On the evidence of an evidence-free mentality in the Middle East

The imperviousness to reality displayed by Hamas and its apologists can be easily explained by reference to Sunni Ash‘arite theology, which is espoused by a large majority of Sunni Muslims.

Rocket shells are left on the grass outside a house where civilians and soldiers were killed by Hamas militants days earlier, Oct. 11, 2023 in Be’eri, Israel. (Credit: Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

Evidence continues to accumulate that the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City was not bombed on October 17th by Israel’s Defense Forces (IDF), but was hit by a misfired, faulty Palestinian rocket, most likely coming from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Multiple videos of the rocket’s trajectory, the initial explosion in the air, followed by the one outside the Hospital, have been geolocated to show that the missile did not come from Israel. In addition, there is the embarrassing revelation of the intercepted phone conversation between two Hamas operatives. “Is this from us?” asks one operative. “It looks like it,” a second operative replies. The two are then heard recognizing that the shrapnel of the missile “are local pieces, and not Israeli shrapnel,” the former coming from rockets fired from the “cemetery behind the hospital.”

Have there been any mea culpas expressed by the Palestinian or other Arab media that they were mistaken in unanimously reporting that the fault was Israel’s, echoed in some Western newspapers’ headlines such as: “Israel blast kills 500 at Gaza Hospital”? Those false reports generated massive protests in Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

There haven’t been any apologies because, to a large segment of the Muslim Arab population, evidence does not matter. Consider the statement by Hamas deputy secretary-general Saleh al-Arouri after the October 7th slaughter in Israel that “the truth is that our mujahideen do not target civilians… It is inconceivable that they would perpetrate the kind of crimes mentioned by the occupation, like rape, killing children, or killing civilians.”

But what about the footage recovered from multiple Hamas body cameras showing the terrorists doing precisely what al-Arouri denies – and celebrating it? There is also an audio recording of one of the Hamas killers calling his parents in Gaza, bragging that he had “killed at least ten Jews with my bare hands.” “Your son killed so many Jews,” he exclaimed. “Mum, your son is a hero.”

Closer to home, Farhan Siddiqi, the imam of Washington D.C. area mosque Dar Al-Hijrah, said in an October 13, 2023 Friday sermon: “I don’t know what Hamas is doing. I’m shown video clips and then I’m also told that they’re beheading babies. I’m also told that they’re raping women…when I go and I investigate those specific reports I find out they’re all lies.”

Even better, in an October 25, 2023, address, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed that “America is completely complicit in all the crimes. America’s arms are soaked up to their elbows with the blood of the oppressed, the sick, the children, and the women in this atrocity. In reality, [America] is in some respects orchestrating this atrocity in Gaza. America is orchestrating this.”

In light of the abundant evidence, so much of it provided by Hamas itself, these bald-faced denials could come right out of a Groucho Marx movie. In Duck Soup, when Chico is caught in a bald-faced lie, he responds: “Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?”

In this case, it would be: “Who are you going to believe, me or my own videos?”

One must understand that this kind of denial in the face of stark reality has a long history, especially in Sunni Islam. For example, the more evidence that surfaced that Osama bin Laden and his Saudi accomplices were responsible for 9/11, the more Muslim Arabs denied that he or any other Arabs were involved. Results from the July 21, 2011, Pew Research Center report, titled “Muslim-Western Tensions Persist,” found the following:

Nearly a decade after September 11, 2001, skepticism about the events of that day persists among Muslim publics. When asked whether they think groups of Arabs carried out the 9/11 attacks on the U.S., most Muslims in the nations surveyed say they do not believe this. There is no Muslim public in which even 30% accept that Arabs conducted the attacks. Indeed, Muslims in Jordan, Egypt, and Turkey are less likely to accept this today than in 2006.

Indeed, in Egypt 75 percent of Muslims said they did not believe that Arabs were responsible, and so said 73 percent of Muslim respondents in Turkey. Go figure.

Actually, this imperviousness to reality can be easily explained by reference to Sunni Ash‘arite theology, which is espoused by a large majority of Sunni Muslims. Within Ash‘arite theology, the existence of natural law is repeatedly and explicitly denied as a flagrant and impermissible constriction of God’s absolute power. (Gravity does not make the rock fall; God does.)

