Re: “The moral question

In response to The moral question, published October, 28, 2009.

Andrew Tod’s comment piece (Oct. 28 issue, page 9) that accuses Israel of committing war crimes in its military operation against Hamas logically does not make sense.

He uses death-toll numbers from both sides to make an argument against Israel’s actions, but numbers don’t indicate morality.  Intentions, on the other hand, do, and it is Hamas that intends to deliberately murder innocent civilians, not the Israeli military.

Tod also gets it wrong when he says that although Israel has a right to defend itself, it must respect international law. Did it ever occur to him that international law impedes a nation’s right to defend itself? Going by Tod’s logic, if we were simply to use death-toll numbers to justify such a law, the United States would not have been able to conduct its bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki because many more Japanese civilians died in those bombings than did American soldiers during the Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbour, and thus an international body would have numerical evidence to determine the American bombings as war crimes.

Had the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki not taken place, many more Japanese civilians and American soldiers would have died, and World War II would have likely dragged on.

Tod should also remember that the institutions that enact international law, such as the United Nations, carry an anti-Israeli bias. Thus, there is no credibility to international law if an organization that favours one side is drafting the policy, which is why death-toll numbers are being used to justify the accusation of “war crimes”; the numbers can be used to make Israel look bad.

It is bias, not reality, that is driving leftists like Tod to jump to conclusions and paint Israel as the bad guy. If Israel’s actions appear cruel, it is only because it is acting in the most logical way possible to protect its citizens because it is impossible to negotiate with murderous organizations like Hamas that reject compromise. Logic does not always allow for milk-and-honey solutions.

– Zach Samborski

Published in Volume 64, Number 10 of The Uniter (November 5, 2009)