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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
What happens when the drivers say, “I like running over these people.” ???
edit, oops. I see others said essentially the same thing.
The answer, of course,lies in COMPROMISE between the positions. If 50% of the Jews die, then everyone will be happy!
No, wait.
This is why I always say that in a negotiation, the unreasonable party always wins.
I read your link. Unfortunately there is NO “peace program” There simply cannot be one so long as one side insists on the death of ALL the other side. It is the essential problem in dealing with Islam – there are NO NEGOTIATION POINTS IN COMMON.
Except that Israel has made a durable peace with two Muslim countries: Jordan and Egypt. (One of whom is even helping it throttle Gaza.)
So clearly it can be done. It’s a matter of choice.
But neither Jordan nor Egypt tolerate either Hamas or the Palestinians. Once one removes the crazies, you can find common ground. Egypt and Jordan have recognized what Israel has known for a long time.
Non sequiter.
Also -Israel made peace with Jordan because Jordan (with >50% of its population Palestinian) doesn’t “tolerate” Palestinians?
Very unclear point, please expand it.
Is it reasonable to assume that Israel has peace with Jordan and Egypt because they do not have overt goals and actions to destroy Israel?
So it would seem that the choice for peace lies with Hamas compromising quite a bit on their goal of annihilating Israel.
Last time I looked the Palestinians tried to imprint their politics on the Kingdom – and were slaughtered in large numbers. Muslim Brotherhood is likewise hunted in Egypt.
They were. The PLO tried to make it their country and it turned out that: Jordan was not Palestine, and the PLO (Fatah and the other ‘leftist’ groups that comprised it, like the PFLP) were driven out of Jordan and into Lebanon (which they also destabilised in pretty much the same way and for the same reasons). So Jordan does not have a Palestinian polity, but the population of that country is still majority Palestinian; refugees from the Nakba and the Naksa and their descendants.
When it isn’t winning elections, indeed yes. But, like Hamas, the MB is pretty much the opposite of a Leftist Party. And unlike the PLO in Jordan and Lebanon, it is of the country it is in. I do not like their policies, but you can’t reasonably accuse the MB of not being Egyptian, or of imposing another country’s polity over Egypt. They’re misguided but thoroughly indigenous. (So perhaps more depressing.)
Absolutely. But there was a bit more to peace with Jordan and Egypt than their improving their attitude towards Israel.
I agree that Hamas has to compromise (or, let’s be frank, totally give up) on this ‘destroy Israel’ thing if it’s going to make peace. What do you think Israel has to do or give up to make peace?
[Edit: or to compare apples with apples, what would Likud have to change or give up to make peace? When should it, or Hamas, do this? Should one do it first, or do they need to do it together?]
I don’t know about giving up anything, but no one can begin the conversation with the current demands and goals coming out of Gaza and Hamas.
I think if the Palestinians would agree to live as civilized people, they could assimilate into Israeli culture.
Oddly enough, I just saw this video. It speaks to my sensibilities and I found it compelling, but I have not inspected the source for truth or bias.
http://www.israelvideonetwork.com/the-most-revealing-video-about-the-middle-east-you-will-ever-see
I think Israeli assimilation would be a benefit to the Gazans, if they could just see past their ingrained hatred, and that they are pawns for Hamas’ goals. Or they can remain true to Hamas, and suffer the consequences.
Of course, that is easy for me to say, since I have not spent a lifetime in Gaza, nor experienced the generational tragedy they face.
Julia, thanks for sharing that link. My first reaction is that it’s basically saying: don’t criticise Mr Smith for molesting his own daughter because Mr Jones down the street killed all his own children.
Is that a fair summary of its basic point?
I get that Israeli democracy is in a tough situation:
1 It is occupying another people,
2 There’s a strong ethnic component to its citizenship laws,
3 Its right to its territory is only really accepted by other colonial states (outside the region) and by none of its immediate neighbours – many of which host (willy nilly) the indigenous inhabitants,
4 Its polity is haunted by centuries of antisemitism, culminating in the Holocaust,
5 It remains dependent on outside support – including from places it is hard to trust after history,
6 It’s still under attack a lot.
Running any kind of democracy despite all that is an achievement.
Israel would need to be ready to assimilate them.
I don’t think it’s ready to do that and bring the refugees home.
Perhaps that’s what it would have to change about itself?
And yes – I know it’s easy for me to say.
I think you are right, on those three points points. And the mutual assimilation will be no easy task, given all the history, betrayal and mistrust exhibited in that part of the world.
1. Lie
2. Lie
3. Lie
4. Sort of true, but nothing “culminated.” Antisemitism is ongoing.
5. Sure
6. Truth.