Reply #34: No, I am not trying to play it down. [View All]

[Shaktimaan]

But I am trying to accurately portray what it was. It certainly wasn't self-defense, I am not insinuating that it was. But just because the attack was morally reprehensible and had such a hideous outcome does not mean that it was terrorism. It's important to talk about this history honestly, especially when describing events we vehemently oppose.

The US legal system has different levels of murder for a reason. In both manslaughter and first degree murder the result is the same, a dead individual. But the law recognizes that a moral difference exists between someone who kills in a purposeful and planned manner and one who does so out of negligence or accident.

The King David Hotel bombing was wrong, and many people died as a result. But it was not nearly as wrong as an event like the Passover Massacre during the second intifada. I do not say so because one was perpetuated by Jews and the other by Arabs. I say so because in the first example there was an attempt to avoid death while in the latter casualties were maximized as much as possible. There is no ethical comparison. One is tragic, the other evil.

There are examples of such evil on the side of Jews as well. Look at Baruch Goldstein. He is no less evil than any suicide bomber. I am sorry if you find it distasteful that there are so many fewer examples of terrorism like this perpetuated by Jews as opposed to Arabs. But that is not because anyone is using a double standard to evaluate the events. There just truly are far fewer instances of Jewish terrorism than Arab.