The world was shocked by the massacre of innocent civilians in Israel by Hamas terrorists coming from Gaza. Now a new calamity is unfolding in Gaza itself as Israel takes its vengeance. Innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza are dying, and will continue to die for as long as Israel attacks, which promises to be for a long time to come. This is a horror. It is wrong.
Now let me be absolutely clear: Hamas’s attack on Israeli innocents was entirely unjustified. The world is right to be appalled at the scenes of senseless slaughter we’ve all witnessed over the past few days. I won’t repeat the horrors here; my fingers tremble to type them out. The brutality visited upon innocents was as bad as you’ve heard, and worse. I condemn it in the strongest and most unequivocal terms, as does every sensible person.
Some have taken to defending, even celebrating, Hamas’s actions. Those people have lost their way. There is no excuse for killing innocent civilians. None. Even if we grant, for the sake of argument, that Israel’s very existence was a grave mistake and terrible injustice visited on the Palestinian people, that doesn’t matter. Even if reclaiming Israel for the Palestinians were a just war aim, the slaughter of innocents in no way promotes the end of territorial reclamation. The Israelis will not buckle under, cry uncle, and leave their country because a thousand innocents were killed; it’s insane to think that they would. The means are evil in themselves, and the means have no hope of advancing the ends. There is no possible way to justify the murder of innocents.
Yet this same calculus applies to Israel’s retaliation in Gaza. Are the Israeli war aims just? Let us grant that they are. Israel has declared that its goal is the eradication of Hamas, and Hamas is an abhorrent terrorist organization. Eradicating Hamas would be good. But Hamas’s leadership is not in Gaza. They live safe, in luxury, in Qatar. Their patrons live in Iran. Razing Gaza will do nothing to those at the top of the organization. And even if Hamas were to be destroyed, another Palestinian terrorist group would take its place. The root cause — or at least a root cause, of central importance — is the intense hatred that exists between Israel and Palestine. Attacks on Gaza that claim the lives of innocent civilians will not solve that core problem. Indeed, it will make it worse. So the circumstances are the same: killing innocent civilians in Gaza is evil in itself, and these means have no chance of promoting any just war aim. Worse, the Israelis know this. No one thinks that the result of Israel’s attacks on Palestine will be a more peaceful Middle East. Peace is not their actual goal. Their goal is bloody vengeance, pure and simple. That desire for vengeance is perfectly understandable. It’s the most tragically human impulse there is. But that doesn’t justify the killing of innocent civilians which is happening in Gaza right now.
Many will protest that there is an important difference between Hamas and the Israeli army: Hamas is targeting innocents, whereas Israel is targeting Hamas. To be sure, in the process of targeting Hamas, innocent civilians will be killed. But so long as that’s not the point of the operation, Israel is in the clear, morally speaking. The appeal here is to what philosophers call the “Doctrine of Double Effect.” According to the Doctrine of Double Effect, intending a bad outcome is bad, but acting in a way that you merely foresee will result in a bad outcome is not. Blowing up a kindergarten is bad. Blowing up an enemy weapons cache that happens to be inside of a kindergarten is fine. This kind of reasoning is errant sophistry. Either way, you’ve killed a bunch of young children whose only crime was going to school. The purity of your intentions doesn’t wash the blood off of your hands.
Still others will protest that the Israeli army is trying to avoid civilian casualties, by warning about their attacks in advance. That’s certainly better than not warning in advance, but it’s far from exonerative. Israeli children were killed at close range by terrorists from Hamas wielding guns, knives, and bludgeons. Palestinian children are now being killed at long range by Israeli missiles intended to strike military targets. Is the former worse than the latter? In a sense, perhaps. But either way, there’s dead kids. Either way, there are grieving families. Either way, it’s another strike in an unending cycle of violence. No one has a right to feel proud. No one has a right to feel righteous.
Always remember, there’s something that the Israeli army could to that would result in zero civilian casualties: not attack Gaza. Harden your borders, mourn your dead, live and let live. Israel is not doing this. They are taking their vengeance on Hamas, and innocent Palestinians are suffering and dying. Do not forget: those innocents would not be suffering and dying if Israel had chosen magnanimity over revenge. There is a better path open to them that they will not take because their passion is hot and the need for bloody vengeance is upon them.
So I’ll hear nothing of noble intentions. I do not believe someone can choose a course of action that will lead to countless innocent deaths and still claim noble intentions when another way is possible.
The need for vengeance once again chases out the possibility of peace. This is not a new story. A pox on both your houses.
Today I weep for Israel. Today I weep for Gaza.