Wednesday 25 May 2005

The dismayed invaders

The BBC reports from the Gaza Strip:

The settlers are appalled by the possibility that their homes may be taken over by Palestinian militants who have been attacking Gush Katif for years. To prevent that happening, the Israelis may demolish all their property before they leave.

"You don't want to destroy what you built," says Debbie Rosen, who raised her six children in Gush Katif. "It's home with all the memories that you grew up with... It's my kids, it's my garden, my flowers that I just planted. It's home."

"On the other hand, it is too hard to think that they are going to give it to terrorists. Terrorists that killed my best friends — and they are going to celebrate in my home. It's too hard."

Well, I'm sorry, Mrs Rosen, but if you try to steal another people's country, they will try to kill you and your friends. Two wrongs don't make a right, and terrorism is always wrong; but people always defend their own country violently, it's a fact of life. You knew in advance what you were getting into; if you don't like it, you shouldn't have decided to live in a place where you definitely weren't welcome.

I myself live far from where I was born, but my situation is entirely different from Mrs Rosen's. I live at peace with the Spanish people and obey their laws. I even pay their taxes, albeit reluctantly. I don't have British troops here protecting me, bulldozing Spanish homes, and killing Spanish men, women, and children. If I needed that sort of protection to live here, I would never have come here.

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