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058-1111), considered by many Muslims to be second only to Muhammed in the Islamic pantheon and certainly the most important Ash‘arite theologian, made this explicitly clear in his teaching: there is no causal connection between “the quenching of thirst and drinking, satiety and eating, burning and contact with fire. Light and the appearance of the sun, death and decapitation, healing and the drinking of medicine, the purging of the bowels and the using of a purgative, and so on to [include] all [that is] observable among connected things in medicine, astronomy, arts, and crafts.” Allah does or doesn’t do all these things. It’s solely up to him.

An example of how this teaching has been applied in more contemporary times may be helpful. The founder of Boko Haram, Mohammed Yusuf (1970–2009), whose group’s slang name loosely translates as “Western [non-Islamic] education is sacrilege,” gave an illuminating interview to the BBC just before being killed by Nigerian forces in 2009. Yusuf said that “there are prominent Islamic preachers who have seen and understood that the present Western-style education is mixed with issues that run contrary to our beliefs in Islam. Like rain. We believe it is a creation of God rather than an evaporation caused by the sun that condenses and becomes rain. Like saying the world is a sphere. If it runs contrary to the teachings of Allah, we reject it.”

In this statement, Yusuf demonstrated that he was completely familiar with the scientific explanation for rain but had to reject it for religious reasons. Of course, his denial goes back to the Ash‘arite conception of God’s omnipotence and the problem of causality in the natural world.

Here is the dilemma: If God is not the cause of everything, can he be omnipotent? In other words, if God does not directly cause the rain, but it is caused by intervening natural forces, are not those natural forces in competition with God? If A must cause B in the physical world (as in condensation causing rain), does this not exclude God or at least limit his freedom? Ash’arite theology concluded that, if God is to be omnipotent, no other thing can even be so much as potent. There can be no secondary causes, and there is no such thing as natural law or cause and effect in the natural world. Consequently, everything that happens becomes the equivalent of a miracle because God does it directly, which is why it can’t be understood.

Evidence only matters in a world of cause and effect. Outside of it, evidence does not matter, which is why so much of the Middle East is afflicted with an evidence-free mentality. So, don’t think you’ll anytime soon hear an admission that Israel didn’t fire on the Gaza hospital, even as the evidence grows that the Palestinians did it themselves.


If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!

Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.


About Robert R. Reilly 22 Articles
Robert R. Reilly was Senior Advisor for Information Strategy (2002-2006) for the US Secretary of Defense, after which he taught at National Defense University. He was the director of the Voice of America (2001-2002) and served in the White House as a Special Assistant to the President (1983-1985). A graduate of Georgetown University and the Claremont Graduate University, his books include The Closing of the Muslim Mind, Making Gay Okay, and Surprised by Beauty: A Listener's Guide to the Recovery of Modern Music. His most recent book, America on Trial: A Defense of the Founding, is published by Ignatius Press.

82 Comments

  1. It’s been extremely distressing and disappointing to see so many Catholics basically believing the same things.
    You think we’ve moved on since the 1400s but you just scratch the surface and find a willingness to believe in all sorts of myths and propaganda. Both on the left and on the right.
    When you have both the Iranian dictatorship and George Soros’s foundation funding the same protests and propaganda you realize there’s a place where the extremist right and left meet.

    • Channeling my inner Ronald Reagan, ‘there you go again,’ mrscracker. 🙂

      In your “When you have both the Iranian dictatorship and George Soros’s foundation funding the same protests and propaganda you realize there’s a place where the extremist right and left meet,” …which of these two entities do you believe is properly categorized as extremist right, and why?

      • Thank you for mentioning him.Ronald Reagan was one of my favorite people to listen to. Sometimes I’ll find videos of him on YouTube telling funny stories. I really appreciated his good natured take on things.
        You tell me Doc, what sort of regime strikes you as reactionary? One that has morality police beating young women into comas for not covering their heads properly?

        I was reading about a pink haired , gender studies teacher who was caught tearing down posters of kidnapped Israeli children and apparently assaulted a bystander who complained. I’m not sure of their gender, possibly female, but they wouldn’t last long in Iran.
        Strange times we live in for sure. This gives a whole new meaning to “intersectionality .”
        You have a blessed day ahead.
        🙂

        • Reactionary is actually almost always Left wing, mrscracker. Leftists have gaslighted people for years promoting the false notion that regimes like the Nazi regime, the Soviet regime, the Chinese regime, Islamic regimes, and all totalitarian-type regimes come from the Right when they are actually all from the Left. Sadly, you have once again fallen into accepting some of these false narratives/descriptions by erroneously claiming that Iran is a right wing/reactionary entity, assuming you have correctly labeled Soros as the Left wing entity.

