Another homicide bombing in Israel this week. It happened at a Tel Aviv restaurant. At least eight are dead; at last 60 are wounded. The victims included men, women and children. All were civilian noncombatants. They were not caught in the line of fire in a battle between militants. They were peacefully going about their business when they were deliberately killed and maimed. Children saw their mother killed.
The bomber and the persons who planned the killings and built the bomb knew they would kill innocent men, women and children who were minding their own business. They are happy about the resulting deaths, injuries, tears, and funerals. They passed out pastries to celebrate. They announced that 70 more such attacks are coming.
And the world shrugs its shoulders.
It's not our concern, right?
Last time I checked, we don't live in Israel. Not most of us, anyway.
And last time I checked, most of us aren't even Jewish.
So it's their problem. Not ours.
Besides, there's violence on both sides. It's a cycle of violence.
But maybe we should review what's really going on, just to be sure.
Here's what we know about the violence caused by the Palestinians:
1. The Palestinians strap bombs filled with shrapnel to themselves. The bombers intend to be killed. The shrapnel is soaked in rat poison to ensure hemorrhaging in the victims. The Palestinian attacks often also include further bombs targeting rescue workers who come to aid the victims.
In attacks planned in advance, the Palestinians routinely and deliberately take these bombs into the middle of crowds of people who are civilian noncombatants minding their own business -- eating at a restaurant, attending a celebration, or riding a bus. The targets selected are men, women and children.
They are not killed because they happen to be too close to another target. They are the target.
Percentage of persons intended to be killed: 100% (the bomber and everyone at the scene, including rescue workers)
Target: 100% civilian noncombatants
Planning and premeditation of deaths of civilian targets: 100%
2. The perpetrators of these attacks are celebrated and glorified by the Palestinians, and the Palestinians announce that more such attacks will be coming.
Let's compare this to what Israel does:
1. The Israelis do not routinely and deliberately plan in advance to kill not only their own soldiers, but also crowds of innocent noncombatant civilians who are eating at a restaurants, riding buses, etc. Although critics of Israel point to examples of civilian Palestinian deaths, those examples almost always involve civilians accidentally or unavoidably caught in the line of fire (collateral damage of war) or civilians who were deliberately involving themselves in the conflict by throwing rocks, staying in the way, etc.
2. Some of the accidental Palestinian deaths are the direct result of the Palestinians' own prior attacks on innocent civilians. For example, the Palestinians use an ambulance to sneak a homicide bomb into a crowd of innocent people, and then complain when the next ambulance is not waved through a checkpoint as usual and the patient in the ambulance suffers as a result. These same Palestinians use every act of self-defense on Israel's part -- even something as harmless as building a wall to keep out homicide bombers -- as an excuse for more attacks on Israel.
But what about civilian Palestinians killed by Israelis, like a girl killed this week in an Israeli strike? Israel has indeed caused some civilian deaths by accident or perhaps even by negligence or gross negligence, but it does not routinely plan to kill noncombatant civilian Palestinians as its goal. Israel does not deliberately target noncombatant men, women, or children for death. The Palestinians do.
3. On the rare occasions when an isolated Israeli recklessly or deliberately kills innocent, noncombatant civilian Palestinians (such attacks are very few and far between), those who carry out such acts are not celebrated and glorified by most Israelis, and most Israelis do not brag that more such attacks on noncombatant civilians will be forthcoming. This is the exact opposite of what occurs when a Palestinian does the same thing or worse.
The distinction is not difficult to make, if you really think about it.
Even a dog understands the difference between being tripped over and being deliberately kicked.
Everyone on earth understands the difference between accidentally hitting a child with a car and deliberately planning to run over a child with a car and carrying out that very plan. One is a horrible accident or at most negligence or even gross negligence; the other is first-degree, premeditated murder.
No sane civilized society treats the driver who accidentally kills a child the same as it treats a serial murderer.
No reasonable person thinks that if the police accidentally take a civilian life while chasing a suspect, it is fair game for the police to be slaughtered in response -- or, worse yet, that it's fair game for the family of the victim to stand in the crowded town square and spray bullets in every direction to "get even." Yet that is exactly what Palestinians argue every day to justify their campaign of slaughtering innocent civilians.
When Israel starts detonating bombs in crowds of Palestinians who are just eating at restaurants -- not accidentally while pursing a military target, but routinely, as their entire goal -- then critics of Israel can legitimately say that there is moral equivalency between the Palestinians and Israel. Until then, there is no comparison.
Why does it matter?
It matters, first of all, from the standpoint of simple human justice and mercy. We don't treat accidental or negligent killing and premeditated murder the same way because it would be wrong to do so.
Second, until you are clear about the difference between right and wrong, you can't figure out how to solve any problem.
If the troubles in the Middle East seem to be endless, perhaps part of the reason for that is the endless excuses being made for those who are willing to commit acts that are genuinely evil.
One of those excuses is poverty. Nonsense. In no courtroom on earth is being poor a defense to a charge of premeditated murder. In fact, being willing to support premeditated murder is a good way to ensure that your society stays lawless and poor.
Saying that there is a "cycle of violence" in the Middle East is like saying that there is a "cycle of violence" between criminal gangs and police. The solution is not for the police to turn over the city to the gangs and go home. That would only ensure that the violence continues.
Make sure you're clear in your own mind about what moral standards you believe in. Do you believe that involuntary manslaughter is the same as premeditated murder?
If you accidentally kill a person while driving your car -- as a few unlucky people have -- are you on the same moral plane as the Unibomber, the BTK killer, or any other serial killer?
Even if your driving was not as careful as it should have been, you are not even remotely in the same ballpark as a serial killer. You did not intend to take someone's life. You are filled with regret; the serial killer is filled with glee. And while you, out of your sincere regret, will go to great lengths in the future to make sure that it never happens again, out of the serial killer's glee will grow the plans for his next killing.
Israelis openly lament the deaths of any innocent Palestinian civilians, and takes pains to avoid such innocent deaths whenever humanly possible. Palestinians take open glee in the death of any innocent Israeli civilian.
It's not asking too much to expect all sane, decent human beings on earth to be willing to take sides against routine, premeditated mass murder of noncombatant civilians.
Please have the moral clarity, the courage, and the common decency to take sides.
If you can't be bothered to challenge the pure evil of premeditated serial mass murder before it reaches out and harms you and your loved ones personally, then what good are you to the world?
Let your decency show. Be willing, once in a while, to give credit to people who are struggling albeit imperfectly to do the right thing and protect their own safety without killing innocent people. Be willing once in a while to acknowledge basic decency when you see it.
Go out on a limb once in a while and have the courage to condemn what is clearly wrong. Use the word "evil" once in a blue moon. Not every day. Not for little things, like your political opponents. Once in a while, use the world "evil" when it really fits.
"Evil" is the only word to describe what the Palestinians routinely do, and then gloat over. If deliberate, premeditated murder of innocent men, women and children who were minding their own business and not anywhere near any line of fire is not pure evil, then what is?
If terrorism isn't evil, then you might as well throw the word away and hope that you're never on the receving end of what you chose not to condemn.
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