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Everything changes -- radically -- when we realize that we realize that virtue is its own reward, and vice is its own punishment. Or, stated differently, we are not punished for our sins, but by our sins. There is neither joy, not satisfaction, in vice, whence the word "vicious" derives. Vice inclines people to being vicious.   October 14, 2023 |
Israel has tactical superiority, but what’s the strategy? Who will govern the rubble afterward? And how will the mass slaughter of Palestinian civilians possibly lead to harmony with Israel afterward? |
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 | Opinion Columnist |
A week ago, smoke was rising over southern Israel; today it is swirling over Gaza, where neighborhoods are being pulverized and Israel appears poised to begin a ground invasion aimed at destroying Hamas — but one that would compound the already devastating humanitarian crisis there. |
I’ve reported from Gaza periodically over the years, so for my new column I looked back at lessons learned from those visits. In particular, I recalled a conversation with a group of boys who discussed what kinds of attacks on Israeli civilians they believed were morally acceptable. Blowing up a group of women? Yes, OK — “They all fight in their army.” Attacking a girls’ school? Fine: “God knows, the girls will become fighters.” |
Where does that hatred come from? |
Partly, I argue, it comes from incitement and propaganda from Hamas and related groups — and that’s why I find the sympathy for Hamas in some leftist circles so wrongheaded. But it also arises from decades of suffering and humiliation at the hands of Israel, and my guess is that the current assault on Gaza will intensify not only the suffering of Palestinians but also the extremism. |
Gaza is sealed off, so foreign reporters can’t get in right now — and that makes witnesses’ accounts important for chronicling what is underway. Fadi Abu Shammalah, a Gaza resident, wrote a searing guest essay about his desperate and unsuccessful efforts to evacuate his wife and three children to Egypt; an Israeli bomb that destroyed the crossing ended that possibility, at least for now. |
He writes that he is saddened by the killings of Israeli civilians but makes a point similar to mine: Bombings don’t end extremism; they feed it. He puts it this way: “Israel helped create these fighters by starving them of hope, dignity and a future.” |
This doesn’t answer the question of how Israel is supposed to respond to a terrorist attack as brutal as last weekend’s. I certainly accept Israel’s right to respond militarily, and I wish it could dismantle Hamas, but I fear that a ground invasion will inflame problems, not ease them, as it claims vast numbers of innocent lives. And I flinch when I hear American politicians cheering for more, like Senator Lindsey Graham who said of Gaza, “Level the place.” My column argues that when you care only about some humans and not others, you’ve lost your humanity. I hope you’ll read it. |
THE WEEK IN BIG IDEAS | ||
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