Ad Hominem
Reader comment on item: Two Years of Intifada

Submitted by George (Australia), Oct 2, 2002 at 02:41

Well if we must choose which side has a greater claim to the West Bank you'd have to say the Palestinians simply because their population outnumbers the settlers. Settlers, are in fact only civilians of the West Bank through Military domination of the area.

And no, I don't recognise a claim to the area becuase of ancient religious text. If that means I'm anti-Semitic then the title of anti-Semite loses its seriousness if you use it to libel everyone you don't agree with. What I would like to see is a truly multi-cultural state in the entire area, where it's no longer a matter of which religion you belong or don't belong to. Now wouldn't that be ideallic?

No more ethnocentric divisions, and while that may prove impossible in the short term (considering everyone, Muslim and Jew) I think it would be the only long-term option we have. The problem is that when we look at an opposing argument we first judge the person making it rather than its own merits.

When a Palestinian makes a peace gesture it's greeted with cynicism and disregarded; when an Israeli makes a peace gesture it's equally disregarded. Often we reply with violence, and a non-biased person would see that both sides have been equally cruel in their handling of the violence.

Everyone involved practices Ad Hominem, that's the problem. Not just Mr Abunimah. Further more, what Mr Abunimah did was not an example of Ad Hominem, because he did not disregard what Mr Pipes said simply because of who he is or what he represents. He DISAGREED with him because of the acknowledged views of Mr Pipes which he was repeating.

Ad Hominem is a very different matter.

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