Saturday, March 26, 2011

The Immorality of "Moral Equivalence"

Jeff Dunetz has a good summary of the sequence of events leading up to President Barack Obama's shameful and despicable statement equating Israeli self-defense with Arab barbarism last week at NewsRealBlog:
Wednesday’s terrorist bombing outside the main bus terminal in Jerusalem was not an isolated incident, it was part of a ramp-up of terrorist acts by the Palestinians during the month of March:
  • March 6: A sanitation worker from the Jerusalem Municipality lost his hand on Sunday when a garbage bag he was lifting exploded, in what police believe was the first terrorist attack in the capital in more than a year. The garbage bag was on a traffic island in the middle of Derech Hebron, next to the Mar Elias Monastery, in south Jerusalem, almost in the Gilo neighborhood. Another sanitation worker who was working alongside the first victim was lightly injured by the explosion. Magen David Adom paramedics evacuated both men to Hadassah University Medical Center in Ein Kerem.
  • March 11: Terrorists Sneak into Jewish Town of Itamar, killing 5 members of the Fogel Family three of which were young children, all of which were brutally massacred.
  • March 18-March 23 (the day of the Jerusalem Bombing) : During that six day period 80 “projectiles” were fired into Israel from Gaza–70 Mortars, 3 Grad Missiles, 7 Qassams (3/18 10 Mortars; 3/19 50 Mortars; 3/20 2 Qassam Missiles, 1 Grad Missile, 1 Mortar; 3/21 1 Qassam Missile; 3/22 4 Qassam Missiles, 4 Mortar; 3/23 2 Grad Missiles, 5 Mortars) The attacks on Israel from Gaza continue through today/

On March 22 (the day before the Jerusalem bombing) Israel struck back against the projectiles being fired from Gaza into Israel:

On Tuesday, IDF forces responded to projectiles fired at Israeli territory from the northern Gaza Strip. The attack took place in the afternoon when projectiles were fired toward the area of the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council. In response, IDF forces fired mortars to the point from which rockets were launched resulting in the injury of uninvolved civilians. Among them was the boy taken for medical treatment in Israel today.

The IDF regrets harming any uninvolved civilians but stresses that it is the Hamas terror organization which chooses to operate from the heart of civilian activity and uses people as a human shield. The event is currently being investigated.

The day after the Jerusalem bombing the president of the United States could not very well diplomatically avoid issuing a statement, so this is the reprehensible piece of moral equivalence he managed to come up with:
"I condemn in the strongest possible terms the bombing in Jerusalem today, as well as the rockets and mortars fired from Gaza in recent days. Together with the American people, I offer my deepest condolences for those injured or killed. There is never any possible justification for terrorism. The United States calls on the groups responsible to end these attacks at once and we underscore that Israel, like all nations, has a right to self-defense. We also express our deepest condolences for the deaths of Palestinian civilians in Gaza yesterday. We stress the importance of calm and urge all parties to do everything in their power to prevent further violence and civilian casualties."
So what am I so upset about? He did condemn the bombing didn't he? He said the minimum of what had to be said? Isn't that sufficient?

No, it is not for the following reasons:

1. He did not blame the Arabs (Palestinians) for this act of terrorism. He left it open that maybe it was just a random occurrence or maybe a Sarah Palin tea-partier or maybe somebody mad at the bus company over a billing mistake or whatever. I don't know what you call this kind of deliberate obfuscation but I call it covering up for one's pals. Bill Ayers isn't the only terrorist Obama is pals with.

2. He did not condemn Hamas for using civilians as human shield in violation of the rules of war and of all civilized humanity. This is another clear message to the Palestinians that their tactics are working and the US can be fooled (or is letting itself be fooled on purpose) into criticizing Israel for what Hams is doing wrong. This statement helps ensure that more innocent children and women will be killed in the future as Hamas continues to make fools out of Western politicians and the media.

3. If you take the last part of the statement literally you can't help notice that there is something Israel can do to prevent "further violence and civilian casualties." It could remain "calm" and refrain from defending itself even though it has the right to do so. Is that what Obama wants? Or is that how he wants his Muslim friends to interpret his words as he plays both sides of the street? Does he want Israel to just surrender? Sometimes you have to wonder what he really does want.

4. Worst of all - by far - is the way he linked the bully punching the kid in the face and the kid trying to defend himself as if they were both the exact same thing: moral equivalence. The Left is fond of this immoral idea that all violence is morally equivalent including the killing of Jews by Hitler in Auschwitz and the killing of German soldiers on D-Day. Killing is killing, they say. Jews trying to defend themselves from unprovoked attacks is no different than aggressive acts of terrorism. Israel does not kill civilians intentionally. They have no rational reason to do so. Killing civilians unintentionally when the whole world is watching and you know you will be pounced on immediately is counter-productive. But when measured self-defense is equated with deliberately decapitating a baby and knifing a family to death in their sleep, we have passed the bounds of the rational.

Let us be clear: this is a morally depraved attitude and a sign of deep corruption and blindness. It is the result of spouting lies about moral relativism for so long that one actually comes to believe them. It is the process described in Rom. 1:18-32 working out in action. Moral equivalence is immoral.

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