          Iran is, in fact, extremely Left wing precisely because of its totalitarian/authoritarian government, the lack of individual freedoms it grants its people, the largely centrally-planned socialism it practices, and you can also add your example that you incorrectly label as an example of Right wing behavior when such behavior is a classic Left wing lack of tolerance and respect for individual liberty. Such morality police come from the Left; not the Right. Also consider the nonsense of political correctness, cancellation culture, and so on as milder forms of morality police that also comes from the Left; not the Right.

          Recap: All totalitarian or totalitarian-type/authoritarian political regimes are Leftist in their nature. Labeling them as from the Right is simply false for the reasons stated above.

          Accordingly, your conclusion about extremist right and left meeting, based as it is on a serious misunderstanding of what being on the Right and what Iran actually is, is just another example of making a false moral equivalence that I hope you and others will avoid making again in the future since it is simply unjust. God Bless.

          • I’ve always thought of myself as a bit reactionary. Perhaps I should rethink that.
            🙂
            I don’t know that it matters much to those under a totalitarian regime what political flavor it might assume. Either way it’s no good.
            Thank you for taking the time to comment. It’s good to hear other viewpoints.

          • “mrscracker
            NOVEMBER 2, 2023 AT 1:45 PM

            I’ve always thought of myself as a bit reactionary. Perhaps I should rethink that.
            🙂
            I don’t know that it matters much to those under a totalitarian regime what political flavor it might assume. Either way it’s no good.

            Thank you for taking the time to comment. It’s good to hear other viewpoints.”
            _________________________

            Doctor Veritatis Response:

            mrscracker: you are dodging and weaving, and sadly invoking relativism (“nice to hear other viewpoints”) and a red herring consideration instead of simply recognizing and owning up to the fact that you made an objectively false comparison between Iran and Soros to pretend that Iran operates from a Right Wing perspective when it is extremely Left Wing in its opposition to personal freedom, capitalism, freedom of religion, and so on. This is not just a matter of opinion or differing viewpoints. It is an objective fact.

            Lastly, it is only nice to “hear” other viewpoints when such viewpoints are based on objective truth and facts in support thereof.

            Good luck and God Bless.

    • As far as Islam is concerned , their ideology has lasted 1400 years and will last till the end of time unless a miracle occurs.
      Those who take their words as the truth , have NO IDEA what they are talking about.

  2. IDF and the Netanyahu coalition of Zionists are killing civilians en masse by bombings all around Gaza and want to have you transfixed by arguments that they did not kill over 500 civilians at the Baptist Hospital.

    “We certain there were Hamas in that hospital-car park that we wanted to kill anyway.”

    Meanwhile there are now more than 10,000 civilian dead in Gaza and IDF says it got 1 Hamas soldier. Israel will keep you talking till you’re blue in the face.

    In that, the number of children killed now exceeds 3,300. Netanyahu etc., are lying about the hospital. Best friends can betray you, or didn’t you know.

    • Iranian funding, anti Semitic propaganda, & Hamas’s indoctrination of Gazans are responsible for deaths both in Gaza & Israel. Hamas is a criminal, terrorist cartel of mercenaries who use Gazan citizens hostage as human shields & purposely headquarter their operations beneath schools & hospitals.
      Every Palestinian civilian death scores Hamas more humanitarian aid to squander on weapons & terrorist tunnels, & to enrich themselves whilst Gazans suffer. Palestinian suffering is bread & butter to Hamas. It’s truly tragic. I pray one day that the people of Gaza wake up to this. They deserve much better.

      • Israel is responsible.

        In the case of the Baptist hospital the guided missile could have come off a drone launched from the US carrier in the Mediterranean -Israel is still responsible. In all liklihood it was a guided missile like Mikholit or some equivalent.

        Even were it a US drone-missile, Israel consented and Israel is responsible.

        After Israel announced it had bombed the hospital it retracted the information and reworked the story. Then the next day or so it bombed the Church. Get real. Stop with all the explaining.

