Friday, May 22, 2009

Expendable: The Moral Bankruptcy of Appeasing Evil


This week has brought some news out of Iran that ought to concern us all, but especially concerns Israel. Iran has tested an intercontinental rocket capable of carrying a nuclear weapon. The Jerusalem Post reports it here. And in another story, the same paper reports that prior to Bibi's visit to Washington, President Obama sent CIA head Panetta to Jerusalem specifically to warn Israel against a pre-emptive strike on Iran's nuclear program. And then Obama used Bibi's visit to announce that he would continue his policy of talking to I'manutjob . . . er, Achmadinajad for six months, and when if that doesn't work, he'll convince the UN to strengthen sanctions against Iran. By then, it may well be too late for Tel Aviv.


Evidently, Obama has been reading his Ghandi:

"The calculated violence of Hitler may even result in a general massacre of the Jews by way of his first answer to the declaration of such hostilities. But if the Jewish mind could be prepared for voluntary suffering, even the massacre I have imagined could be turned into a day of thanksgiving and joy that Jehovah (sic) had wrought deliverance of the race even at the hands of the tyrant. For to the god fearing, death has no terror. It is a joyful sleep to be followed by a waking that would be all the more refreshing for the long sleep."
--Mahatma Ghandi, 20 Nov. 1938


The moral bankruptcy of this statement is self-evident. To Ghandi, the lives of others are expendable, a sacrifice to his ideal world where evil is not to be resisted. Thus, to him, those who would fight to protect their lives and those of their innocent children have the obligation to lay down their arms and submit to terror and death or be considered less moral than the murderers, who apparantly are doing G-d's work by murdering Jews. This is the most profoundly immoral statement I have ever read.


And President Obama? Certainly he has no obligation to come to the rescue of Israel if there is no threat to the United States. And if this is the case, then as President, he should state this clearly. However, he has a lot of damn gall insisting that Israel must not defend her own people against a clearly defined threat to their very existence. I'manutjob has clearly stated his goal to wipe Israel off the face of the earth numerous times. He is a religious fanatic who wants to bring the Caliphate on Earth through the 12th Iman.


Evidently, Obama's moral bankruptcy extends to the sacrifice of the lives of 5 million Jews in order to preserve his fantasy that evil can be negotiated with rather than confronted. It is easy to let others be first in line to face evil in faith, with no resistance, even to death by fire, while hiding behind one's own self-righteousness.

It is a fine thing for President Obama to lecture Bibi Netanyahu, making moral equivalencies, as the world turns inevitably toward nuclear war at the hands of a madman and tyrant. To take a page from the Other Testament: "They cry peace, peace when there is no peace."

Israel's population, which comprises nearly half of the Jews left in the entire world, is on the front lines. And clearly, just as in they were in Europe, they are expendable.

3 comments:

Retriever said...

Great post, Elisheva. And good use of the revolting Gandhi quote.

I agree with you. The Big O is the kind of person whom I feel sure would let someone else die so that he didn't have to sully his own hands defending them, and (as you note) has the gall to then tell them they can't defend themselves.

So glad to have found your blog thru your comments on Dr Bob's.

With your Special Ed background, thought you might find this of some interest, tho horribly long.
http://dianaretriever.blogspot.com/2009/02/stimulant-use-and-psychosis.html

and this more current one (continuing the themes we were all discussing on Dr Bob)
http://dianaretriever.blogspot.com/2009/05/face-of-evil.html

Elisheva Hannah Levin said...

Retriever: Thanks. And I forgot the hat-tip the Ghandi quote, so I will go forthwith to do so! And I will also check out your posts. Is the picture of your dog? Do you blog about your dogs, too? I thought you might have a goldie.

Retriever said...

The profile pic is of our beloved former dog (golden who died last year, much missed). We have had a rescue dog for the last year, and I run lots of pix and write about her quite a bit, trying to figure out her ancestry, weird behavior and the like. Shepherd Huskie mix (supposedly) who sometimes looks like there's a bit of wolf in her, but long floppy ears, and fur too short, and tail too curly. A real handful, tho we got her at 8 weeks from the pound and have showered her with love.