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From: matt@brl-tgr.ARPA (Matthew Rosenblatt )
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Re: Terrorism Inc.
Message-ID: <2246@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 18-Oct-85 12:58:09 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.2246
Posted: Fri Oct 18 12:58:09 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 20-Oct-85 09:30:59 EDT
References: <488@ittvax.ATC.ITT.UUCP> <85400001@hpisli.UUCP>
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab
Lines: 44

DAVID WOLPERT writes:

>        Justification of acts of terrorism (or war, for that matter)
> usually goes along the lines of "It takes drastic action, otherwise
> our cause will be ignored".  The problem with taking drastic action
> is that the "cure" is *always* worse than the disease.  (I am being
> sincere here.   I think the U.S. would be better off today if there
> had been no Revolution back in the 18th century,  to say nothing of
> the wars since then).  [D. WOLPERT]

All I said was that only the warped think war is good.  I didn't say
anything about war being worse than any conceivable alternative.  Does
Mr. Wolpert believe the people of the Confederate States of America,
all of them, would have been better off had there been no War Between
the States in the First century before my time, with the South being
allowed peacefully to secede?  Does he believe the Children of Israel
would have been better off if they had ignored the L-rd's command to
war against the Canaanites and conquer them, and instead either (a)
wandered around forever in the desert till they died out, or (b) returned
to Egypt and tried peacefully to persuade their former masters to treat
them better?  Does he believe that today's Jews would be better off if
there had been no War of Independence 37 years ago, and Palestine was
still under the British Mandate with Arab pogroms every Monday and
Thursday?

What should Israel's response be if Syria decides, chas v'sholom, to
start exterminating all Syrian Jewry in gas chambers?  

>			  I believe that war (terrorism) destroys
> things that are required for survival:  not just people and other
> natural resources, but trust and love.   [D. WOLPERT]

I agree 100%.  But war and terrorism are not the only things that
destroy people, resources, trust, and love.  Just as American Jews
live their lives balancing off the competing good values of Truth,
Justice, Freedom, Yiddishkeit, Ivy, and the American Way, so mankind
as a whole must sometimes choose the Lesser Evil among War, Terrorism,
Persecution, Slavery, and Standing Idly By Your Brother's Blood.  No 
one ever said it was easy!

					-- Matt Rosenblatt

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"SI VIS PACEM, PARA BELLUM."