Guaranteed to stoke controversy: post something on your neutral website about Israel, and call it evil.

In the comments section relating to a recent Slashdot post (wherein Israel’s decision to go ahead with controversial biometric recording of citizens was termed ‘evil’), there were a few very well said statements, along with the typical, garbage, fatuous opinions from misinformed misanthropes. Here’s one example:

“You call them terrorists, they call them freedom fighters. It’s a matter of perspective. Get some.”

“I think you’re a bit confused. There is nothing stopping a person from being a freedom fighter and a terrorist at the same time. The first term refers to why they’re doing what they’re doing. The second refers to how they do it. So while Hamas may (it’s rather questionable. but so are many other things) be fighting for freedom, how they do it (purposefully targeting, attacking and executing unarmed civilians) makes them terrorists.”

And that’s how we should be phrasing it.

Another fella said that none of his Israeli compatriots batted so much as an eyelid. These things are accepted in a country where they search through you before entering any shopping mall. He cited a European saying “you don’t worry about a thief in the backyard when your house is on fire”.

That said, when in the last 2000 years has our house NOT been on fire? It forces a different paradigm, and arguably one can see the shift in Israeli societal norms and mores to parallel it. You care about different things, you prioritise sometimes drastically differently.