“One of the men grabbed my father by the shoulder and spit in his face. They tore his World War I medals from his shirt and stomped them into the ground. They started beating my father. Furniture started flying through the windows. My mother was screaming: ‘Let’s get out of here. They are killing us.’ We slipped out a back street, hoping the men would be finished soon and we could go back home.” Alex Liebenstein Kristallnacht survivor. (Jewish Weekly.com 12 November 2004)
Nov 9, 2023·edited Nov 10, 2023Liked by Steven Dundas
In a sense (improbable as it seems), Hamas is holding Gaza hostage. The innocent victims are often the general population of those who have remained or were born in Gaza.
Hamas justifies sacrificing the lives of Palestinians whose only crime is being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This calculated and heartless gambit largely depends on a wholesale condemnation of Jews and the establishment of Israel. The Jewish State provides guarantees of religious tolerance which are written into the Israeli system of law.
The question remains, does the state of Israel have a right to exist? If you deny Israel the right to protect its citizens and borders, then you have a justification for blaming them for the cruel calculus that that results
loss of innocent lives. But you are wrong in expecting a sovereign nation to accept such a flagrant violation of international law and human rights.
Gazans needs protection from the hostile forces that are destroying it from within. And lsrael needs the support of law abiding people who respect the value of all human beings, no matter what their religious or political beliefs.
I think maybe a slight pause might be considered in your analysis to briefly consider how very little any of the history of Gaza has to do with the murder of the many people who hadn't done a single thing to deserve death, but who are now dead nonetheless. Aren't they hostages as well? It's not true, btw, that the Jews in Warsaw hadn't at least tried to attack the Germans (and rightly so). The only parallel I would draw now is the gross and unmistakable similarity between the liquidation of two ghettos. "Justifiable" mass murder is likely going to be the end of the human species.
The invasion of Gaza may have been justified, but that doesn’t make it right. For one thing, collective punishment is also a war crime. The asymmetry of the response seems to venture into this territory. I’m not saying they’re analogous, but the entire situation in Gaza seems to me to bear some unexpected similarities to the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto. War is a terrible response to terrorism. It’s using a sledge hammer to cut out a tumor.
In a sense (improbable as it seems), Hamas is holding Gaza hostage. The innocent victims are often the general population of those who have remained or were born in Gaza.
Hamas justifies sacrificing the lives of Palestinians whose only crime is being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This calculated and heartless gambit largely depends on a wholesale condemnation of Jews and the establishment of Israel. The Jewish State provides guarantees of religious tolerance which are written into the Israeli system of law.
The question remains, does the state of Israel have a right to exist? If you deny Israel the right to protect its citizens and borders, then you have a justification for blaming them for the cruel calculus that that results
loss of innocent lives. But you are wrong in expecting a sovereign nation to accept such a flagrant violation of international law and human rights.
Gazans needs protection from the hostile forces that are destroying it from within. And lsrael needs the support of law abiding people who respect the value of all human beings, no matter what their religious or political beliefs.
I refer you and your readers to an valuable online resource: TIKVA Online Academy.
This free course is designed for high school students, and is open to those seek
to understand Jewish values and history in a time of War, Highly recommended.
I think maybe a slight pause might be considered in your analysis to briefly consider how very little any of the history of Gaza has to do with the murder of the many people who hadn't done a single thing to deserve death, but who are now dead nonetheless. Aren't they hostages as well? It's not true, btw, that the Jews in Warsaw hadn't at least tried to attack the Germans (and rightly so). The only parallel I would draw now is the gross and unmistakable similarity between the liquidation of two ghettos. "Justifiable" mass murder is likely going to be the end of the human species.
The invasion of Gaza may have been justified, but that doesn’t make it right. For one thing, collective punishment is also a war crime. The asymmetry of the response seems to venture into this territory. I’m not saying they’re analogous, but the entire situation in Gaza seems to me to bear some unexpected similarities to the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto. War is a terrible response to terrorism. It’s using a sledge hammer to cut out a tumor.