It does not matter if your sympathies lie with Palestine or Israel. It does not matter if you consider violent retribution as inevitable or even defensible.
You either believe that there is no world in which the massacre of babies in their homes is acceptable, or you don’t.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been simmering, and sometimes raging, since the creation of the Israeli state in 1948.
There is very little room for discussion. Both sides believe they are the rightful heirs to that stretch of the Middle East, and that they are battling invaders trying to strip them of their God-given right to sacred land.
There is a long list of grievances deeply felt by both Israeli and Palestinian people. I will not do this sensitive topic a disservice by attempting to analyse them here.
Some truths, however, transcend political and historical context.
Music festival goers are not a security threat. Children are not a security threat. Babies in their cots are not a security threat.
It is important, in times like these, to be wary of “whataboutisms”.
The limelight has been turned, across much of social media, on the Israeli response and on past actions by the Israeli state.
In normal circumstances, this discourse would be warranted. However, to bring it up now is simply to try and justify what happened last weekend.
There is no justification for the butchering of families in their homes. If you agree with this, you should not use Israel’s actions to justify Hamas’s.
This was not an attack on Israel. This was an attack on ordinary civilians just trying to live their lives.
It is not just Hamas who are guilty of needless and tragic escalation. There are now multiple reports claiming that Iran helped plot the attacks on Israel. If true, that only further increases the risk of further regional instability.
And for what? Hamas didn’t gain a military advantage or strike strategic targets.
They simply murdered innocent people and guaranteed retaliation, which will rob both Palestinian and Israeli mothers of their sons and daughters.
Perhaps this is the greatest tragedy of all.
It does not matter if you think one side is right and the other is wrong.
No one wins when children burn.
Benjamin Macintyre is a Research Assistant at The New Zealand Initiative. This article was first published HERE
There is very little room for discussion. Both sides believe they are the rightful heirs to that stretch of the Middle East, and that they are battling invaders trying to strip them of their God-given right to sacred land.
There is a long list of grievances deeply felt by both Israeli and Palestinian people. I will not do this sensitive topic a disservice by attempting to analyse them here.
Some truths, however, transcend political and historical context.
Music festival goers are not a security threat. Children are not a security threat. Babies in their cots are not a security threat.
It is important, in times like these, to be wary of “whataboutisms”.
The limelight has been turned, across much of social media, on the Israeli response and on past actions by the Israeli state.
In normal circumstances, this discourse would be warranted. However, to bring it up now is simply to try and justify what happened last weekend.
There is no justification for the butchering of families in their homes. If you agree with this, you should not use Israel’s actions to justify Hamas’s.
This was not an attack on Israel. This was an attack on ordinary civilians just trying to live their lives.
It is not just Hamas who are guilty of needless and tragic escalation. There are now multiple reports claiming that Iran helped plot the attacks on Israel. If true, that only further increases the risk of further regional instability.
And for what? Hamas didn’t gain a military advantage or strike strategic targets.
They simply murdered innocent people and guaranteed retaliation, which will rob both Palestinian and Israeli mothers of their sons and daughters.
Perhaps this is the greatest tragedy of all.
It does not matter if you think one side is right and the other is wrong.
No one wins when children burn.
Benjamin Macintyre is a Research Assistant at The New Zealand Initiative. This article was first published HERE
9 comments:
You are absolutely right.
Egypt warned the Israeli's about an impending attack three days prior and it was allowed to happen. Why?
When you praise God for allowing you to slaughter innocents your moral and ethical compass is clearly shattered.
No religion should justify that, but one clearly does!
Yes, DeeM, and that's Judaism. Try reading some of the juicy bits of the OT that explicitly order the Hebrews to commit genocide and sexual slavery. That's where the early Muslims got those ideas from.
Great basis for ethics and morality, huh?
Barend
You've just demonstrated that the Muslims should have known better. To copy a system that promotes those terrible things then make it your own. How unconscionable!
It also shows that most religions at heart care nothing for those of different faiths and would happily commit the most heinous of crimes against them, all in the name of their version of God.
The model is clearly flawed and has caused more misery and suffering than anything else.
The topic of genocide in the Old Testament is frequently referred to by the new atheists in order to condemn the God of the Old Testament.
Many sophisticated atheist like Dawkins are quoted, leading one to believe that there were no replies to these aggressive atheists' statements when there are in fact, many apologists with high intellect who do reply on line.
One I would suggest is Peter J Williams a biblical scholar of Cambridge and Aberdeen Universities: 'Rethinking 3/6 Peter J Williams on New Atheists & Old Testament (incl. The Canaanites) U Tube
The genocides in the Old Testament are perplexing to Christians as well and require explanation.
You'd need an IQ into 4 digits to waffle your way out of the dilemma, Anonymous. And yet it's so dead obvious what's going on: a Bronze Age marauding desert tribe created a god that reflected its attitudes and ethics and then used that to justify its actions. Ain't it amazing how gods are mirror images of those who worship them..... but not really as that is who created them in the first instance. There is no mystery for those whose vision is not blurred by barbaric mumbo-jumbo and gratuitous pseudohistories.
We are going to have to agree to disagree, Barend. What has put very many people off the new atheists is their outrageous rudeness. It gives credit to nobody to use that in response.
Anonymous, not as outrageous as the little psychopath in the sky that believers worship.
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