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Let's agree to hate hateReader comment on item: Who Won in Israel's Elections? Submitted by Archimedes (Canada), Feb 11, 2009 at 16:09 I hope the "responsible Arab voices" are wrong. Israelis must eschew the downward spiral into hatred -- therein lies insanity. One cannot eliminate an enemy by becoming a mirror image of that enemy. As far as I can tell this is not what Lieberman espouses or agitates for -- he is merely calling for a common-sense approach to citizenship; that along with the privilege of citizenship comes a responsibility of loyalty to the state. Out and out sedition should be either criminally prosecuted or met with deportation; clear refusal to act in loyalty should place one's status as a citizen in question or peril. This should be the case throughout the West, and should be universally understood as a basic principle of nationhood and citizenship in a world of competing ideologies and national interests. Of course, the devil is in the details, as they say. One must have carefully defined and legally enforcible meanings for "sedition" and "disloyalty" that do not run rampant over universally accepted human rights. I'm all ears, and would like to see how Lieberman can define his program. It shows promise of modeling a third way between ideological cleansing or deportation by nationality/religion/culture (which is a repulsive concept, and leads to the Pit), and do-nothing, look-the-other-way "tolerance" (which generally cloaks a thinly disguised anti-western neomarxist package of hostile and illiberal ideas dressed up in the language of liberal democracy). But whichever path is chosen, we can do without the hatred. Jews and Christians are exhorted to be a blessing to the world, to love those who revile us, and not, in any case, to return evil with evil. The Islamic phrase "al Wala wal Bara" has no place in our lexicon. Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments". Reader comments (30) on this item
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