The Ethical Bankruptcy of ‘Moral Equivalency’
The Ethical Bankruptcy of ‘Moral Equivalency’
As Hamas propagates horrific acts on the Jewish people, many are defending them and blaming their victims.
From The Christian Post. The grotesque, gruesome and obscene atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists against innocent Israelis on Oct. 7 have outraged and nauseated decent, civilized people across the globe.
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Let us all be clear: there can never beĀ anyĀ justification for murdering innocent civilians (including infants, children and grandmothers, with children being butchered in front of their parents and vice versa).
Those who claim a āmoral equivalencyā between the Hamas terrorists and the Israeli government betray either a lack of integrity or a seriously demagnetized moral compass. There is no more moral equivalency between Hamas and Israel than there was between the U.S. and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The U.S., like Israel, was not perfect, but if the Soviet āEvil Empireā had desired peace as much as America did in the Cold War, the Cold War would have ended far sooner and more peacefully than it did.
Hamas is a terrorist organization dedicated to eradicating the Jews in the Holy Land and ādriving them into the sea.ā Israel cannot peacefully coexist with a terrorist group that denies the Israelisā right to exist in the Holy Land.
Some have responded to the dastardly Hamas attacks by claiming that they are emblematic of the āclashā of civilizations prophesied and articulated famously by Samuel P. Huntington inĀ Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World OrderĀ (1996).
Huntingtonās thesis was written in response to his former student Francis Fukuyamaās assertion inĀ The End of History and the Last ManĀ that man had come to the end of history in a Hegelian model where human rights and a capitalistic free market economy dominate in a post-Cold War world.
Huntington responded that a clash of competing civilizations instead would be dominated by cultural conflict among civilizational models such as Western civilization and Islamic civilization. Huntingtonās thesis is a provocative and interesting theory, but Hamasā wonton and criminal attack on Israeli civilians isĀ notĀ an example of a clash of civilizations. Hamasā current blood-curdling assault on Israeli citizens is a clash between civilization and barbarism.
One could make the case that Hamas is worse than the Nazis. At least the Nazis tried to hide their crimes, whereas Hamas promotes their horrible brutalities on social media. Slaughtering infants in their cribs is about as barbarous as it gets.
It would be unfair to besmirch Islamic civilization as being represented by Hamas terrorists. It must always be remembered that 90% of the victims of radical Islamic jihadists are fellow Muslims who refuse to accept their radical, cultic misinterpretation of Islam.
I know how uncomfortable Christians feel when the KKK or some other extremist group perpetrates evil and seeks to wrap themselves with Christianity through burning crosses. I suspect millions of Muslims worldwide are lamenting the terrible Hamas atrocities committed in the name of their Islamic faith.
I am extremely grateful that the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission has taken the lead inĀ releasingĀ an āEvangelical Statement in Support of Israelā in which the numerous Evangelical signees āunequivocally condemn the violenceā against innocent Israelis and āfully support Israelās right and duty to defend itself against further attack.ā
The Evangelical Statement proclaimed:
āSince the inception of the modern state of Israel in 1948, Israel has faced numerous attacks, incursions, and violations of its national sovereignty. The Jewish people have long endured genocidal attempts to eradicate them and to destroy the Jewish state. These antisemitic, deadly ideologies and terrorist actions must be opposed.ā
The statement further declared, āIn keeping with Christian Just War tradition, we also affirm the legitimacy of Israelās right to respond against those who have initiated these attacks as Romans 13 grants governments the power to bear the sword against those who commit such evil acts against innocent life.ā
The statement concluded by proclaiming āthe dignity and personhood of all persons living in the Middle Eastā and their recognition of āthe difficult ministry of Jewish and Palestinian believers who labor for the Gospel.ā This was followed by a call for American authorities āto take all forms of terrorism seriouslyā and āto confront evil work to prevent future attacks.ā
When one observes the pro-Hamas rallies in our country (as well as others) with crowds celebrating the attacks and chanting āGas the Jews!ā it becomes clear why the Evangelical statement and much more are necessary and imperative.
Make no mistake, these atrocities would never have happened without Iranian financing, planning and encouragement. In addition to their demonic hatred of Jews, they were desperate to derail the developing ārapprochementā between Israel and Saudi Arabia, an event that would devastate Iranian plans to rule the Middle East. The Iranian Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, declared, he ākisses the handsā of the Hamas murderers, rapists and baby killers.
The reaction to these dastardly attacks among left-wing groups in America and around the world is most disturbing and yet instructive.
I have often marveled at the apparent loss of the ability to understand or accept implacable moral evil that accompanies the embracing of the moral relativism of left-wing philosophies.
How else do you explain these left-wing groups celebrating the horrendous blood lust of Hamas? They are celebrating Hamas, which has promoted a society based on hatred of Jews, a society that pays a bounty to mass murderers and their families and has a street celebration whenever Jews are killed.
Is this what American and Western pro-Palestinian supporters desire?Ā Walter E. Block and Alan G. FutermanĀ have captured the dilemma:
āāFrom the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!ā chant the useful idiots of elite institutions and parades in the West. Who are these people? Atheists who support theocratic lunatics, democrats who endorse medieval tyrants, feminists who defend misogynists who parade with the desecrated corpses of women, gays who defend maniacs who would joyfully hang them or toss them off the roof of tall buildings? They talk of a secular, democratic and socialist Palestine. As George Orwell observed: āOne has to belong to the Intelligentsia to believe things like that: no ordinary man could be such a Fool.ā But the world has now seen what āfrom the river to the seaā actually means. It is nothing less than a remake of NaziĀ Einsatzgruppen.ā
Abba Eban, the eloquent, long-time Israeli Ambassador (1950-1959) to the United Nations once explained to the U.N. Assembly that there was an Arab refugee problem and it needed to be dealt with humanely. On the other hand, he observed, if the Arabs had won in 1948, there would not be a Jewish refugee problem because they would all be dead. Based on what happened in the few Jewish settlements that were overrun by Arab forces in the 1948 war, he was tragically correct in his assessment.
Cries of āmoral equivalencyā tell us more about those voicing such nonsense than they tell us about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
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(Used with permission. By Richard D. Land from The Christian Post. Photo Credit: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
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Comments
This a good article. You have great insight. I am dismayed that so many in this country are marching for and supporting people who would gladly rape and/or kill them such as Jewish people, women, LGBTQA people. There are some good Moslems in spite of Islam not because of it. I will believe that hamas does not represent Islam when hamas members are banned from Mecca and Medina like all other non moslems.