When a Great Evil Rears Its Ugly Head, It’s Time for the Good To Get Moving

by David Shavin

[Print version of this editorial]

Nov. 12—Israel’s claim that Gaza civilians are to blame for sheltering Hamas terrorists and, therefore, are legitimate war targets, has come to the fore over the last 48 hours, with the direct assaults upon Gaza’s hospitals. Among other things, these systematic attacks and accompanying justifications properly bring into question the previous “accidental” bombings (e.g., the Al-Ahli Hospital, the 6th century Greek Orthodox church compound), where the excuse was offered that the Palestinians misfired, hitting their own people. The Israeli policy of the Netanyahu gang, it turns out, always had a policy of targeting such sites. What level of evil is upon us?

For weeks, refugees by the tens of thousands in Gaza have sought shelter at hospitals, churches, and monasteries, perhaps thinking that no one would bomb or shoot at such facilities. (There are an estimated 20,000 such people seeking refuge at the Al-Shifa Hospital compound.) The notorious 100 Israeli doctors who called for the bombing of Palestinian hospitals contend that such refugees deserve what they get for assuming that Israel will abide by such “Western morality.” Their statement contends that Hamas “built terrorist headquarters inside the hospitals with the understanding that no harm would come to them.” And Palestinians allowed “terrorist nests” to be set up inside medical facilities, “taking advantage of Western morality.” So, “any place where its people hide and/or is used for terrorist activity is a legitimate target for destruction—even if it houses patients.”

First, even this contention—that, if someone from Hamas is amongst the innocents, everyone can be fired upon—while evil, is not honest. In fact, anyone who ends up dead in Gaza may be said, after the fact, to have been either Hamas or someone who allowed a Hamas individual to come near them. Hence, the cynical, or actually Satanic, view: “Shoot them all and let God sort them out.”

Pretty evil, but what of the scathing cynicism, or actually Satanism, embedded in the “taking advantage of Western morality” comment? Clearly, this Netanyahu gang doesn’t buy into that outmoded “Western morality” stuff anymore. This type of evil has been seen before. How is this different from Friedrich Nietzsche’s “Beyond Good and Evil” ideology, the casting off of that outmoded Judeo-Christian morality for the celebrated “free will” of the superman, the Übermensch? Has a “Nazi” mentality temporarily taken over Israel? It cannot be denied, but there needn’t be quibbling over the name. A Nazi by any other name is still a Nazi. The question on the table is whether the heart of Western morality is still beating.

The resolution of today’s Arab-Islamic Summit in Riyadh calls for the UN Security Council and the United States to end the mass killings. Up to now, both bodies have not been up to the task, gambling that all of Gaza’s neighbors will contain their outrage. Yesterday, France’s President Macron became a rare Western leader to allow himself—at least for a day—to voice his horror over such mass killing of children, women, and the elderly. There’s rising dissension amongst U.S. State Department officials and Capitol Hill staffers over those killings. At least 300,000 people came out to demonstrate in London today for an immediate ceasefire (over Prime Minister Sunak’s objection that it was bad taste to call for an end to the fighting on Armistice Day, when the bloody fighting of World War I finally ended!).

There’s little doubt the world is at an impasse and that there is social turmoil. There’s little doubt that Israelis and Palestinians can both benefit from the scientific and economically feasible greening of the desert, beginning with nuclear energy, massive water desalination and large-scale irrigation. What is in doubt is whether, as Friedrich Schiller put it, a great moment in history has found a little people. Yes, there is great evil, an almost unimaginable evil afoot; but there is no need to freeze up like a deer before a car’s headlights.

Read, sign and circulate the petition, “Implementing a Global Approach To Ending the Cycle of Violence in Southwest Asia” and master the Oasis Plan so that we acquire the grounded optimism necessary for ending the cycle of violence.