There is No Moral or Legal Equivalence Between Hamas and Israel
I am far from an expert on foreign policy. I have my opinions, sure, but they’re not grounded in the kind of thorough philosophical study that my general opinions on politics are. That being said, I feel I have avoided writing about the current conflict in Israel for as long as possible. If you want to read the opinions of more expert commentators than your humble correspondent, I recommend Bari Weiss, Eli Lake, and Noah Rothman.
Given my lack of expertise on the subject, I will try to maintain some level of epistemic humility. However, I can’t promise that I will succeed throughout.
It seems to me undeniable that Hamas is the aggressor in this conflict. The excuses trotted out on their behalf are utterly unpersuasive. The most common of these excuses is that Hamas is enraged by the “eviction” of Palestinians from the Sheik Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem. But the facts are less clear-cut than the defenders of Hamas would have you believe.
The land in question was purchased by Jews more than a century ago. They were forced out of their homes by the Jordanians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli Conflict. Palestinians took up residence in the homes that were abandoned. Israel did not retake control of the neighborhood until the Six-Day War in 1967. Since then, there have been ongoing legal disputes between the Palestinian squatters and the descendants of the Jews who owned the houses before the Arab-Israeli conflict. A developer then bought the rights to the land from the rightful owners and seeks to evict the current residents who have refused to pay rent for a generation.
The action that supposedly sparked the present conflict was a preceding in the court case brought by the landowner to vindicate their property rights. It’s NIMBYism with rocket play.
Let’s take for granted that this explanation is true. The notion that indiscriminate rocket attacks on civilian population centers are justified by anger over the legal case is still a moral abomination.
Anyone who would seek to draw a moral or legal equivalence between Hamas and Israel should be roundly condemned by polite society.
And if Hamas wants an end to the violence, there’s a simple solution: