Re: Cease-fire

An attempt to pry apart the anti-Semitic from pro-Palestinian rhetoric can be difficult. Recently, as seen across Europe, the two tend to both overlap and intensify mutually. Condemning Israel’s various policies is not a direct act of anti-Semitism, though opposing Israeli military action against Hamas in Gaza is sympathizing with a deeply anti-Semitic, jihadist group that is bent on destroying the Jewish state. To condemn Israel is to side with the aggressor; brutes who barricade human progress, oppress their women, who value death as we value life, and who teach their children to hate and to kill. To acknowledge the legitimacy of Hamas is to reconcile oneself to anti-Semitism and to bigotry.

Hamas is a gross stain on the land, a posse of bigots and fanatics who carry out violence against their Jewish neighbors to demonstrate their allegiance to their self-proclaimed “righteous” god. But no god who teaches hate is just. Hamas has given Israel no other option but to fight. There reaches a point where the end strategically justifies the means. That point in action has been reached. When all attempts at extending peace fail, regardless of the severity of the outside threat being posed, a sovereign state has the obligation and the right to protect its own people by way of harsh military force. The time for appeasement is over.

Michael Levy
Hamilton College, N.Y.
Warwick, R.I.