No such thing as a "Palestinian innocent" either?

Submitted by Nathan Putnam (United States), Jan 9, 2005 at 16:47

Mr. Pipes,

You say that Bush's description of the conflict as a "cycle of violence" wrongly implies moral equivalence between "the killing of Israeli civilians and Palestinian Arab terrorists."

I disagree. Describing the situation as a cycle of violence implies a moral equivalence between the killing of Israeli innocents and Palestinian innocents, and this implication is justified and sensible. Innocent people on both sides of the conflict have been and are being killed, and to deny this fact is to deny the harsh reality of the situation.

So I ask you (problematic use of the term "Palestinian" aside), is there such a thing as a Palestinian innocent? And if there is such a thing, are they being killed by Israelis? Or are they all just Palestinian Arab terrorists?

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