One of my father’s (he should rest in peace) favorite phrases was “shoot first, ask questions later”. He used this in relation to times where actions were necessary, and too much discussion was not only a waste of time, but sometimes dangerous.
When it comes to Israel and what we need to do to protect our people, the phrase should be “shoot first, explain later”.
Except now, after reading this opinion piece in the Times of Israel, by Sarah Singer, I think that too much explaining is a bad thing too. (And yes, I agree with the premise that too many curse words cheapens the writing. Sorry Sarah, I was raised to be a lady.)
I am sick and tired of hearing that Israeli hasbara is terrible. Our hasbara is fine – the world just doesn’t want to hear an intelligent explanation. We could dumb our explanation down to “they started it”, but who wants to lower the level that far?
In any case, given the way the crazy jihadists are going, the rest of the world will pretty soon be on the same page as we are on now. It doesn’t take fancy explanations to convince you who the bad guys are when they blow up little kids watching their father run marathons.
West Bank Mama 