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A man comes into your home. He has a gun he made himself. He points it at your family. He fires, but misses. The gun has little accuracy. He fires repeatedly, missing again and again.
You have a much better gun, made in a real factory. It is in the drawer in the bedroom.
Demonstrators in London and San Francisco - who are distant relatives of the gunman - stage a protest, calling you a murderer and demanding that you keep the well-made gun in the drawer because it would be a disproportionate response.
The man with the homemade gun, it turns out, is a religious fanatic who lives across the street. You were once his landlord. There is much bad blood between you.
He races back across the street. He has a larger weapon that he smuggled in through his basement. He shoots from behind his younger son. He wounds your daughter. You take out a rifle. You aim for him and hit the son, killing the boy.
The demonstrators are now calling you a Nazi and chant "Slaughter the Landlord!"
[In his defense, the neighbor explains that you have kept him and his family locked in the house, and have at times, failed to pay his water, gas and electric bills, causing them to be turned off.
This is some years after the neighbor send out his older son, nicely dressed, to knock on your door. Your older daughter opens the door. He greet her politely, and presses the detonator on a homemade bomb.]
Gaza War Analogies
Article Source: haaretz.com- Enjoy this article? Help vote it up the 'Vine.
- Public Discussion (18)
The only problem is that you forgot to mention that the gunman used to live in the house and lost it to foreclosure, and while you were having him evicted, his grandmother had a heart attack and died in the arms of the policeman who was hurling her out the door. He didn't bother to call the ambulance.
See how analogies can be twisted to support whatever particular point of view you have? It's one reason the argument from analogy does little to convince anyone who's not already on your side. I'd stay away from that game, if I were you.
- 7 votes
#1 - Tue Jan 6, 2009 5:55 AM ESTAdipic,
You forgot to mention that Gunman lived in a house that belonged to your great grandfather, who was himself evicted years ago, but never ever forgot his fathers home (the one he built with his own two hands, some art effects, walls and rooms he built are still standing there today as they did back then) and all the sacred corners of that house, the corners that are irreplaceable for your family, connecting them to who they are, who they were and where they came from and are, in fact, the most important few corners in the world for your family and have been so for years and years, because you see, the people who evicted your family have tried to make them forget about their home by years of persecution but they never did and always remembered where they came from. And yes the Gunman did move in to the house, but he didn’t build it, and it wasn't his originally, and now you are trying to tell him "hey, you know what, lets divide the place, it was my families first, then you moved in, then we moved back in, lets just split the property, you can have the area that you are living in (I'll even through in a few areas that are controversial) and I'll even evacuate my daughter who lives in the adjacent room to your part of the house (which you did) and lets just finish all this hate and just live as neighbors, and he replays by shooting in to your living room.
- 5 votes
I say we scrap the house and build a duplex
At least your suggestion is more constructive than nuking the house.
- 2 votes
I have to say that I am not to crazy about their analogy in that article either, but I suppose they were probably trying to simplify things, the reality of the situation, of course, is much, much more complicated then that (and yes, I am aware there are to sides to that story), perpetuating the hatred and the augment of "who does the house belong to/ who's the rightful owner" (going back to their metaphor) will not help resolve the situation. And that was not mentioned and I think it's the most important point, we have to learn to agree that we cant both get everything we want (the whole "house" to use the metaphor again-sorry) so we have to share and live side by side, I know most Israelis have learned to accept that fact and are willing to go for it, unfortunately some of our neighbors didn't.
- 1 vote
I have to say that I am not to crazy about their analogy in that article either
As Adipic pointed out, you can always find flaws with analogies. I think that the useful part of this one is the argument against the misunderstood "proportionality" attack that is made on Israel again and again (ie: shame on you for using your high tech weapons against them when they don't have as good an arsenal).
- 2 votes
T.W. you prove my point: the argument from analogy is inherently silly.
- 1 vote
The terrorist group hamas no doubt has its supporters and apologists, but then again so did Hitler.
- 2 votes
#2 - Tue Jan 6, 2009 6:25 AM ESTAh, now the argument by personal insult. You do realize that that does nothing to help your side anymore than the bleatings from the hard left attempting to equate the Israelis with the Nazis help theirs, don't you? Once again, you are engaging in self-validation, not any effort to convince.
There are days I think the best solution would be for the civilized nations of the world to forcibly evacuate the entire "Holy Land," nuke it with the dirtiest bombs possible down to the bedrock, and leave it as a poisoned, barren wasteland incapable of supporting life for the next few millennia. Perhaps everyone will have grown up by then. In calmer moments I realize that that wouldn't settle anything either.
- 3 votes
Too bad the command and munitions bunker under the hamas house, where all his rockets are stored, will end up being much a tomb, just like Hitler's was.
- 1 vote
Funny. I had not viewed Haaretz in the same light as all those other pure propaganda-based, hate-filled platforms we hear about more before. Until this article and some of the other links to other Haaretz articles. Like the one it has attacking self-hating Jews.
The hardest challenge for indepedent minds in conflict zones is to steer clear of propaganda from all sides. They rarely bring anyone closer to the truth and reality.
- 3 votes
#3 - Tue Jan 6, 2009 7:34 AM ESTIf a man kills your brother, you do not have the right to kill his brother.j
And oops! forgot to mention that you built a wall around your neighbor's house, control when he leaves and comes back, and you stop by every now and again to smack his sister around. And for some reason his house keeps getting smaller and smaller.
- 1 vote
#4 - Tue Jan 6, 2009 8:41 AM ESTTalking about houses. I wonder why so many towns in Israel have had Hebrew names for centuries? I suspect because it has belonged to the Jewish people from the beginning.
- 1 vote
#5 - Tue Jan 6, 2009 6:51 PM ESTErm, Maverick. Did you not get the memo? Israel is the homeland for Jews.
- 3 votes
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