Israel’s Tarnished Moral Calculus
We used to shoot and cry, as the old Si Heyman song says. Now we kill and justify. Hamas is out to kill Israelis, but when did we lose our interest in minimizing brutal tactics?
By Don Futterman | Jul. 29, 2014 | 3:44 PM
I watched the first 18 days of our latest nightmarish war from Down Under, on the other side of the world.
Free of the albatross of moral one-upmanship and PR positioning, Australians responded like decent, thinking and feeling people: No one should have their children kidnapped or killed; no civilians should have to endure rocket attacks, and no government would be expected to stand idly by; and no army should massacre whole families or scores of bystanders in efforts to kill individual operatives.
Aussie television had reporters stationed both in Gaza and Jerusalem, and with the nightly images of dead and maimed children and their dismembered families, public sentiment began to shift. The pendulum swung from overwhelming Australian support for Israel to revulsion over the carnage in Gaza.
My first concern while I was away naturally was for my children, my family and friends back in Israel under attack. I am humbled by the courage of those on the front lines, by the tributes to every fallen soldier, by the tens of thousands who showed up for funerals of strangers. And I took l pride in how calmly and responsibly my own kids behaved, assuring us that we need not rush home.
Just as the Gaza death toll reached 300, a Malaysian airliner on its way to Australia was shot out of the sky. For a weird and disconcerting moment, there were competing stories, each featuring 300 dead people.
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