Israel-Hamas War

Israel-Hamas war: Staying silent is a form of evil

As the estimable Christian pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer mused before the Nazis hung him in 1945: “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”

What to say, then, about an increasingly self-loathing and rudderless Western culture – bereft of a unifying moral compass – that vacillates between supine neutrality and flag-waving support for a genocidal cult?

What to say about a Western culture marinating in a post-modernist/neo-Marxist stew underpinned by these two laying waste dogmas: 1. There is no such thing as ‘truth’; and 2. Life is nothing other than the eternal contest between the oppressed and the oppressor?

And, what to say about the culture of the United Nations – which includes China on its Human Rights Council – that preaches restraint to a people confronting a modern outbreak of Nazism: Hamas (Iran and Hezbollah), like the Nazis, aren’t concerned about the behaviour of the Jewish people; their chief concern is Jewish existence, for goodness sakes.

Alas, in war, “Lies have wings while the truth lags behind on foot”.

Truth is, war is failure.

Alas, it is also the truth that we have a choice between a genocidal death cult and a civilisation that promotes, if imperfectly, the inherent dignity and value of all human beings.

Fr Peter Day, Queanbeyan, NSW

A significant difference

Rozita Abdul beat me to the punch (“Zionism is not Judaism”, Letters, November 16) in pointing out that anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism, though Zionists would have us believe that it is.

It’s also important to point out that, while many Jews are anti-Zionists, many Zionists are not Jews but American Christians, for whom the return of the Jews to Israel is a necessary prerequisite to the “second coming” of their god. These people donate vast amounts of money to Israeli Zionists and to American pro-Zionist politicians in order to hasten Armageddon.

Fred Pilcher, Kaleen

A history lesson

Rod Carter claims Israel is rooted in terrorism (Letters, November 7). He cites the bombing of the King David Hotel, but that was the British military headquarters, and the bombers phoned through a sadly ignored warning before the explosion.

Jews are indigenous to Israel. Attacks by extremist settlers against West Bank Palestinians are appalling, but Israel condemns these attacks and pursues those responsible, in contrast to the Palestinian Authority, which glorifies terrorists.

Rod calls on Israel to advance an olive branch. It has done so on many occasions. Hopefully, next time, the Palestinians will accept it.

Rob Wilson, Canberra