With Friends Like This...

...Israel should need enemies?

Via Andrew Sullivan:

The Times of Israel ran the following headline in its Ops and Blogs section: "When Genocide is Permissible." The author, one Yochanon Gordon, wrote, in part:

History is there to teach us lessons and the lesson here is that when your enemy swears to destroy you – you take him seriously. Hamas has stated forthrightly that it idealizes death as much as Israel celebrates life. What other way then is there to deal with an enemy of this nature other than obliterate them completely? …

I will conclude with a question for all the humanitarians out there. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clearly stated at the outset of this incursion that his objective is to restore a sustainable quiet for the citizens of Israel. We have already established that it is the responsibility of every government to ensure the safety and security of its people. If political leaders and military experts determine that the only way to achieve its goal of sustaining quiet is through genocide is it then permissible to achieve those responsible goals?

Hitler would be proud. The great genocides of history (the native Americans, the Armenians, the Jews, the Tutsi, the Thebans and so on) have all been justified on very similar reasoning.

The Times has since taken down the post.

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