ITAI’s Special Bulletin XIII
ITAI’s Special Bulletin XIII
THE FALSEHOOD OF MORAL EQUIVALENCE
By: Joseph Puder
December 12, 2023
Some in the mainstream media and a few among the “Progressive” Democrats in the US House of Representatives believe that there is moral equivalence between Hamas gruesome murder of Israelis on October 7, 2023, and the war Israeli is waging against the Hamas terrorist in Gaza.
On the joyous Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah (October 7, 2023), thousands of incited Hamas terrorists filled with jihadist zeal destroyed the fence separating the Hamas controlled Gaza Strip enclave from the Israeli communities around Gaza. They didn’t need much encouragement from Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar to commit the most gruesome massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. The attack on Israel, was moreover, unprovoked. Hamas killers crossed the Gaza Strip into Israel, indiscriminately killing 1,200 Israelis, including entire families, raping young girls, and then shooting them, killing elderly Holocaust survivors, beheading babies, and kidnapping 240 Israelis from their homes into Gaza tunnels.
For the likes of US Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Israel retaliating in self-defense against the Hamas terrorists, by destroying Hamas hideouts in the Gaza Strip, is morally equivalent with Hamas’s merciless and deliberate butchery of innocent civilians, including babies, children, women, and the elderly.
It is clear for everyone to see that Israel has taken extraordinary care to spare the lives of innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Israel has repeatedly distributed leaflets throughout Gaza instructing civilians where to go to safe zones. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has taken these precautions in spite of the fact that by doing so it forfeits the element of surprise, and ultimately endangers its own soldiers.
Hamas leaders have vowed to have many more massacres like the one they committed on October 7th, and its charter is unmistakable about its intent to eradicate the Jewish state. For Hamas, jihad is not a personal matter but rather a religious obligation to destroy the Jewish presence in what they claim are lands belonging to Islam (not necessarily to Palestinians) or in Arabic “Dar al-Islam” (The domain of Islam).
After butchering 1,200 Israelis, wounding close to 6,000, and kidnapping 240 more, the Hamas operatives have used Palestinian civilians and Israeli hostages as human shields. At gunpoint Hamas has prevented many Gaza Palestinians from reaching safe zones, which necessitated Israeli troops escorting them to safety.
The Hamas Health Authorities have claimed 17,000 Palestinians have died under Israeli bombardment. Yet no legitimate neutral source has verified the true number of civilian casualties. And the same Hamas authorities have failed to separate Hamas combatant deaths from civilian casualties, or civilian deaths due to numerous Hamas rockets landing on Gazans . One can safely bet that Hamas deliberately inflates the number of civilian casualties to garner sympathy in the West and prompt the UN, the western powers, and the Biden administration in particular, to push for a cease fire which will prevent Israel from eliminating the Hamas existential menace. Hamas is fully aware that a ceasefire imposed on Israel would mean survival and victory for Hamas and a shameful defeat for Israel. Arab states such as Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia, wish deep down for Israel to eradicate Hamas and for a more moderate regime to be installed in Gaza.
Israeli and Jewish culture heavily values life while the Hamas jihadist doctrine emphasizes value in a purposeful death, and it is for this reason that Israelis mourn and regret the death of Palestinian civilians. Hamas alone, however, is responsible for the death of untold innocent Palestinians. Hamas continues using them as shields knowing that many will die despite IDF efforts to avoid them. Hamas keeps Palestinian families against their will, wishing their death as effective propaganda. Similarly, Hamas is stealing the food and fuel supplies that enter Gaza as humanitarian aid from the US, other western countries, and Arab Gulf states.
Any normal thinking person not prejudiced by antisemitism, wokeness, or willful ignorance, can see evil in the actions of Hamas. Palestinians under Hamas are not a free people. There is no moral relativity between the inhumane Hamas killers who proudly refuse peace or accommodation with Israel and Israel’s actions that are intended to eradicate the bloodthirsty terrorists who repeatedly murder Israelis. There is no moral equivalency between the actions of Hamas and the reaction of Israel.