DREAM / The Prime Minister resigns and wakes up under the Parisian bridge!

 Kliko këtu për të tjera
Voxpress:

We must not kill children of Gaza in an effort to protect children of Israel

2023-10-23 16:16:43Pikëpamje SHKRUAR NGA NICHOLAS KRISTOF
We must not kill children of Gaza in an effort to protect children of Israel
We must not kill children of Gaza in an effort to protect children of Israel

Reject the hierarchy of humanity

The crisis in the Middle East is a tangled knot and a test of our humanity. It asks us how we can respond to a terrible provocation for which there is no good remedy. And in this test, we in the West are not doing well.

Acknowledging the large-scale bombing of Gaza and a ground invasion likely to begin soon suggests that Palestinian children are less victims, devalued by their association with Hamas and the organization's history of terrorism. Consider the fact that more than 1,500 Gazan children have been killed, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, and about a third of all homes there have been destroyed or damaged in just two weeks — and that's just the beginning of what's to come. a much bloodier land invasion.

I flew to Tel Aviv, a very beautiful and sunny city where graffiti on the streets reads "Destroy Hamas." Israel has been shaken by Hamas terrorism and kidnappings, an attack that feels like an existential threat and that explains the determination to dismantle Hamas, whatever the cost. This anxiety is felt in Tel Aviv, despite the fact that the city feels peaceful, while in Gaza a closed circle of hell is likely to get worse.

The United States talks a lot about principles, but I fear that President Biden has embodied a hierarchy of human life in official American politics. He expressed outrage at the massacre of Jews by Hamas, as he should have done, but has struggled to be so clear about his assessment of the lives of the people of Gaza. And it's not always clear whether he's taking a stand on Israel as a country or its failed prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who is a longtime obstacle to peace.

What are we to think of the Biden administration's call for an additional $14 billion in aid to Israel while simultaneously calling for humanitarian aid to Gaza? Defensive weapon for Israel's Iron Dome system is something that makes sense, but in practice, isn't that what we're doing a favor to pay humanitarians to clean up the blood partly caused by our weapons?

What will we be able to say to dr. Iyad Abu Karsh, a doctor in Gaza who lost his wife and child in a bombing and then had to treat his injured two-year-old daughter? He did not have time to take care of his niece or sister because he had to deal with the bodies of his family members.

"I don't have time to talk now," he told a Times colleague, his voice shaking. "I have to go bury them."

In a speech Thursday, Biden called for America to stand firm in support of Ukraine and Israel, two countries under attack from forces bent on destroying them. This is very good. But imagine if Ukraine responded to Russia's war crimes by laying siege to a Russian city, bombing it to dust, and cutting off water and electricity while killing thousands and forcing doctors to operate on patients without anesthesia.

I have my doubts that in such a case, the Americans would frown and say: Putin started it. Too bad for the Russian children, they should have chosen to be born somewhere else.

Here in Israel, because Hamas's attacks were so brutal and consistent with a history of pogroms and the Holocaust, they prompted a determination to destroy Hamas, regardless of the enormous human cost. "Gaza will become a place where no human being can exist," declared Giora Eiland, former head of Israel's National Security Council. "There is no other option for guaranteeing the security of the State of Israel."

I think this idea reflects a practical and moral miscalculation. While we would all love to see the end of Hamas, it does not seem possible to eliminate radicalism in Gaza, and it is likely that a ground invasion will feed extremism, rather than destroy it, and come at an unbearable cost. in human life.

In particular I want to challenge the suggestion, more often implied than stated, that the lives of Gazans have less value because many Palestinians sympathize with Hamas. People don't lose their right to life just because they have weird thoughts, and in any case, almost half of Gazans are children. These Gazan children, including infants, are among two million people enduring siege and collective punishment.

Israel has suffered a terrible terrorist attack and deserves the world's sympathy and support, but this should not translate into a carte blanche to massacre civilians, or stop the supply of food, water and medicine to them. Kudos to Biden for trying to negotiate some humanitarian access to Gaza, but the challenge is not just getting aid there, but distributing it where it's needed.

A prolonged ground attack seems particularly dangerous to me, likely to result in the killing of large numbers of Israeli soldiers, hostages and, in particular, Gazan civilians. We are better than this and Israel is better than this. The leveling of cities is what the Syrian government did in Aleppo or Russia in Grozny; something like this should not be allowed to be done by Israel in Gaza, with American support.

The best answer to this test is to try, even before provocations, to stick to our values. This means that regardless of our biases, we strive to preserve all lives as having equal value. If your ethic sees some children as priceless and others as expendable, this is not moral clarity, but moral myopia. We must not kill the children of Gaza in order to protect the children of Israel. / The New York Times


Në përputhje me standarded JTI

Tirana e Re

 Read
Monika Stafa / 2023-10-21 18:49:33Point of Views

Video

SHIKO KANALIN NE YOUTUBE
×