In his post today, Hamas War Crimes, Sam again allows his argument to fall victim to blindness resulting from his ideological position that Israel is morally superior to the Palestinian people.
To set the record straight, I offer first, some facts:
Palestinians have no state and therefore cannot be so easily painted with same brush the critics of Israel use.
Let’s be clear about this: While actions by the IDF are always done “by Israel,” one cannot honestly equally say that an action by Hamas is done “by the Palestinians.”
Think about it: When you hear news reports of the Tamil Tigers’ attacks in Sri Lanka, you never hear it said “the Tamils” as a whole attacked Sri Lanka. News reports about the Taliban’s attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan do not say that “the Pashtuns and their sympathizers” were to blame. Nor were the 9/11 attacks attributed to the Egyptian, Moroccan, or Yemeni people.
Yet, when defenders of the Israeli moral highground talk about the conflict, attacks by Hamas or the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades are portrayed as “Palestinian” attacks.
In contrast, when the IDF launches an operation, it does so on behalf of the entire Israeli people as sanctioned through Israel’s democratically elected government. Its failures and collateral damage are not attributed to “the Israelis,” but rather, simply and correctly, the IDF.
Perhaps seemingly on the contrary, whereas the legitimate, democratic government of Israel can be said to act on behalf of the Israeli people as a whole, we can hardly say that Hamas’s terrorism and rocket attacks are done with the same level of internationally recognized complicity. Indeed, while the people of Israel continue to live in relative peace, security, and prosperity, thanks to a stable, democratic government, Palestinians live under two separate, dysfunctional and corrupt regimes questionably sanctioned by the majority.
Does this excuse rocket attacks and terrorism? No. But, it certainly doesn’t make the Palestinian people as a whole immoral. Hamas, maybe, but not “the Palestinians.”
Relatedly, Hamas cannot commit “war crimes” because Israel is not at war with Hamas, and Hamas is not a state.
War requires two or more parties with a parity of status. That does not exist in Israel and the disputed territories. Israel has a recognized, unified, legitimate, democratic government, recognized borders, and a formal military. What do Palestinians have?
Palestinians have a noncontiguous, ill-defined territory subject to repeated “settlement” (aka “colonization”), two “governments” run by thugs and ex-thugs, and a bloated “security force” that has been overrun by even more thugs. A state, they do not have, much less any sort of legitimate counterpart to the IDF.
Israel holds all the cards. That does not in any way excuse terrorist or rocket attacks, but let’s not try to pretend the State of Israel is the victim here. Israeli Jews have gotten their way for 60 years now. Palestinians never had a chance at creating a peaceful, stable democracy, thanks to the actions of their Arab neighbors, Israel’s founders, Israel itself, and the UN.
In sum, there is both a disparity in power at play in Israel-Palestine and a deceptive use of language by defenders of the Israeli moral highground.
In truth, there is little if any moral highground in this conflict. At best, international relations is an amoral game played by politicians and rabble-rousers. At worst (and I think Israeli-Arab relations trend toward the worst) – at worst, both sides are immorally motivated by racism, greed, and hunger for power.
To launch rockets into civilian neighborhoods is unjustifiable. To blow oneself up in pursuit of the deaths of others is both immoral and pathological. To claim that such acts are sanctioned by God would be laughable if it were not so upsetting.
Likewise, to excuse killing of women and children as “proportionate” or to claim exculpation because the other side “uses human shields” is immoral. To claim that those killings are justified is sick.
And, to say that an entire people is responsible for the actions of a crazed few – be they terrorists or “individual, Israeli soldiers” – is intellectually dishonest.
The way to “solve” the Middle East is not through continued appeals to morality, but rather through pragmatism, integrity, and moderation.
Leave morality to the mullahs and rabbis and get them out of politics.
