in Tel Aviv is not morally equivalent to an Israeli soldier who intentionally targets a Palestinian bombmaker and who ends up killing the terrorist bombmaker, but unfortunately, unintentionally kills 2 civilian bystanders as well.  In both situations, civilians were killed. However, the Palestinian chose to murder the civilians, the Israeli did not.  By killing the bombmaker [made necessary because the Palestinians refuse to arrest him], many terrorist attacks were prevented and many civilians saved.

 

Collateral damage should always be avoided whenever possible, but sometimes it is unavoidable, e.g. if a hijacked passenger plane is headed toward the Capitol building in DC, while our nation's leaders are still inside, no doubt the plane will be shot down if it cannot be forced to land somewhere safe.

 

Q: How does Lozowick examine whether a war was moral? 

 

A: "justice in going to war" (was there a just cause? ) and "justice in waging war" (waging war according to certain codes of conduct) pg 29

 

Q:  Was the Arab response (war) to the UN's 1947 two state solution (Palestine partitioned into one Arab state and one Jewish state) just?

 

A: Arab response amounted to planned genocide against the Jews. Not just.  pg 89

 

 

A: Yes, but not perfectly.  However, bad behavior was an aberration. pg 93

 

Q: How did Israel respond to immoral behavior? 

 

A: condemned it and made a lesson of it to future army recruits so it wouldn't be repeated, pg 123

 

 

A: Yes, in fact he MUST disobey if his commander has ordered him to murder someone [murder vs killing] vs. to kill him for just cause. pg 123

 

Q: Was Israel responsible for the Palestinian refugees leaving their homes?

 

A: No for the most part, with exceptions in a few villages. Arab propaganda played a bigger role, e.g. Arab broadcasts about Israelis supposedly raping Arab women [which didn't happen] backfired, terrifying the Palestinians into fleeing en masse. The broadcasts were meant to incite the Arabs all over the Middle East to come fight against the Jews, but the major result was worried husbands and fathers rushing their families out of Palestine to protect their women's and family's honor. pg 94-95

 

Q: What's the difference between the Arab refugees from Palestine and the Jewish refugees from Arab countries? 

 

A: approx 700,000 in both groups. The Jewish refugees were welcomed in Israel, integrated into society, and made citizens immediately...the Palestinians who fled to other Arab countries (with the exception of Jordan which did make them citizens) were intentionally kept as non-citizens, usually in wretched refugee camps, so that they could keep the Palestinian issue festering as a propaganda weapon against Israel.  pg 102-111

 

Q:  What was the Altalena and what is its importance when discussing the Palestinian government today? pg98 

 

A: When the modern State of Israel declared its independence in 1948, the government stated that there could no longer be various militias taking orders from different leaders, that all of Israel's troops needed to be under the authority of the Israeli Defense Forces, which is under the orders of the elected government of Israel.  Irgun, a splinter group, had brought in a ship, the Altalena, full of weapons and wanted to provide them only to Irgun men, rather than give them to the Israeli army. The Israeli leader, Ben Gurion, made it clear that this was unacceptable, that a country could only have one united army, not groups working at cross purposes, and he ordered that the Altalena be blown up.  The Jews of the Israeli army fought the Jews of the Irgun, and thereafter, the Irgun agreed that all Israelis need to be under the rule of law of the new country's govt. 

 

The Palestinians are still allowing various militias, terror groups and warlords to control various parts of Palestinian territory, and to act on their own against the Israelis, in contradiction to the government's stated goals.  They need their own Altalena event where the Palestinian government makes it clear that there must be one rule of law, one elected government, one army, and that terrorist groups are unacceptable.

 

 

A: Yes, yes pg 128  Why?  Long, interesting answer. Read pg 128!

 

 

A: His solution is similar to many two state solutions offered over the years.  The dilemma is how to get the Arabs to genuinely accept it. For this to happen, the incitement in Palestinian/Arab TV, mosques, newspapers, camps, movies, etc. must stop and coexistence must be officially fostered by Palestinian political, educational and religious leaders. This is unlikely to happen without democratic reforms. Fear societies always need the specter of an outside enemy to keep the people from questioning their lack of freedoms and progress and from confronting their leaders about it.  

 

Q: What general operating procedures and attitudes often lead the press to publish wildly unfair reports about Israel?  pg 282-302

 

A: Ignorance, gullibility, short deadlines and/or lots of competition (making it unlikely that they will take the time to factcheck when their competitor will likely run with the exciting story as is, and since there are so few consequences for getting the facts wrong), don't speak Arabic or Hebrew, so they tend to just get the stories that are told to them by Palestinian handlers [who tend to be agenda-driven and often deal in staged photo-ops or bogus allegations] or by the English language press in Israel (often go to leftwing sources that are harshly critical of government.  Israelis who read the stories in Israeli newspapers know the context; but the stories transplanted to US newspapers don't include any context necessary for Americans to understand the situation, making them very misleading).