Untangling Popular Anti-Israel Arguments: Critical Thinking
about the Israel-Hamas War
Note to readers: See previous APOLOGIA post for Chapter 8. (Also, Table of Contents with links is listed below. Or download pdf of the whole book here.)
Note to critics: Please read the whole of my little book (including notes) before offering criticism. Thanks.
Chapter 9: Israel’s attack on Gaza is as bad (or worse) as Gaza’s
attack on Israel?
Objection: Don’t Israel’s subsequent air strikes on Gaza make Israel just as bad as or worse than Gaza and its October 7 attack?
Reply: The short answer is No.
Long answer: In moral assessment, intent matters. The intent of Gaza’s October 7th attack was to target children, old people, and other innocent civilians (instead of military personnel) for murder, rape, torture, and mutilation. The intent of Israel’s retaliatory air strikes is to target Hamas (a terrorist group that is Gaza’s leadership) and its military (which often uses Gaza’s civilians and hospitals as shields) in order to defend against and stop Gaza in its brutal aggression against Israel.
Also, Rod Dreher correctly observes:
By placing their arms caches in or near civilian buildings, Hamas has deliberately made it impossible for Israel to respond militarily without killing innocent Gaza civilians.1
We must think
carefully here. The intent of Gaza—led by Hamas—is to take out innocent Israeli
civilians whereas the intent of Israel is to take out Gazan militants who are
targeting innocent Israelis while they (Gaza’s military) hide behind innocent
Gazans. The result is that Gaza’s leadership—Hamas—has put Israel in the
foreseen-to-Hamas situation in which Israel, to protect its citizens (which it
is obliged to do, given its moral and political responsibility for the
well-being of Israelis), must attack Gaza who—knowingly—puts its (Gaza’s)
civilians in harm’s way. This means that Gaza’s leadership—Hamas—and those
Gazans who support Hamas are on a deliberate mission complete with malicious
aforethought to destroy not only Israel but also innocent Gazans. Clearly,
then, Gaza’s intentions and actions are murderous, barbaric, and evil. But
Israel’s intentions and actions—which tragically involve the unintended killing of innocent
civilians—are not murderous, barbaric, and evil, insofar as no other options
for Israeli safety are available and insofar as Gaza has ensured these options
are not available. In other words, Gaza has pushed Israel into the situation in
which innocent Gazans must be killed, and so Gaza is guilty of those moral
wrongs. As Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy points out, “For Hamas,
civilian deaths are not a tragedy, they are a strategy.”2
NOTES
1. Rod Dreher, The Mortal Danger Of ‘Yes-Buttery’, Rod Dreher's Diary, October 24, 2023.
2. Eylon Levy, Israel: ‘If Hamas surrender—the war will end tomorrow’, Sky News, December 28, 2023.
Table of Contents (links)
Chapter 1. Israel is engaging in colonial retaliation?
Chapter 2. Israel is a powerful state and thus the oppressor?
Chapter 3. Israel is not a legitimate state?
Chapter 4. Israel occupies Gaza?
Chapter 5. Gaza is like a Jewish ghetto?
Chapter 6. What about Gabor Maté?
Chapter 7. What about Gabor Maté, again?
Chapter 8. Israel targets a hospital?
Chapter 9. Israel’s attack on Gaza is as bad (or worse) as Gaza’s attack on Israel?
Chapter 10. Israel is wrong to cause Gaza to suffer?
Chapter 11. Israel is guilty of genocide?
Chapter 12. Israel’s response to Hamas is not proportional?
Chapter 13. Israel should agree to a permanent ceasefire?
Chapter 14. Israel should embrace a two-state solution?
Chapter 15. Conclusion and prayer
Appendix 1: Criticizing Islam is Islamophobic? (Part 1 of 2)
Appendix 2: Criticizing Islam is Islamophobic? (Part 2 of 2)
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