Terrorism, the Middle East, and Moral Clarity

We again need to wade through the lies and misinformation:

Whenever there are discussions about how Israel might deal with the reality of being surrounded on all sides by those who seek its complete destruction, much mental and moral confusion arises. The most recent episode involved an incredible cyber-attack that took place in Lebanon this past week.

Thousands of pagers which Hezbollah terrorists were carrying exploded, killing some and wounding many more. And then walkie talkies also went off a few days later with similar results. Each one was laced with a very small amount of explosives.

These moves will obviously greatly interfere with the command and communication structure of the Iran-backed terrorist organisation – at least for a while. It happened because around a half a year ago the terrorists were told by their leaders not to communicate by mobile phones. That is why they turned to these other communication devices.

All up this was a remarkable and sophisticated feat on the part of the Israelis – a very targeted and precise attack on terrorists designed to minimize civilian casualties. Hezbollah on the other hand deliberately goes out of its way to target innocent civilians – men, women and children. So there is no moral equivalence here.

Yet all the usual suspects – including some folks who should know better – have come out once again condemning all this, saying it was quite wrong, in part because a small number of civilians were injured or killed. But some critical thinking is needed here.

Lebanon of course has been under the thumb of terrorist tyranny for decades now, and Israelis have been forced to live with rockets raining down upon them for far too long. Along with Hamas in Gaza, and so many other groups vowing to destroy the nation of Israel, this very small country is in a very difficult place. As such, some key truths need to be kept in mind here:

-Israel has a right to exist, just like every other nation, and it also has the right to defend itself.
-When the sworn enemies of Israel have clearly stated their intention to drive every last Jew into the sea, then we must face up to this reality.
-This could be seen as a pre-emptive strike, although with Hezbollah being at war with Israel for many years now, this was just another move by Israel to defend itself against those bent on wiping it off the map.
-This pinpoint cyber-attack was a model of specific and proportionate targeting.
-Sadly, some collateral damage will almost always occur whenever there is the use of force against others.

Noncombatants and the use of force

Let me speak to that last point a bit further. Just as nations have a right to protect their borders and ward off enemies by the use of force, so too internally, police and other groups are necessary to maintain order and reduce criminality – again, with the use of force.

And the use of force is not identical to violence. When a parent roughly pulls a toddler’s hand away from an open flame, he is not being violent but he is exerting some force to prevent a much worse outcome for the child. To use biblical language, in a fallen world there will always be the need to use force, whether by armies, police, or parents.

In an ideal world all innocent civilians would never be harmed as various authorities seek to deter crime and criminals, attacks and enemies. But some collateral damage will occur. The aim is to minimise it as much as possible. As mentioned, Israel seeks to do this as much as possible, while its enemies do just the opposite: they intentionally seek to harm and kill innocent civilians.

They even do this with their own people, as in Hamas setting up their operation in schools, hospitals and so on, and using women and children as human shields. One side works overtime to avoid and minimise casualties of innocents, while the other side relishes it, and enjoys the PR value it can get out of showing images of bloodied civilians.

But let’s explore this needed use of force in a bit more detail. While folks will always denounce Israel if any child ever dies or is injured in one of their surgical strikes, or in an operation as precisely targeted and carefully limited as the pager attacks, what are they demanding? That no innocents should ever be harmed in any situation?

As I said, any authority, be they parent or police or court or army or government will need to use force on various occasions, and usually some innocent parties might be impacted by this. That is always regrettable, but what is the alternative? Should parenting be made illegal because sometimes a child is harmed or injured, often unintentionally?

Should we never have the police pursuing felons in stolen vehicles or hit run drivers fleeing an accident, for fear of causing injury to some innocent bystanders? We know this often happens. A high speed chase may result in the chased criminal ramming into an innocent driver.

Yes, when the situation seems too dangerous, and too many innocents seem to be in harm’s way, the police might call off some such chases. They will allow the criminal to get away, so as not to risk injuring others. But even when it seems more or less safe to pursue the bad guys, sometimes good guys will be harmed in the process.

