Sharing And Caring

According to the Washington Post a few weeks ago (August 1, 2014), “The United Nations slammed Israel for possibly committing war crimes in its fight against Hamas – and then backed that accusation by suggesting the Jewish nation ought to be sharing its Iron Dome defensive technology with the very terror group it's fighting. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said to members of the media at an 'emergency' meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council that Israel was falling short in its duty to protect citizens in the Gaza Strip from getting killed by its [sic] rockets.”

Without specifying who might be responsible of individual acts, Commissioner Pillay suggested that the deaths of Palestinian civilians might represent war crimes. Crimes, of course, attributable to Israel.

Not surprisingly there were howls of rage from around the world, and a lot of laughing, too. The idea that one side in a war should share its weapons or defense systems with its enemy seemed to be parody rather than reality. But with time to consider the implications of the idea and its justification, it becomes clear that the accusation by Commissioner Pillay is both logical and rational. Indeed, it is so obvious that one is hard put to understand why it has taken this long for it to be expounded. The problem, however, is that with Jewish control of the media there will never be a fair hearing given to the Islamic perspective. And since there are far more Muslims in the world than Jews it makes sense to understand that perspective. For it is much more in line with International law than the rationalizations given by an outlaw state that was admitted to the U.N. in a moment of weakness.

Let's review the law. Islamic and Jewish law apply. International law, in accordance with Sharia, recognizes all lands ever occupied by Muslims as Islamic – whether or not there are Muslims there at present. (It is axiomatic that Islamic presence, however it was achieved and in whatever numbers, qualifies a country as Islamic.) And there is a mandate to wipe out the Jews. As the Koran says, "The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdullah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.” (Note that it is “the Jews” who are to be eliminated, not the Israelis. It's a worthy goal, but at the moment the primary enemy for us all is Israel.) If Muslim civilians die during the hostilities they are martyrs, even if they are being used unwillingly by honorable jihadists as cover for military actions.

Jewish law, however, forbids killing. It's one of the Ten Commandments. Perhaps the killing of soldiers during a war is understandable, though not forgivable, but the murder of civilians, or their death resulting from the hostilities, cannot be justified no matter what rationalizations the Jews make. Civilians must be protected at all times. So the deaths of those not in uniform when photographed by Hamas photographers or properly screened colleagues constitute war crimes. Commissioner Pillay was right.

How can such a situation be addressed? It's unlikely that the outlaw nation will stop responding to missiles launched against their people from Gaza, even if the death of civilians is inevitable. But the deaths of Palestinian non-combatants can be limited if the Iron Dome system is used to protect them from misdirected Hamas rockets (the fire from Israeli planes is not the type for which the system is designed, but the poorly designed and inaccurate Hamas missiles intended to kill Israeli civilians sometimes fall in Gaza and kill Muslims). That must be the meaning of “its rockets,” the terminology in the original statement. When Israel, which has Muslim citizens (making it an Islamic state subject to Sharia), does not protect Gazans from Hamas rockets it is committing a war crime. Indeed, defending itself at all is repugnant.

The U.N. and the world are right in condemning Israel for its actions. Their advantage over the Muslims is unfair and fully deserving of our censure. As long as they exist they are obligated to ensuring the safety of those they battle.