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I Believe We Have a Duty to Condemn Anti-Semitism and Unprovoked Acts of Aggression Against Israel
Throughout my lifetime, everyone I know has decried anti-semitism and denounced the genocidal horror of the Holocaust, many virtually implying it could never happen today. Surely we are more enlightened now. “Never again.”
We tend to look upon the German population at that time with disdain for standing silent and/or acquiescing in the slaughter of innocent Jews, as if to suggest such passivity or tolerance for unspeakable evil could never happen among civilized peoples.
And that was before today’s information explosion when everyone (in moderately open societies) has immediate access to current events unfolding around the world. Yet today we are seeing a proliferation of open hostility toward Jews throughout the globe. It is absurd to argue that these feelings aren’t widespread or that they are merely a result of Israel’s recent military incursion into Gaza. Not only have these sentiments been percolating for a long time, but Israel is hardly proportionately culpable in Gaza anyway, unless we have become so cynical as to blame the victim of terrorism as a morally equal wrongdoer. On what are these worldwide protests against Israel based if not anti-semitism?
I don’t want to be overly dramatic and declare, “Yes, it can happen again. It is happening again.” On the other hand, is that so far -etched? In all candor and sobriety, Hamas has been deliberately shooting missiles into Israel’s civilian population without provocation. It is committed to the extermination of the Jewish state, and it is not alone. But for Iron Dome and Israel’s military supremacy, we might be witnessing a slaughter right now. If Hamas were militarily capable, can anyone doubt they’d proceed on a genocidal path?
The moral state of the world scares me; not just global Islamo-terrorism, but the apparently growing support for causes that are purely evil. The United Nations routinely blames and condemns Israel. Greater and greater swaths of this planet have fallen into the Twilight Zone. It would be hard enough to combat pure evil if we were united in our opposition to it. But it seems that the numbers of those supporting what is good, moral, and right — including in the United States and the rest of the Western world — are shrinking and the moral certainty and confidence even of those who continue to combat evil is diminishing. The forces of evil are not similarly ambivalent.
I realize that many see far less moral clarity in this current conflict, or assess it differently. But I’ll be da**ed if I’m going to capitulate to the current trend of moral relativism or pretend to be high-minded and sophisticated by seeing nuance and moral parity in what’s going on in Israel. I think we have a duty to speak out against evil — and what Hamas is doing is evil. No nation in the world with the capacity to defend itself would be nearly so tolerant as Israel has been. Israel deserves credit and high praise for its behavior — not condemnation. And it deserves our unqualified support. It’s disgraceful that our leaders can’t bring themselves to recognize and articulate moral clarity in this matter.
Speaking of a lack of moral clarity, has this administration even condemned the actions of ISIS against Christians in Iraq? If so, I missed it. Obama and his team should be loud and clear in denouncing these unspeakable actions.
Published in General
Hamas’ core principles require Israel’s destruction and preclude any but tactical or strategic adherence to kuffar laws of war, so for Hamas, Israel’s existence is provocation enough anytime, anywhere.
By the way, were any of those “house destructions” bomb factories and/or tunnel access points?
Again, I’m not arguing against your general position, but this particular argument is greatly overstated.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel
OK, point taken. I meant that Hamas’s attacks are continual and ongoing and relentless, which I’m guessing you would agree with.
From various Wiki pages:
[continued]
And as of July 21, 2014, just over one week ago, 2,491 rockets and 14 mortars have been fired into Israel from the palestinians.
I am simply amazed that you would say this. Hamas has been pounding Israel in “unprovoked assaults” for years! So Israel is finally tired of this – and you use THAT as justification to say Hamas’ was provoked. Words fail me.
I would, and I understood your point. I think you’d be more persuasive if you were a bit more restrained in your rhetoric. You’re generally right, but overstating your case undermines it.
Restraint is overvalued, Sal! ;-)
When you have a winning argument, you can only harm your case by overstating it.
Contrary to the latest convenient narrative, this conflict did NOT start with the Hamas rockets. It started a long time ago. Given the various events of this long sorry history, neither side is in a position to claim the moral high ground. Perhaps it is a way to steel oneself to the suffering on the other side.
(more in next comment)
My point about stopping the killing is that we have been here before, trying to achieve peace by killing terrorists. I hope it works this time, but the odds are not great and the net result will just be destruction and death. We need leaders with a vision of peace and a plan to get there.
