Simon Wiesenthal’s book “The Sunflower” can prevent hate from becoming genocide:

A profoundly poignant account portraying the internal conflict Simon Wiesenthal experiences when a dying Nazi soldier earnestly seeks his forgiveness, The Sunflower provokes introspective discussion about forgiveness, justice, mercy, and human responsibility. While metaphorically gazing upon the sunflowers displayed on the graves of soldiers, Simon is forced to mechanically march towards the Technical High School he once attended. The familiar surroundings evoke memories of the hatred and contempt he encountered while he was a student, particularly on the examination days that had been entitled “a day without Jews” by his Polish classmates.

After confirming that he is Jewish, a nurse escorts Simon to the bedside of a dying Nazi solider named Karl. With his yellow-stained bandaged head appearing through the semidarkness of the hospital room, Karl hauntingly recounts his involvement in the horrifying death of a father, a mother, and a dark-eyed child who are brutally shot down after jumping out of a burning building. Simon becomes extremely distressed with the imagery evoked by the untimely demise of the dark-eyed child, especially when he theoretically identifies the child with a six-year old named Eli. Indeed, while recalling the heart-wrenching scenes of the kindergarten extermination, Simon fights the urge to leave the hospital room as the dying soldier continues to recount the rest of his confession. With sincere remorse in his voice, Karl begs for the forgiveness of a Jew. The irony of this dying soldier’s confession arises from the fact that “a murderer who did not want to be a murderer but who had been made into a murderer by his murderous ideology” was confessing his crime to a man that may die by the hands of these same murderers at any time. Struggling with this ironic dilemma and having an imagery of the child with piercing eyes that questioned the hatred of the world surrounding him, Simon leaves the soldier in complete silence.

Back at the concentration camp, Simon confides with his closest companions about the dying soldier’s confession which profoundly disturbed him. During such discussion, Simon seeks and challenges the opinions of his contemporaries about the beliefs on justice, mercy, human responsibility, and forgiveness. His sleep is disturbed that night by visions of a pale-faced Eli submersed in a bloody mess. Simon is awakened from his night terror by Arthur, who anxiously warns him that the last man who experienced such sleep disturbances was immediately killed. Once more, Simon is reminded that death is a “constant companion” in the concentration camps.

The next day, Simon is overwhelmed with the fear that the dying soldier will “renew his plea for forgiveness”. Instead, the nurse informs Simon that the soldier died during the night.

However, there are benefits of being somewhat consistent, hence constitutions and treaties that actually limit the expressions of the power of the people, and those limits are considered a part of democracy too. USA is in general bolder in going over the limits than most Europeans, but Israel is indeed the champion.

Of course, it helps to avoid having a constitution.

The general problem in a democracy is how to reward good people and punish the bad people. First impulse is to write laws. But then there are problems: if a bad person drives too fast, we can rejoice if she gets a ticket, but what if she is a good person, say, daughter of the Mayor? Police should be empowered to show mercy. Then there are sticky points if a policemen is fired for not being merciful when he should be.

This tension is particularly strong in Israel because relative to population size the country has unusually large numbers of people who are very bad, and of people who are very good, and thus very strong and frequent need to use laws creatively.

And if so happens that Jews are good and Arabs are bad, “so called liberal” kvetch that this is racism. Which is not, because bad Jews can be beaten up with impunity as well, or maimed (say, bad Jew Henochowicz). It just so happens that there are very few bad Jews.

What “the Left” compains about is that “very good Jews” category is officially legislated. If you commit a crime resisting the end of occupation, you do it for idealistic reasons, kind of a “love crime” (opposite to “hate crime” which should be punish more severely).

In another article I read today in YNet it said that Palestinian hatred of Israel and Jews is woven into the fabric of Palestinian society.

If these perceptions are all true then the only way to eradicate the problem is to give the occupied people their land back. Let each of them live in their own state. It’s obvious Israel doesn’t want to give the land back, but the price you will continually pay is high and you’ll never get the approval or respect of the international community. Next you will say you don’t care about world opinion but it’s very obvious that you do. Think of all the $$ you country will save if you’re not constantly sending your IDF to occupied lands.

The Supreme Court shows such bias and a strong distaste for the Palestinian people. Something is really wrong with this picture.