"It could have been worse."

Often in defense of Israel's attacks on the Palestinians (and Lebanese), I have heard people backwardly praise Israel's "self-restraint" in the level of destruction and death they cause. That they have the capability of killing literally every person in Gaza, or razing every home, but chose not to, somehow is twisted into a moral stand by Israel.

So the next time someone tells you, "Well, the Palestinians are lucky, Israel could have made it much worse." Remind them that this is the same colonial logic used by Belgium in its cruel colonization of Congo, in which, "Fievez, an official of the Free State, noted that those who refused to collect rubber or else who did not meet their rubber quota, "I made war against them. One example was enough: a hundred heads cut off, and there have been plenty of supplies since. My goal is ultimately humanitarian. I killed a hundred people, but that allowed five hundred others to live."" ("Free State" was a colonial enterprise in the Congo-- for more readings on this and more on the Third World Revolution, I recommend "The Darker Nations" by Vijay Prashad. Lots of history we weren't taught in school.)

So Gaza could have been worse, and Congo could have been worse...although, look at the state it's in now...