Saturday, July 15. 2006
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By Shmuel Rosner (Haaretz)
I vividly remember one afternoon in 2002, having lunch with two good-hearted left-wing Israelis. A wave of terror attacks was hitting Israel hard, and the Israeli military was launching its now-famous Operation Defensive Shield. So, what do you have to say, I asked, waiting for the usual "occupation-restraint-negotiation-Sharon is to blame" mantra - the one that I had heard from them so many times. Instead, I got a lecture I will never forget. It was from this one casual lunch that I learned things had really changed.
"We should hit them hard," said one of them. "We should go into the refugee camps and kill as many militants as possible. We should use helicopters and tanks and the superior fire-power we have. We should teach them a lesson they will never forget." Not a word about the settlement, the road blocks, human rights. Not a hint of self-blame, hesitation or ambivalence.
"What just happened," I asked them. "Are you the same guys I had learned to live with?" The answer they gave me is as useful this week as it was then. "There's a moment for every society in which it needs to say enough is enough," they said. It is, one of them added, the "don't mess with us moment," and this is exactly where we are now.
I spent Wednesday morning talking to some hard-core left-wing Israelis. The thoughts they shared with me were quite clear: Hit them hard. Hezbollah, Beirut, Syria, whoever.
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