"What is the alternative to violence for Israel in its current conflict with Hamas, given what Hamas did on October 7th, and given what it has vowed to do again at any opportunity? Pacifism? Pacifism only works against a morally sane adversary. It worked against the British in India. But pacifism would not have worked against the Nazis. Had the Allies decided that war is just too awful, and they just couldn’t stomach killing any more German children, we would all be living in the 1000-year Reich. And if the Israelis practiced pacifism, Hamas and Hezbollah and a fair number of ordinary Palestinians would simply murder them. This is not an opinion. This is what these groups have claimed openly for decades. And if there were any doubt—and there was never any doubt—October 7th has made it obscene to doubt this now. What more do you need? Hamas has said that it will repeat the atrocities of October 7th again and again. And recent polls indicate that 80 percent of Palestinians approve of what they did. You might worry that Palestinians can’t afford to answer such polls honestly, for fear of Hamas, but support for Hamas is around 40 percent in recent polls. Support for what Hamas did on October 7th is double that. So many those who had the courage to say they don’t support Hamas still approve of what happened on October 7th. The problem for Israel, and for the whole world, is that Jihadism is more dangerous than Nazism. Jihadists are Nazis who are certain of paradise. They are Nazis who are eager to die and have their children die because they actually believe in martyrdom. They don’t just sort of believe in it. They don’t merely hope that it’s true. They absolutely believe that dying while attempting to kill infidels, or apostates, or Jews leads directly to Paradise. I understand that this sounds like dehumanizing wartime propaganda. But it isn’t. This is fundamentalist religion in its worst form. We are dealing with religious fanatics who have had most rational human goals and considerations scraped from their minds by a lunatic ideology. And while there are differences among jihadist groups—and they can be sometimes found murdering one another—they are all part of the same death cult. I’m not saying that ordinary nationalism and tribalism aren’t also part of the problem. They are. There are many contributors to every conflict. I’m talking about what makes these particular conflicts worse than those born of ordinary nationalism, or tribalism, or competition for resources, or any other earthly motive."....
READ FULL TRANSCRIPT:https://www.samharris.org/blog/5-myths-about-israel-and-the-war-in-gaza?utm_source=braze&utm_campaign=2024_w5_newContent_351
