Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Don't trust the world


 

Don't trust the world

Op-ed: World's indifference to Syria brutality reminds us that we shouldn't trust it to save us

Yair Lapid



The bodies lying in the streets of Homs, in Syria, are not only horrifying; they also serve as a warning sign. This is not a warning about the cruelty of dictators, but rather, about the world’s indifference.

We tend to think that should we face the threat of extinction, the world shall come to our aid. This is a naïve belief, which stems from the thinking that most people are good in essence.

However, if all
people were good in essence, there would be no bodies lying in Homs.

Some five years ago, my father stood at the Yad Vashem Shoah museum and delivered a brief speech on the occasion of Holocaust Remembrance Day. It was a nice spring day, and my father already knew that he was going to die soon when he uttered the following words:

“The enlightened world advices us to be compromising and assume risks for the chances of peace. Yet we ask the enlightened world, we ask on Holocaust Remembrance Day all those who preach to us: What will you do if we assume risks and sacrifice victims and put our trust in you – and then something goes wrong?
 “What if the other side does not act as it is expected to, and instead hurls at us fire and plagues and poisons and possibly even nuclear weapons?

“What will you do then? Will you ask for forgiveness? Will you say ‘we were wrong’? Will you send us bandages? Will you open orphanages for the children who survived? Will you pray for our souls?”

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4188011,00.html

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