Thought Experiment on the Difference Between Israel and Hamas (Updated)

It is a truth we've heard before, but not quite so simply. From Quid Sit?:

...I’m reminded of an old thought experiment a friend brought to my attention some years ago.

In the first scenario, Palestine dumps all its weapons into the ocean. What happens? Peace! The wall (which so many people love to complain about) comes down. There is no retaliation for acts of terrorism on Israel’s side, because there’s no more terrorism. No more women and children die because there are no more rockets to both hide and fire amongst the civilian population. The “humanitarian disaster” ends in Gaza.

In the second scenario, Israel dumps all its weapons into the ocean…………

Plus, of course, Israel would be blamed for upsetting the Mediterranean's eco-balance.

Here is another, similar, perspective by Robert Lewis, quoted by Augean Stables:

Let us hypothesize a small man, weighing 150 pounds, who is unarmed. Facing him is an Arnold Schwarzenegger type, 250 pounds of sinew and muscle, who also has a machine gun slung over his broad shoulders. Since the two don’t like each other, you would expect the smaller man, as an act of self-preservation, to act in such a way so as not to rile the bigger man.

But instead, throwing caution and IQ to the wind, the little man begins throwing rocks — some of which are sharp enough to lacerate — at the bigger man. He repeats the rock throwing the next day and then the next, seemingly intent on making a rite of a wrong. A neutral observer would conclude that only someone intellectually deficient would expect his bigger and more heavily armed adversary, now bleeding, to do nothing indefinitely, that at some point the big man is going to say enough is enough and pick up the little guy and hurt him bad, which is what he is doing now, in Gaza – without apology.

This bizarre contest of mindsets in the valley of Elah begs the question, what prompted the little man to act so irrationally? What does he hope to gain by irritating to the point of violence the self-evidently more capable and stronger man? Based on the thus far unequivocal results of the encounter, one must conclude that the little guy was not in his right mind and/or someone else had already got hold of his mind, like Iran et al, and bade him do his dirty work.

I would suggest that what we have here is more basic:

2 children who constantly get into fights. One younger child is incorrigible, the older one is well-behaved. It does no good for the well-behaved child to complain about how his younger brother bothers him, since the adults can't seem to control the brat anyway. But they can control the older child who--being well-behaved--can be counted on to do what he is told. In order to preserve the peace and quiet, the adults tell the older to just avoid the younger. Failing that, they tell the well-behaved child to give the younger one what he wants.

And when the older brother can no longer take the abuse of the younger brother, he knocks him to the ground--at which the younger brother goes running to the adults and the older son is told he should know better and is acting in a way no better than his younger sibling.

Maybe what the world needs is parenting lessons.

On second thought, maybe its todays theories of parenting and dealing with 'problem children' that got us into this mess...

 Here's another comparison, by way of Instapundit, in reference to those who want Obama to make a statement in reference to Gaza:

People want him to condemn Israel — well, some people do — but he hasn’t. And Israel’s just playing by Chicago rules: “They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That’s the Chicago way!”

Of course, the Israel way is: they bomb you, you drop flyers warning you're going to bomb them back, then call them up and wait half an hour before following through. 

f course in the old days, Israel would just bomb an empty building.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Gaza and Hamas and Operation Cast Lead.