No rational person questions Israel’s right to defend itself, to protect its citizens and, of course, to exist.
And everyone knows that, since its foundation, Israel has had to fight in defense of that existence many times. Tooth and nail, with bravery and sacrifice.
It’s just that even the most justifiable war has rules.
Which keep war’s inescapable savagery within bounds and stop the warring parties from turning on weak and defenseless civilians.
Even when those rules are being exploited or weaponized by one side or the other, as they probably are in Gaza? Especially then.
When the Greeks were under occupation by the Ottoman Turks, they had a saying “Make of me a martyr, agha, so I may find grace!”. But while that doesn’t sit well with me, neither does the idea of wiping out the agha’s family for no reason.
So Israel undoubtedly had a national and moral obligation to respond to the terrorist attack Hamas launched against Israeli civilians on 7 October 2023.
It had an obligation and the right to fight the terrorists to the bitter end. And it’s been doing that for twenty months now.
But there are no rules giving Israel free rein to wipe out an entire population. Nor does it have the right to subject the population of Gaza to starvation and misery, to deprive them of their dignity and condemn them to a lingering death. Neither the rules of war nor rudimentary compassion permit that.
Of course, war isn’t a recreational activity. And Israel is fighting those who slaughtered, raped and kidnapped its citizens. Mercy has no place here.
But logic does. The logic that tells us that Israel’s transformation from a nation justly defending itself into an inhuman persecutor will be the worst defeat it has suffered in its history–and in a war every sign points to it having already won.
There is no doubt that the humanitarian situation is dire; that the inhabitants of Gaza have been brought to the brink of annihilation. And one can only wonder what Israel thinks it has to gain from a stigma that will never wash off.
It is clear that Hamas (but not the entire Palestinian nation) is responsible for an unprovoked and inhuman massacre. That’s irrefutable.
What isn’t clear is why Israel should want to share in its infamy.
