(Originally published in The Times of Israel)
To all the folks who near-constantly ask me what I think of Israel’s conduct in Gaza, or constantly post about how Israel is unnecessarily killing “innocent civilians” in Gaza, or constantly ask why is Israel “punishing Gazans” for what “Hamas is doing:”
Now that Jews have again been targeted in Washington, D.C., with two beautiful young people murdered, I ask where are you? I have not heard or seen you. Not one word. Not one post. Not one question. Silence.
Three times in the last 10 days I was asked how do I feel about, or how can I approve, or why don’t I and my fellow Israeli citizens do something about the alleged “starvation” of Gazans.
None of the people asking the question mentioned the hostages or Hamas, who started the war, who explicitly adopted a strategy of embedding within and below civilians to produce as many Palestinian deaths as possible, and who continue the war by refusing to release the hostages and disarm. The only issue apparently on the mind of these folks is why Israel was intentionally starving “innocent” Gazans.
My response: Of course, I hate to see people, particularly children, suffering, but I think the question, along with much of the thinking of much of the Western World, betrays a moral system that is upside down at best.
When the Allies bombed the hell out of Dresden and much of the rest of Germany, did the world ask Americans how they felt about burning much of Germany to the ground, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians, and blowing innocent kids to smithereens?
When the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, did anyone ask Americans how they felt about incinerating hundreds of thousands of innocent kids, women, and men, young and old, and causing generations of deformed babies?
When the Allies fought the Axis powers, did the Allies supply food and other materials to the Germans and Italians during the middle of the war? Did the Americans allow food and supplies to reach Japan during the war? Did anyone expect them to or ask why they did not do so?
One could ask the same questions about any number of wars: Iran-Iraq; Pakistan-India; the French and all their dirty little wars in Africa; and on and on.
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