Dennis Prager
Let's drop the names "Hamas" and "Israel" and
make a list of the characteristics of two
imaginary warring entities. We'll call them
Entity A and Entity B.
Entity A:
--Declares that its raison d'etre is to annihilate
Entity B.
--Sends missiles to explode in the most
populated parts of Entity B in order to kill as
many civilians as possible.
--Uses families and individual civilians as
human shields to protect its own leaders from
attack.
--Tortures and kills domestic political
opponents.
--Has no political or religious freedom and has
no freedom of speech, press, or assembly, and
no independent judiciary.
--Is a theocracy.
--Violently oppresses gays.
--Saturates its education and airwaves with a
demonic hatred of Entity B.
--Rated a "6" by Freedom House in its 2013
report on freedom in the world. Seven is the
worst possible rating. Entity A ranks 6 in
freedom, 6 in civil liberties and 6 political
rights.
Entity B:
--Recognizes the right of Entity A to an
independent existence.
--Has never begun a war with Entity A.
--Has never targeted civilians in Entity A. In
fact, it has sacrificed soldiers in order to avoid
killing Entity A civilians.
--Domestic political opponents -- including
even supporters of Entity A -- not only have
freedom of assembly, press and expression;
they have political parties with representatives
in Entity B's parliament.
--Has freedom of the press, assembly, religion,
and a completely independent judiciary.
--Allows gays full civil rights.
--Has innumerable human rights groups
dedicated to the welfare of people belonging
to Entity A.
--Has no education or broadcasts comparable
to the daily hate in Entity A.
--Freedom House rating for 2014 is 1.5 in
freedom ("1" is best possible); 2 in civil
liberties; 1 in political liberties.
So, then, with which entity does nearly every
government in the world side? Entity A.
And what is the primary concern of the United
Nations, nearly all the world's media, and
nearly all the world's intellectuals? That Entity
B, while hundreds of missiles are launched at
its most populated cities, not kill any of the
civilians among whom Entity A's leaders hide.
The moral gulf between Israel, our Entity B,
and Hamas, our Entity A, is as clear and as
great as the one that existed between the Allies
and Nazi Germany. It is one of the few
instances in today's world when the Nazi
analogy is accurate.
It is clear that while free and democratic
countries such as those in Western Europe
value the freedoms of speech, assembly, and
press for themselves, the absence of these
freedoms among Israel's enemies means
nothing to the Europeans in morally assessing
the Middle East conflict.
The news media, too, have no moral focus.
They are preoccupied with Gazans who have
died, and with the disparity between the
number of Gazans killed and the number of
Israelis killed -- as if that is morally dispositive.
Imagine that during World War II, the Western
press had converged on German hospitals and
apartment buildings and repeatedly announced
the huge disparity between German civilian
deaths and British civilian deaths. More than
10 times the number of German civilians were
killed as were British -- but did that have
anything at all to do with the morality of the
British war against Germany?
The big question, then, is why? Why is decent,
free, democratic Israel not fully supported by
decent countries against the genocidal Islamist
regime of Gaza?
Is there any other example in history of a free
state and a police state at war in which the
free state was deemed morally equivalent to
the police state, or, even more implausibly,
deemed the aggressor? Last week, a New York
Times editorial put the equivalence this way:
"an atmosphere in which each side
dehumanizes the other."
Here, then, are some reasons:
1. The West has lost its way. Europe gave up
on its values after World War I. And the
American left, which dominates the media,
gave up on America's distinctive values after
the Vietnam War.
2. Unlike during World War II, there is a
United Nations today, and it is dominated by
over 50 Islamic countries, their dozens of
allies, and a Security Council on which sit
Russia and China as permanent members.
3. The current American president is a product
of the postwar leftist morality. Wherever the
left is in power, Israel is unpopular at best and
loathed at worst. Thus, Israel's best friend
today is the conservative government of
Canada.
4. The world's news media relentlessly show
images of wounded and dead Gazans. Israel, on
the other hand, though the target of mass-
killing missiles, has thus far been able to avoid
such casualties.
5. Israel is Jewish.
If there are more valid reasons for why the
world equates Israel and its morally primitive
enemies -- or actually deems Israel the villain
-- I have yet to hear them.
No comments:
Post a Comment