I am Afraid

Netanya, Israel


I am afraid for our future. Not just the future of Israel, a country that I love deeply despite its flaws. I am afraid as well for my country, the United States. I am afraid for western civilization, despite its flaws.

Why am I afraid? I’m afraid because we have decided that our survival is not all that important. We decide that when we can no longer recognize evil… when calling someone, some group or some act “evil” is politically incorrect, even if it is true. We decide that when we care more about the humiliation of some prisoners of war than we do about protecting our troops. We decide that when we can no longer recognize the liars and the deceivers. We decide that when we don’t recognize who is at fault for the deaths of the civilians in southern Lebanon.

I have been criticized by more than a few of my more liberal friends and family for using “labels” to characterize certain behaviors and sentiments. That is just silly… A “word” is a “label” that we use to describe something. Rather than describing a particular object as, for example: “A man-made artifact made from four dowels inserted into four holes in a round flat piece of wood”, we use the “label”, “stool”. This is language.

Is it possible that nuance is lost when labeling something? Certainly… But, just as a picture is worth a thousand words, so is this “label”.

“Evil” might mean many things to many people, but few would argue that the word “Evil” did not apply to Hitler and his henchmen. We don’t have to absorb the nuances of his troubled youth or the economic decay of the Weimar Republic, although the study of those things may shed light on our history. Rather, we can use the shorthand and effectively communicate our thoughts by describing him as “Evil”… People will “get it”.

Why then are we so afraid to characterize certain contemporary political players as “Evil”? I believe it is because we no longer accept an absolute moral compass. Anything and everything is subject to interpretation and discussion. Everything and anything may only be examined “subjectively”. Moral relativism has won out over a pervasive cultural recognition of the moral absolute….

The history of this decay is too long and complex to include in this essay, but suffice it to say that the rise of moral relativism has been sharpest in the second half of the 20th century. Everything is up for grabs. The old standards of morality: marriage, fidelity, family, love of country, love of one’s people, have been attacked vigorously. We no longer look to a definitive source to determine right from wrong, as was standard practice a hundred years ago. Any popular author can hold up their own standard and claim equal validity.

This relativistic view of right and wrong, good and evil, has now blinded us to the true dangers that our civilization, our country and our cultures face from the Islamic/Arab world. We are facing an implacable enemy who, as surely as they seek the destruction of the “Little Satan”, Israel and the death of its Jewish population, also seek the destruction of the “Great Satan”, the US and the destruction of our culture. As a result, we have mass confusion in the world press and governmental and popular opinion about both the causes and the realities of the recent conflict. Most notably, we see this in the current war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Israel is condemned by the world and its press for “crimes against humanity”, “war crimes”, and disproportionality in carrying out its mission of disabling Hezbollah. We know the reality on the ground… Even the BBC and CNN, which have consistently, now and in the past, viewed any conflict involving Israel with a lens focused against Israel, have reported that Hezbollah has hidden itself and its rocket launchers in civilian populated areas. We know that Hezbollah fires its rockets from these civilian centers to civilian (and not military) targets within Israel. And we know that Hezbollah knows with certainty that Israel will fire back to the source of the rocket launches. Even a precision missile fired by expert Israeli fighters will cause extensive damage in the immediate area around the target. If one or more rockets remain on the launcher when it is hit, these missiles will add to the destruction in that area. Within this scenario, how can civilian casualties possibly be avoided? They can not.

Why then does Hezbollah hide amidst the Lebanese civilians knowing that Israel’s response will likely kill innocents? Hezbollah knows that the deaths of civilians, especially the deaths of children will bring about moral outrage from the world, exactly as has happened. As a result of the “martyrdom” of the civilians killed in Qana, Hezbollah has benefited from a huge upwelling of support both within Lebanon and around the world. Significantly increased pressure has been exerted on Israel for an immediate ceasefire. The calculus? Hezbollah achieves two goals every time it fires its rockets from a populated area. One, it creates terror in the north of Israel where its Katyushas land and two, it provokes an Israeli military response which has a higher likelihood of harming innocents, increasing Hezbollah’s stature.

We now come back to the question of “evil”. Do we consider the purposeful taking of non-combatant human life “Evil”? If international law reflects this moral value, then the answer is “Yes”. Who is guilty of this?

Israel is accused of genocide in Lebanon, as a result of its bombing of targets proximate to civilians. At last count, 500 Lebanese “civilians” have died. Meanwhile in Israel, “only” 40 civilians have been killed from rocket attacks by the Hezbollah. On the surface, it looks like Israel is the “evil” one… It has used its superior firepower and expertise and far more civilians have been killed in Lebanon than in Israel. This is what the press plays to… This is what the UN declares… This is what much of the world believes. Israel is the “evil” doer and Hezbollah are freedom fighters. Correct? Not….

But as any honest appraisal of these last three weeks reveals:

• Hezbollah started this conflict with its kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers
• Hezbollah then ambushed the Israeli rescue attempt, killing more Israelis
• Hezbollah then, began firing missiles into sovereign Israeli territory, specifically into civilian populated areas, cities, towns, etc.
• Israel responded to this attack as any country would and should… It attacked back, seeking to destroy the terrorists, their delivery systems, and the infrastructure within Lebanon (airports, bridges, roads, etc.) that enabled the Hezbollah attacks on Israel.
• Hezbollah used heavily populated cities and villages as launching sites and bases to ensure that any Israeli response would cause maximum damage to civilians
• While by any account 500 civilian deaths is a tragic, had Israel desired to cause civilian deaths, it certainly could have cause one hundred times that number by intentionally targeting civilian sites. It did not. In fact, the Israeli Air Force devotes a tremendous amount of resource to identify its targets as cleanly as possible.

In addition, rather than using an all out military campaign against the villages that supported and hid the Hezbollah fighters on the Israeli/Lebanon border, the IDF chose to use surgical strikes, at a much higher cost in terms of its own casualties. This was done to avoid civilian casualties.


So… Israel instructs its army and air force to act with extreme care, even at a cost to itself, while Hezbollah seeks to maximize civilian casualties on both sides to further its political agenda.

How many times will the world stay idle as the victim is called the evil-doer by the perpetrator, while the perpetrator commits evil. Iran’s leadership, the puppet-masters behind Hezbollah are the most recent deniers of the Holocaust who are now calling for and who would, if they could, create a new Holocaust..

They are the ones that call for a second Holocaust while denying the first. They call clearly for the extermination of the Jews, for finishing up the job Hitler could not finish. But that does not seem alarming to anyone. This indifference, this deaf ear is very alarming. When Iran declares war against the western, whether directly or through their puppet, Hezbollah, the world must take it seriously. And while we go around figuring out our politically correct response, they go about figuring out the next step in getting nuclear weapons to perpetrate their aim. If Israel takes this threat seriously, Israel cannot and should not be blamed but applauded. We must blame all those who erroneously blame the vicitims of racial hate and turn deaf to the calls for extermination of the Jews. We must blame those who call the victims criminals and the criminals victims.

We must identify these people for what they are… Evil.