        An IDF tank just blew up a bus carrying civilians -today, now. The mass random massacre of civilians is not self-defense and has nothing to do with geo-politics. What is going on there is genocide. It is bound to baffle someone of your intelligence because your loyalties are not ruled by reason and compassion and truth.

        This Netanyahu jingoistic bloodbath is contrary to every precept including and foremost, the law of God YAHWEH.

        • There is no random massacre of civilians by Israel, and trashing the Eighth Commandment with impunity will not make it so. It is the inhumanity of Hamas that refused to allow the evacuation of civilians in the first place that is causing collateral damage. Islamic genocidal inhumanity extends to their own people and always has.
          Get real. In spite of the willful ignorance by Westerners, such ignorance itself a crime against humanity, the fact is, and always has been that in the Mid-East, that if the Palestinians unilaterally pledged to lay down their arms and cease their unrelenting rocket attacks and terrorist attacks throughout the world and really meant it, there would be permanent peace in the Mid-East. If Israel unilaterally pledged to lay down their arms and pledged to never fight again, it would begin the instant eradication of Israel from the face of the earth and death to every Jewish man, woman, and child.

        • There was no reply link on your reply to my reply so I’ll say it here:
          I was referring to you trashing the Eighth Commandment.

      • You do know Hamas was created by Israel, right?

        Why do you insist on writing comments that serve no purpose other than to prove how completely uninformed and unintelligent you are?

        Do you enjoy it when people think you are low IQ?

  3. My non-credentialed observation in agreement with Reilly about the Hamas zealots, and then two added details…

    FIRST, the jihadist network clearly knows that killing of innocents is immoral, but they are experiencing a horrified “desire to escape reality or transform it along the lines of a second reality more congenial to the pheumopathological terrorist imagination.” The italicized term applies to a spiritual sickness rather than any psychological disorder or more rational thought process at least calculated to achieve justice, if by whatever means. They know what they are doing; “They are not psychopaths who cannot distinguish good and evil or innocence and guilt” (Barry Cooper, “Jihadists’ and the War on Terrorism,” The Intercollegiate Review, Spring 2007).

    SECOND, critics of Islam might make a clearer distinction between “natural law” (as an internal moral compass) and the external “laws of nature.” Yes (with Reilly), in Islam to discover secondary laws of nature is to construct a separate “autonomy” from the autonomy of Allah, and this is blasphemy…

    But in a world sometimes still capable of reason, might it be possible for some in the West and some “witnesses to Christ” to discuss natural law with some “followers of Islam”? Educated Muslims believe that as an original orientation, “fitrah” is the “religion before religions” and the “germ of Islam”. In the West natural law (not made a religion) is an inborn predisposition, differentiated from any revelation; but under Islam any such differentiation remains off limits, and even fitrah is fused with the entire package deal Qur’an and Shari’a Law (e.g., the fused mosque-state, with the Qur’an as “uncreated” and of the very essence of God).

    THIRD, Islam is not so much an old or new revelation as a homegrown natural religion, with trappings borrowed and reshaped from both the Pentateuch and the Gospels. So, is Muhammad mostly a folk hero on the same level as, say, the pre-Christian Homer? The symmetrical comparison might be as anthropology rather than philosophy, or theology, or even the three “scriptures”. Or maybe as poetry? In support of Reilly’s article, how about this parallelism between poetic Islam and poetic C.S. Lewis:

    …even some Muslim scientists today adhere to a moment-to-moment universe, and are still quoted as saying, “that when you bring hydrogen and oxygen together then by the will of Allah water was created” (Dennis Overbye, “How Islam Won, and Lost, the Lead in Science,” New York Times, Oct. 30, 2001, Section D5). And now C.S. Lewis, who wondered, “Is oxygen-and-hydrogen the divine idea of water? . . . There is no water in oxygen and no water in hydrogen; it comes bubbling fresh from the imagination of the living God” (cited by Evan Gibson, in Tadie and Macdonald [eds.], Permanent Things, 1995, p. 243).

    But, back to Reilly’s point above—the substitution altogether of an “evidence-free” false reality for a reality of evidence. And, with the cited Cooper, worse than psychopaths.

