A Time For Moral Clarity

I'll not speak of the unspeakably barbaric acts perpetrated by Hamas terrorists against our brethren. We've all seen the photos and videos and heard the stories. The gory details are disturbing enough, and I won’t help the terrorists by repeating and spreading the images and stories of their savagery and adding to the trauma. You can watch CNN for that.

I will speak, I must speak, however, of how some people are reacting to these events. Not the people of ill-will, the heartless, the murderous nihilistic Jihadists, the committed anti-Semites, the bigots and racists for whom hatred is ingrained and a way of life. They will never change, and words shared with them are wasted breath. 

I speak of the people of goodwill, our friends, and co-workers and members of the community who are misinformed, misguided, or just simply confused, but mean well. I am finding in these difficult times that there are a lot of these kinds of people. We know them and like them. They are good people who consider themselves humanitarians because they genuinely care about others. In fact, they usually take the side of the victim in situations of conflict, the disadvantaged and the powerless. Many of these people have somehow lost their moral bearings when it comes to the events in Israel, for one reason or another. They engage in moral equivalence, especially when they perceive 'victims' on two sides of a conflict. If ever there was a time for moral clarity about what is happening in Israel it is now. And I believe that it is contingent upon each of us to help those around us get their moral bearings back. 

You may have heard someone say something like "You can't blame the Palestinians for fighting back after the way they have been treated by Israel under occupation for the last 50 years." 

Clarity: Hamas is not the Palestinians. Hamas is an internationally recognized terrorist organization devoted to the destruction of the Jewish homeland. The Palestinian people are largely represented by Fatah in the West Bank. Fatah has recognized the right of Israel's existence. Fatah and Hamas fought a bloody civil war in 2006 after Israel left Gaza. Hamas ‘won’ that conflict and took control of Gaza. Hamas uses the Palestinian cause to rally support for its own goals, which are not shared with the majority of Palestinians.   

You may have heard someone say something along the lines of "Well, the Israeli's must have expected something like this to happen from Gaza, which has been under siege by Israel, like an open-air prison, for the last 20 years." 

Clarity: Gaza has been the staging ground for rocket attacks against Israel almost since the day after Israel unilaterally withdrew from it. Hamas might have taken the opportunity of Israel’s departure to improve the lives of their citizens, who they say they are representing. Instead, they devoted precious resources to build terrorist tunnels, stockpile arms and train militants to attack Israel. The reason is simple. Depriving the people under their charge serves the goal of blaming Israel for their misery and inculcating hatred against Israel in their population. It diverts attention away from their mismanagement and corruption as well. Again, Hamas doesn’t care about Palestinians or Gaza.

You may have heard someone say something like, in the west they call Hamas terrorists but their supporters call them 'freedom fighters'. 

Clarity: So-called 'freedom fighters' are not genocidal,  and do not target innocent civilians. In fact, throughout history, peoples with aspiration for national sovereignty have only ever engaged enemy combatants, not innocent civilians. That's the difference between a 'freedom fighter' and a terrorist. To put a finer point on it, there is a difference in the way the Israel Defence Forces and terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah operate. As a national army the IDF is bound by and respects international norms of engagement. It targets combatants, not civilians. When it bombards, it gives advance warning in order to spare the lives of non-combatants as much as possible. Terrorists have no such restraint, and on the contrary, purposely ignore such restraints. Terrorists employ the most barbaric, inhuman and brutal means at their disposal to achieve maximum effect. They specifically target innocent civilians to further their political goals because it has the most horrific impact. And when they are attacked they defend themselves by using their own civilians, people who they say they are 'fighting for', as human shields. 

The Palestinian cause is not served by Hamas, or Hezbollah, which are in fact organizations funded by and proxies for the theocratic dictatorship of Iran. Those who tell you that they stand with Hamas because they stand with the Palestinian People, are misguided. They are standing with a genocidal terrorist organization dedicated to the detruction of the State of Israel and annihilation of the Jewish People. Israel has no interest in delegitimizing or governing the Palestinians. In fact they have engaged them on several occasions to try to achieve a mutually beneficial and secure political solution involving coexistence. These efforts have failed for various complex reasons, not the least of which, were the terrorist activities of Hamas, which has no interest in seeing them succeed. In the interim, Israel has given the Palestinians a great deal of autonomy over their own affairs in both Gaza and the West Bank, notwithstanding the enormous risk of doing so.  

For those people you may know with goodwill there needs to be moral clarity at this critical juncture in history. You may be able to help them arrive at that clarity.