As Netanyahu has put it many times: If the palestinians law down their weapons, there will be peace. If Israel lays down its weapons, there will be no more Israel.
I don’t understand why you think killing all the terrorists won’t help.
If your point is that Israel only came into being in 1948, I would point out that much of the original mandate was already owned by jews. If your point is that allegedly you can’t get rid of terrorists by hunting them down, please check out what happened to the Nazis. One might argue that the Germans are still fascists, but they know enough not to show it in public. The trick is to kill ALL the terrorists – where ever and when ever you see them. No safe haven. No where to hide. That is also the moral thing to do.
The church is watered by the blood of the martyrs or something like that.
Iow it’s sowing the wind.
You think the Germans are still fascists?
On other questions, you don’t have to listen to me. Read this by Shlomo Ben-Ami who agrees with most of the points I made:
1- If you eliminate Hamas, something worse will take its place.
2- Netanyahu does not have a convincing strategy.
3- We need a “a grand peace agenda”, including a kind of Marshall Plan for Gaza.
Read it here: http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/shlomo-ben-ami-explains-why-israel-finds-itself-in-a-strategically-inferior-position
#1 is the dumbest reason not to do anything about Hamas. Something worse may or may not arise in Hamas’s place. That is not a reason to not eliminate Hamas! We are always faced in our lives, and countries (through their leaders) are faced, with decisions that may or may not lead to better or worse outcomes.
As for #2, that’s just your opinion, based on nothing. We don’t know what Netanyahu’s strategy is because he isn’t about to put it out there so that Hamas can know it.
And your point number 3 is tired, tired, tired. Gaza already receives huge amounts of cash from international sources. Hamas takes that money and uses it not to help the palestinians, but to build rockets and tunnels. I saw this week that the IDF estimated each tunnel cost $3,000,000 just in materials to build. More than 30 tunnels have been found. Do the math.
By the way, what’s Hamas’s “convincing strategy” for peace?
Kill all the Jews.
The Marshall Plan only worked because we destroyed the Nazis first. In addition, Germany was under full military occupation by four hostile nations.
If you are proposing that we help Israel completely destroy Hamas, then I’m on board. Let’s have Israeli, American, British, and Canadian troops in Gaza for the next 45 years. Then, perhaps, throwing money at Gaza might be effective.
That’s obviously not what you’re proposing, though.
Yeah, and if I leave my house this morning, I might get run over by a bus, so I’d better stay home!
These points were made by Ben-Ami (see link in last post, which you clearly did not read). So obviously not just my opinion, but also the opinion of some thoughtful leading Israelis.
You love these analogies so let me help you out. The right analogy would be: If every time I left my house in the last 70 years I was run over by a bus, then yes maybe I should stay home.
No, maybe you should destroy the bus.
You tried. Many times. But for every bus you destroy, two others are manufactured.
Destroy the factory.
Is this unfortunate house possibly in the middle of a four lane highway? Sounds like faulty city planning to me.
Some options:
1 Move the house to the side of the highway.
2 Put in a detour.
3 A combination of the above.
4 Other??
That’s not possible without an enormous loss of life. Maybe instead of destroy destroy destroy, you should talk to the bus drivers and find out what the h.. is their problem and how you can find a solution with them.
From the preamble of the Hamas Charter:
Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it”
From Article 13 of the Hamas Charter:
There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors.
I’m not sure what there is to talk about and I don’t see a solution acceptable to Hamas (and perhaps the majority of Palestinians?) that doesn’t involve Israel’s end.
And when they tell you their problem is that you exist, what then? Lay down and die for them? Go hide in your house? Refusing to confront evil for the sake of false peace is no virtue; it’s moral cowardice. I am reminded of a passage in Jeremiah: “They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ but there is no peace.”
The bus drivers’ problem is that I am a Jew (I’m not Jewish; but for the analogy, pretend that I am). The bus drivers want to kill all Jews. The solution is for me to die. Do you, Marion, side with the bus drivers who want to kill me, or with me, who does not want to die and does not really want to kill the bus drivers, but if the bus drivers want to kill me, what can I do but defend myself?
The bus drivers have conveniently written a charter that lays out their problem, which is that Jews exist, so there’s really no point in asking them what their problem is–they haven’t been shy in spelling it out. Not only do the bus drivers kill Jews who step outside of their houses, but the bus drivers also go inside Jews’ houses and kill them in their sleep.