God built us with justice detectors. Some have theirs highly calibrated while others have so scarred their consciences as to be barely recognizable as human.
In the continuing aftermath of the sophisticated, orchestrated, atrocious terror attacks on the citizens of Israel which began on Saturday, the world is experiencing a moment of moral clarity. Do not hide and say, “I’m not one to judge.”
We have a soft version of the Palestinian / Israel standoff in our country right now, and these sorts of standoffs have existed since the first man got his feelings hurt. We have folks claiming “colonialism” is a great sin of humanity and must be irradicated and reversed. How do you reverse colonialism? You may have heard about this on Columbus Day—that Columbus viciously enslaved the native Americans and stole their land. Tribal people in South Africa say the same of the Dutch settlers whose descendants now own and run large farms. The Shona and Ndebele in Zimbabwe had the same beef with white settlers and successfully seized their land and ran many out of the country around the turn of the century.
In the United States, the term “colonialism” has become a buzzword on college campuses and among liberal elites. They call for “decolonization,” which turns out to be exactly what you might think—deconstructing our current way of life by tearing down our current institutions. What do advocates of “decolonization” want? From a New York Times article from July 27, 2020:
Acknowledging that colonial history shapes the current inequalities and hierarchies that structure the world sets the stage for the next [step]: reparations and restitution.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/27/opinion/sunday/decolonization-statues.html
Those clamoring to destroy the current institutions push hard for reparations, a fancy word for stealing from some and giving the stolen goods to others.
The Palestinian terror attack on Israel is an expression of decolonization. They insist their land has been taken from them, and they demand it back. Beyond that, they hate and abhor the people who they say took their land—the Jews. Therefore, on October 7, 2023, they declared it their right to rape Jewish women, shoot hundreds of Jewish teenagers in the back, behead scores of Jewish babies, abuse and mutilate the bodies of Jewish men and women, parade the naked and broken bodies of Jewish women through the streets in the back of a pickup truck, kill and gut pregnant Jewish women, etc. ad nauseum. These are war crimes of the highest order—direct attacks on Jewish civilians and hiding behind their own women and children in times of battle.
What is their logic? They have some moral defense, however twisted (and it is twisted beyond belief). These are acts of pure hatred and animosity. This is not a request for justice. This is not a valid path. There is no righteousness or virtue in any of this. The Palestinians themselves over the past several days have brazenly published all over public media videos of unadulterated evil, and they are proud of what they have done!
More than that, groups of people around the world have been celebrating these terror attacks. In a time when “hate speech” is such a hot topic, can we agree that this tops the list?
Some try to seem as if they are not taking sides, but in doing so they reveal a severe lack of moral judgment. In this case, you must judge. You must take a stand. If you shrug and say you are not one to get involved in these kinds of things, you side with the terrorists and stand against what is right and good. Why must you? You must because this is as clear a case of immorality and depravity as there can be and to not stand against it is to shrug at evil.
Israel will not stand idly by while their people are raped, tortured, and brutalized—nor should they. It would be an impotent and immoral government indeed which would not scramble to protect its own from such injustices. They have every right to hunt down and destroy these Hamas terrorists. Those with a sense of justice should agree that these men should not continue to live on this earth. They have committed the worst of crimes against their fellow man, and they have no excuse.
If the United Nations were worth anything at all, they would be sending help to Israel immediately and scalding Hamas in the boldest of terms. Rather, they have centered much of their aid to the Gaza strip, helping the Palestinians who have had their water, food, and electricity cut off by Israel. It is a bad situation, but these Hamas Palestinians brought it upon their people, and Gaza citizens have consistently been voting Hamas into power. They are now reaping what they have sown, and it’s not pretty. Punishment for crimes is not supposed to be pretty. It’s supposed to hurt.
Until strict punishment is meted out to this sort of evil, it will continue. Men who act in their hatred towards their fellow man should reap the consequences, and God has said, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in His own image” (Genesis 9.6). This is a rule God put in place, and it is right for us to abide by it. It is right for Israel to hail punishment down upon this existential enemy.
It would be excellent if the Palestinian people themselves would burn their own trash. That would save many lives if they would do it. But that would require many courageous men willing to stand against the murderous, armed, armored mob running their country.
If the nations of the world do not stand with Israel against this evil, we have a lot of work to do to correct hearts and mold consciences.
Let us pray the imprecatory prayers of David against those evil men. Let us pray for the destroyed families and relationships. Let us mourn the evil present in the hearts of men. And let us understand what darkness looks like and how beautiful the light is shining through it.
Let us learn in this moment of moral clarity.