MICHAEL MORRIS: Israel mirrors SA in justifying any means to achieve an ideal
In history there is no end — only the ceaseless moving forward, either reasonably well or badly
How to confront violent extremism and simultaneously contain the influence of heartfelt fury on any strategic response was the theme of a Business Day column I wrote last year, soon after the events of October 7 visited terror, heartbreak and rage on the Middle East. Nil joy arises from sensing that, nearly a year later, the case against enraged revenge is not merely intact but strengthened.
This was an argument made with almost uncanny aplomb in 2001, only hours after 9/11, by British commentator Simon Jenkins. As I noted in my column of October 23 2023, Jenkins wrote: “The message of [9/11] is that for all its horror ... [and it] is a human disaster, an outrage, an atrocity, an unleashing of the madness of which the world will never be rid ... it is not an act of war ... The cause of democracy is not damaged, unless we choose to let it be damaged. Maturity lies in learning to live, and sometimes die, with the madmen.” ..
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