A story about water got me thinking today. Authorities in Gaza are telling residents to boil their water before using it to drink or cook. Why? The ongoing Israeli blockade has caused a shortage of the chlorine needed to treat municipal water supplies.
The story got me thinking about a question. At what price can I protect myself?
Take my house for instance. How far can I go to protect it? I can generally defend it from intruders, but can I go further? Say one of my children is killed by my neighbor’s child. Can I kill my neighbor’s child who committed the murder? Can I kill my neighbor’s other children in case the same murderous tendencies also lie latent in them? Can I kill my neighbor’s entire family? After all, they were harboring a murderer. Of course not. It’s absurd, right?
I understand the desire of Israelis not to be shot, bombed, or rocketed to death by militants from Gaza. I support it. But Tel Aviv’s fascination with collectively punishing Palestinians as a whole for the acts of a few is indefensible.
I think rational people can come together to condemn terrorists. But can’t we also come together to condemn a state that so wantonly disregards the lives of civilians in its quest to combat those terrorists? Terrorists detonate themselves in nightclubs and markets and fire rockets across borders into schools and homes. In response, Israel drops massive bombs into overcrowded residential buildings located in overcrowded neighborhoods because they think one terrorist is living amongst the hundreds of civilians. Which is more reprehensible? Which is more just?
Israel should be able to live in peace. But if they sacrifice their humanity to achieve that peace then it won’t be worth living in. Sometimes even states have to take the route espoused by Dr. King and so many others both before and after him. Sometimes you have to turn the other cheek to make sure that the cause you’re fighting for is still the right one.
