Posted by
Steve on Friday, July 21, 2006 11:31:26 AM
You hear it all the time, something bad happens and in the discussions following the incident someone says something like "Why would a person put themselves in a situation where the likelyhood of bad things happening is so high?"
Immediately the person asking a resonable question is accused of 'blaming the victim'. Let's be clear, there is a difference between saying the victim is at fault and saying the victim placed themselves in a risky situation.
If a bungee jumper is hurt in an accident because the operator of an amusement park failed to maintain the equipment it is not the jumper's fault. However, it doesn't absolve the jumper of some degree of responsibility, be it ever so small.
Likewise many are bemoaning the fate of civilians in Gaza and Lebannon during Israel's defensive counter-attacks. The Lebannese and Palistinian civilians may not be to blame for their own suffering, but they do have to share it. It is their acceptance of evil among themselves in the form of terrorists bent on the destruction of Israel that causes so much harm to their population when Israel, excercising its inherent right of self-defence, rains bombs and rockets down on terrorist targets.
If anyone is truly innocent of fault it is the Israeli citizens who try to go about their daily lives while their neighbors plot to destroy them. In all the media-mongering humbuggery spewed by wailing Palestinians remember they lay down with dogs, it's not Israel's fault they get up with fleas.