The only possible moral frame in which Israel can be blamed for Hamas’ monstrousness is a relativistic one, in which barbaric evil can be projected onto the “root cause” that the West is bad. There is a reason so much of the left views America’s loss of the Vietnam War as a victory, or sees the Afghanistan pullout as a triumph, ignoring the viciousness of the Viet Cong and the Taliban. In this view, the cruelty of the West’s enemies is merely a response to the West’s own cruelty — and the evidence of that proposition is the existence of our enemies. If we were kind, generous, and tolerant, we would have no enemies, goes the logic — thus the presence of our enemies demonstrates how fatally flawed we are.
This perverse philosophy gives ammunition to the world’s worst human beings. Depriving evil actors of agency means leaving them free to pursue their worse designs, secure in the knowledge that the more savagely they act, the more they will be excused for their cruelty. The West, in this view, can never triumph through any means but surrender.
This philosophy will destroy the West from within as well as from without. Cowardice is the greatest aid to evil; in fact, it is its own form of evil, for without it, evil could never win. A self loathing West, incapable of distinguishing between those who kidnap and murder hostages in pursuit of Islamist theocracy and those who seek to free those hostages is a West that simply cannot survive.
“I think the fact that they were alive and murdered right before they could have been saved—that broke it. That’s a breaking point for a lot of people—[they] are on the edge of their seat, and they realize that sitting at home is not going to do anything.” This is how one protester explained the mass demonstrations that have filled streets in Israel this week. For almost a year these 6 people were held hostage by Hamas and when their rescuers came near to set them free their captors executed them…this is demonic in its cruelty.
The crowds have been the largest since October 7 and included a general strike on Monday that brought much of the country to a halt. Many blame Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for refusing to make a cease-fire deal that would bring the hostages home. For his part, Mr. Netanyahu continues to insist on a long-term military presence along Gaza’s border with Egypt, even as this reportedly is holding up a hostage deal that many analysts consider vital to Israel’s interests. When asked whether the prime minister is doing enough to secure a deal, President Joe Biden responded, “No.”
Whatever our views regarding Mr. Netanyahu, we must not forget that Hamas created this crisis when it invaded Israel on October 7 and massacred some twelve hundred people, committing war crimes too horrific for description here. Hamas also abducted 251 children, women, men, and elderly people. As described above, then they murdered six hostages, shooting them multiple times at close range before Israeli troops could rescue them. They threaten to kill more hostages if Israel attempts further rescues. The group’s political leader, Yahya Sinwar, was charged yesterday by federal prosecutors with planning and carrying out years of terrorist attacks in Israel, including the atrocities of October 7. If the terrorists could travel back in time, they say they would do it all again. They vow to repeat the horrors of October 7 “again and again” until Israel is completely destroyed. The group’s founding document clearly calls for the genocide of the Jews and the destruction of Israel to “liberate” Palestine. These are their words.
This ongoing tragedy illustrates the deep and pervasive power of ideology to change the world, for evil or for good.
“Progress, infinite progress!”
In the writings and thoughts of the philosophical theologian Paul Tillich. You can find his sermon “The Shaking of the Foundations” to be among the most powerful of all his works.
Published three years after the atomic bomb brought an end to World War II, Tillich noted that there was a time when science persuaded us “to believe in our earth as the place for the establishment of the kingdom of God” and “to believe in ourselves as those through whom this was to be achieved.” These false prophets cried, “Progress, infinite progress! Peace, universal peace! Happiness, happiness for everyone!”
But then science gave man the power “to annihilate himself and his world.” Now, according to Tillich, we know that we are not achieving “infinite progress” and “universal peace.” (shades of the Tower of Bable here)
He was right: Israel is facing the greatest existential crisis in its modern history. Iran is closer than ever to a nuclear weapon. Nuclear powers China, Russia, and North Korea are aligned with Iran in opposition to the West. The COVID-19 pandemic is unlikely to be the last. Genomics could lead to genetic manipulation that alters the essence of what it means to be human. Artificial intelligence could threaten our very existence.
Tillich’s warning is still valid and urgent:
Man is not God; and whenever he has claimed to be like God, he has been rebuked and brought to self-destruction and despair. When he has rested complacently on his cultural creativity or on his technical progress, on his political institutions or on his religious systems, he has been thrown into disintegration and chaos; all the foundations of his personal, natural, and cultural life have been shaken. As long as there has been human history, this is what has happened; in our period it has happened on a larger scale than ever before. Man’s claim to be like God has been rejected repeatedly, and now once more; not one foundation of the life of our civilization has remained unshaken.
In response, let’s exchange the secularist ideology of our day for the foundational ideology espoused by our Savior. Jesus taught us that the greatest commandments in Scripture are to love our Lord and to love our neighbor (Matthew 22:37–39), explaining that “on these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (v. 40).
Why are they so foundational?
Other laws seek to prevent sin by regulating behavior, but we cannot sin against God when we are in love with him. Nor can we sin against our neighbors when we are in love with them. Instead, when you “delight yourself in the Lᴏʀᴅ,” then we all position ourselves to experience his best such that “he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4).
What, then, are we to do?
One: Since “love” is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), we need to submit every day to the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18), then pray through the day for him to empower us to love our Lord and those we meet.
Two: Make love the heart of our service to others. We are commanded, “Let all that you do be done in love” (1 Corinthians 16:14, my emphasis).
If you watch two people fishing at a pond and think of Jesus’ assurance that he would make us “fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). You cannot see the bait fishermen are using, but we can assume it is not a shoe or a hammer. It is something that would attract the fish they sought to catch. What do humans want more than to be loved? Thus, when we love our neighbors as unconditionally and sacrificially as we love ourselves, we draw them to the One who is love (1 John 4:8). They respond to our love by turning to its Source.
Tillich closed his famous sermon:
“In these days the foundations of the earth do shake. May we not turn our eyes away; may we not close our ears and our mouths! But may we rather see, through the crumbling of a world, the rock of eternity and the salvation which has no end!”