Thoughts and intentions are not actions, and frankly, equivocating the two is dangerous reasoning indeed. In any case, reports indicate support for Hezbollah growing, since Lebanese, for some strange reason, dont appreciate having their homes, and airports, and streets, and bridges, blown up. How shocking! Even more shocking: they dont like to see their families killed and their children orphaned. This is a case of Israel trying to cure the disease by killing the patient. This is a case of killing everybody and hoping there is a God to sort them out.
And the worse is that all this suffering is going on but Israel keeps up its onslaught. Just as bad is that the international community is fiddling while an entire country is systematically destroyed, and Israel interprets the lack of consensus on what to do about it as tacit approval to go on. Unbelievable.
Two Sides, Same Coin
The Middle East conflict is really the same kind of conflict over land, resources and religion as all the other wars that litter history. It shares the sickness that sees the moral distinction between opposing sides disappear. After all, how is intentionally bombing a target knowing that there will be inevitably be civilian casualties any different than sending a suicide bomber into a café? It isnt. Both are situations in which innocent lives are deliberately sacrificed to achieve a specific objective. And I dont want to hear that bit about terrorists hiding behind human shields. Yes, its cowardly, but isnt it just as morally cowardly to sacrifice the human shield just to kill the terrorist?
Oh, I can hear it now. Cue the choruses of were not like them. Some say the Zionist occupiers are responsible for it all. So we should condemn Israel and support the Palestinians and Hezbollah. Or vice-versa: support Israel. Hezbollah and the Palestinians, theyre terrorists. (Shh. Dont call them militants, a word that means engaged in combat and working aggressively for a cause. You might give the impression that they have a legitimate grievance behind their immoral tactics, and Israel wouldnt want that.) No one likes it when the same moral standard the preservation of life is applied consistently. But tell me this: if two warring sides differ not in actions but only in intentions, how much of a difference is there, really, between the two? Were back to the Boltons/Olmerts and Hezbollahs of the world again, each side proclaiming its innocents as more innocent and more important than the other. I say: a pox on them both. I refuse to take sides and support the kind of corrupt moral reasoning that has infected humanity throughout history the kind that sees violence as a legitimate means to resolve differences.
But, of course, all of this has been said before. It all goes unheard or dismissed particularly by people whose own families arent a bombs collateral damage, who arent themselves fighting, who arent themselves in any real danger. (read: U.S. politicians, but I can think of others.) Its easy for them to reduce the choice to war, or surrender and death. Never mind that there are many options in between, that force need not be violent to be effective. It has to be war, war, war. Never mind that winning doesnt necessarily guarantee a lasting peace. Winning World War I set up the conditions for World War II. Israel won the 1967 war, but its still paying the price. And so on. Losers, unless entirely slaughtered, tend to hold grudges that simmer and eventually boil.
War Renders Everything Meaningless
The tragedy is that all those endeavors we hold so precious have proven quite useless in making humanity more benevolent and enlightened today than in the past. Art? We have art coming out our ears, pointing out the horrors we inflict on each other. None of it makes a difference. People keep fighting.
Religion? The overwhelming majority of people both today and throughout history are religious. As far as I know, just about all religions have a beef with murder and death. But not only has religiosity failed to prevent wars, at times it even encourages them. Another failure.
The biggest failure, however, has been faith in governments and leaders, the ones who start and carry out all these wars. We have only ourselves to blame for supporting them.
Entire families killed. Children watching their families die in agony. People hunkering down in bunkers out of terror. The grim, horrifying reports keep coming in. It all boils down to this: we need to act toward peace by breaking out of the mentality that sees war as justified. If we dont, nothing that humanity does will ever mean much of anything.