And of course on a bigger scale, when nations go to war to stop tyranny and great evil, as in the defensive WWII, some civilian casualties will occur. Generally speaking, the Allies sought to minimise this where possible. It did not always work out that way, and some particular military actions can be critiqued. But again, there is no moral equivalence between the Allies and the Germans and Japanese in this regard.

The point is, there will never be perfect use of force in an imperfect world. But no rational person is saying we should do away with all uses of force because sometimes an innocent party might be adversely affected by it. So those who insist on holding Israel up to some impossible standard of perfection need to cease and desist. Either that, or they should apply the same unreachable standards to Israel’s enemies.

Others can be brought into this discussion. Commenting on the Hezbollah explosive devices, Melanie Phillips said this in part:

This was an utterly brilliant move in terms of intelligence gathering, technological wizardry and psychological warfare. We don’t know all the details, but it seems the Israelis intercepted a consignment of replacement pagers and inserted into all of them a small amount of explosive which was detonated when a message was sent to them. Since the only people to have these pagers were Hezbollah operatives, the Israelis managed at a stroke to disable hundreds if not thousands of the most senior people involved in waging permanent war against Israel civilians, and caused panic, demoralisation and chaos in their ranks…. 

 

The further brilliance of the operation was to target the enemy with absolutely minimal civilian casualties — because the explosives were detonated by the Hezbollah operatives themselves and with an explosive charge that was very small. This didn’t stop the enemies of Israel in the west instantly leaping to complain about the “irresponsibility’” of causing pagers to explode and thus imperil everyone around them — the precise opposite of what happened. 

And speaking to the recent anti-Israel vote by the UN General Assembly, she wrote:

The new Labour government under Sir Keir Starmer has ramped up hostility towards Israel by repeating the falsehoods and blood libels being promoted by the international “humanitarian” establishment led by the Hamas-supporting UN; endorsed the request by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court for warrants to arrest Israel’s prime minister and defence minister, despite the fact that the prosecutor’s arguments rested entirely on malicious falsehoods and had zero connection with law; restored funding to UNRWA despite overwhelming evidence that it is an adjunct of Hamas; and introduced a partial arms embargo against Israel when it is fighting for its life against an eight-front war of extermination led by Iran.

 

So the fact that Britain didn’t oppose the shocking UN resolution is hardly surprising. What’s notable —and par for the miserable course — is that it didn’t even have the spine to vote in favour of it, and thus openly reveal itself to be the despicable country it has become.

 

As I have said before, this is a battle between civilisation and barbarism, truth and lies, good and evil. All who support Israel in this seismic battle will be rejoicing at the blow that it struck yesterday and today against the forces of barbarism. 

 

Those who stand against the Jewish state — the west’s legions of “Free Palestine” Hamas supporters, liberal proponents of the “two-state solution” which would actually be a Final Solution, Israel’s false friends in the US Biden administration and Britain’s Labour government, and the UN and “human rights” establishment that have weaponised international law in the cause of Israel’s destruction — are all running interference for the genocide of the Jews and the destruction of the west that the Islamists declare will follow. They are all (whether knowingly or unwittingly) bag-carriers for evil. 

 

Yesterday, it was announced that four more young IDF soldiers have fallen in Gaza, including the first female soldier to have been killed in this war, after entering a booby-trapped building in Rafah. Since the launch of the ground war in Gaza, 348 Israeli soldiers have been killed. All this tragic loss of young lives — not to mention the thousands murdered on October 7 and in the countless terrorist attacks on Israel over the years, along with the young heroes killed while fighting for Israel’s life in war after war — because for decades America, Britain and the west have appeased, funded and incentivised the genocidists of Iran and the Palestinian Arabs, and refused to allow Israel to defeat the forces of darkness that threaten the entire free world. https://substack.com/@melaniephillips/p-149072823

In sum, if a number of avowed terrorists bent on killing anyone and everyone who gets in their way of exterminating Israel were injured or killed, I for one will not be shedding any tears. Committed terrorists are fair game for any nation seeking to defend itself against their murderous aims and objectives.

Oh, and one final word. When I first heard about the pager explosives, I thought that this smart technology can be of help in the right hands, but of course greatly misused in the wrong hands. In this case, I do not mind Israel having the knowhow and ability to use this, but it would indeed be disastrous if these terrorist groups figured it all out.

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