By now you have read many treatises on this, no doubt. While I may lack originality, I think we should all be clear on for what we stand. I thank Howard Lindzon for triggering me on this.
“We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the center of the universe.”
―Elie Wiesel, The Night Trilogy: Night, Dawn, The Accident
And the right thing is abundantly clear.
At this point in time, not having read the news today (and yes, I do indeed get my news from reading: The Associated Press, Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and The Richmond Times-Dispatch. I read them online these days. But I do not get my news from Facebook, Xwitter, Instagram, or similar), I will guess that at least 1,500 Israelis have been murdered by the Hamas terrorist attack. Who knows how many have been burned, raped, beaten, and/or kidnapped, never to be seen again, perhaps? You may wish to call it something else. Perhaps, if only military targets were involved, I would agree that it is acceptable to call it something else. The problem, as I think all the Israeli critics and Hamas apologists well know (although, cognitive bias being what it is, some could be convincing themselves that they are doing nothing other than defending their rights- and it’s still wrong), is that the murder, rape, torture, and kidnaping are never acceptable. These are crimes against humanity as well as against our shared rule of law, both domestic and military.
It is our rule of law that both brings civility and prosperity to our world and sustains it. It is what makes us uniquely human and evolved.
War appears to be as old as humanity. It is reasonable to argue that it is human nature. We want to be right. We want to be in control. We want to have food, energy, capital, and housing. These seem normal and human. Whether it it be Rome, Greece, Europe, the USA, or any other number of societies and countries, we have launched wars for various reasons. The Middle East, in particular, has been, for 3,000 or so years, a consistent site of war. While Jared Kushner may have received $2 billion for his efforts, he clearly made no impact on the situation (given the outcome one has to conclude that this was purely a grifting, self-serving enterprise). No truly diplomatic efforts have been successful in interrupting, for other than brief periods, this conflict. I do not have an answer, either.
What seems simple to me: Each culture has its own country and governance, and they each allow the other to live as they please (that is, without murdering each other or otherwise committing crimes against humanity). This clearly is not achievable, at least not yet.
I do think it is abundantly clear that you could disarm the Israelis and Judaism/the Israelis would be pursued, murdered, and otherwise eliminated from this earth. This has been going on for a long time. Since when did the Israelis attack another culture/country on a religious holiday? Since when did the USA fly planes into occupied, civilian buildings to intentionally cause mass, civilian death? Since when did the Israelis exterminate 6 million National Socialists? Disarm Hamas, Hezbollah, and the like and everyone survives.
Murder, rape, torture, and kidnapping, no matter how or why they are done, are wrong. We all know this, unless you are a socio/psychopath.
This is no time for grandstanding or trying to show up your political opponent as weak or ineffective or senile, regardless of the facts. This is no time for justification of these acts. There is never either any or the right time for these kinds of responses to crimes against humanity. The only proper human response is to immediately and vigorously stop the attacks as forcefully as is necessary and to do this together. We do not have to agree on local politics in order to be decent humans and stop this human catastrophe.
I do not care if this is Hamas terrorizing Israelis or Israelis terrorizing Palestinians. I don’t care if it is the Tutsi versus the Hutu. Or the LA police versus Rodney King. Or some juiced up MAGA fools assaulting Capitol Police officers, threatening to hang Mike Pence, and defecating in the US Capitol. It’s all wrong. We know this.
I stand with all who are decent humans. In this particular case, I stand with the Israelis.
Now you know where I stand. The important part of this is that I make public where I stand. You should, too.
Will we stand together? That’s how we defeat the terrorists.
Sundry
I was going to write a hopefully amusing yet useful and informative piece about that which we love to hate: insurance. Maybe next week, depending on what happens on this Earth we temporarily occupy.
I know it might feel like this is the beginning of the end. I am not there.