Cross-posted at Casey's Critical Thinking
Japanese bestselling author Haruki Murakami recently went to Israel to accept an award. In the true words of a genius, he said, “If there is a hard, high wall and an egg that breaks against it, no matter how right the wall or how wrong the egg, I will stand on the side of the egg.” The Jerusalem Post had to clarify the comments for its readers placing the explanation “Israel is not the egg” at the top of the article.
Yes, the Japanese author was referring to Palestine as the egg. The problem is that it’s not Israel versus Palestine. It’s Israel versus the entire Arab world. How Israel can be described as the wall is beyond me. Furthermore, let’s go ahead and forget about the rest of the Arab world and pretend that the only players in the conflict are Israel and Palestine. Hamas sends rockets into Israel on a daily basis. These rockets target Israeli civilians. Are the Israelis really expected to live like that? I think President Obama put it nicely when he said, “If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I’m going to [sic] do everything in my power to stop that. I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.”
Hamas is deliberately targeting civilians with these rockets. Despite this utterly despicable behavior, Murakami is going to side with the “egg?” He’s going to side with the perpetrators of reprehensible acts because they are the “little guy?” How morally blinded can you get? Will he choose the side of justice if Israel should one day become the weaker of the two after years of terrorism and proxy wars with Iran and Syria? Does he really have to wait until then to condemn terrorism?
It was the Palestinian people that elected Hamas. Hamas terrorists hide themselves among the civilian population to increase casualties. Is Israel supposed to refrain from retaliating because the terrorists use women and children as shields? That’s an easy thing to suggest, but as Obama pointed out, if you’re in that situation, you’re going to do everything in your power to stop the terrorism and protect your nation.
The violence can end overnight. All that has to take place is for the Palestinians to quit engaging in terrorism against Israel. Israel does not engage in unprovoked attacks. Every military action by Israel is a reaction. If the violence on the Palestinian side were to stop, the conflict would be over just like that. They could then begin negotiations on a peaceful two-state solution. That’s going to be quite hard, though, since Hamas refuses to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist.