  4. Truth is the first casualty in war, and we have to be careful when claims come in from either side of a conflict. The UN has already said that war crimes have been committed on both sides, bearing in mind the illegality of collective punishment (such as carpet-bombing and total sieges depriving populations of food, water, electricity etc). It’s very clear that Hamas has committed war crimes – appalling and hideous. But let’s not just accept everything we hear as gospel (the beheaded babies story for example has been thoroughly debunked here https://thegrayzone.com/2023/10/11/beheaded-israeli-babies-settler-wipe-out-palestinian/). See also here https://thegrayzone.com/2023/10/27/israels-military-shelled-burning-tanks-helicopters/ for some eye-opening details from a highly qualified Jewish American journalist who is an expert on Gaza and uses local sources. We have to be more even-handed than Western coverage of this issue standardly is (you get better coverage from within Israel itself from the newspaper Haaretz – or outside Israel, from antiwar.com, Channel 4 News in the UK or indeed, Al Jazeera). Human rights organisations like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem when they investigate past and current Israeli operations in Gaza show a picture far from what the Israeli government would have us believe. More than 3,000 children have been killed so far in this new bombardment – for which the Israeli government has actually stated that it’s prioritising damage over accuracy. Hamas is not alone in committing war crimes.

    • One might expect organizations funded by George Soros to present a different view.
      I hate war & violence as much or more than anyone else but I refuse to enable terrorists or antisemitism. Or the hatred of Muslims.
      The atrocities committed in Israel upon innocent civilians were intended to derail peace negotiations & ignite war. It’s that simple. When we believe & spread propaganda funded by Iran we become “useful idiots”.

      • “I hate war & violence as much or more than anyone else”

        Ok. And?

        You are not special. Quit trying to main character yourself as if your thoughts and beliefs and feelings carry more weight than anybody else’s. Please stop with your selfish “me me me me meeeeeeeeeee” nonsense.

    • Can you name any more hard core left wing organizations that never presented truthful information in their public history as sources of
      “objective” information?

  5. Mr. Reilly, unfortunately, is engaged with a topic he has no formal education or academic training in.

    “ Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058-1111), considered by many Muslims to be second only to Muhammed in the Islamic pantheon…”

    There isn’t a single Muslim on earth who believes the quoted statement above. This polemically absurd statement alone belies a misunderstanding of Islam so deep rooted that we should all question how he was Senior Advisor for Information Strategy for the US Secretary of Defense on related issues. His book, The Closing of the Muslim Mind, was criticized by actual academics for its Americanist arrogance and war like rhetoric. Regrettably, Mr. Reilly’s ignorance of Islamic theology and the roots of Islamic terrorism he discussed in the aforementioned book and this article is all too plain to the trained eye.

    Islam is a false religion and the violence which stems from it must be combatted. However, misrepresentation & misinformation does violence to our intellects. More importantly, it destroys efforts to convert Muslims to the Roman Catholic Church.

    Lastly, where is the complementary criticism of Jewish terrorism, which stems directly from Rabbinic tradition, that has led to the death of thousands of civilians? Perhaps that would be “anti-Semitic” to discuss. Just ask Israel Shahak.

    • Thank you, an intellectual balanced observation. Given that Mr. Reilly is from a background of the Voice of America it is fair to say that he is not an author but a propagandist. I sincerely doubt any of the readers or editors of this site read Voice of America as their go to site for shining truth, if indeed they have every visited it. The head of Latin Rite Ukrainians has asked us fellow Catholics not to believe either Putin’s or Zelensky’s claims as both sides are lying, I fully expect both Hamas and Likud to do the same. VOA still supports the Gulf of Tonkin narrative, Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, and Gaddafi as the root of nearly all conflict in the last 30 years. Both the United States and Britain intentionally bombed German and Japanese civilians as a matter of policy, something neither can deny, why support either Likud or Hamas as different.

  6. After having lived and worked for a time in the Middle East, I came to understand that for a Muslim, a non-Muslim is less than a person. For example, if there is an automobile accident between a Muslim and a non-Muslim, Sharia law says that the non-Muslim is at fault and responsible for any and all damages, period, end of discussion.
    So, when a Muslim says that they are not butchering and slaughtering babies, in their mindset, if these babies are not Muslim, they are not human and, so, can be lawfully dealt with as the Muslim sees fit, and do so with a completely clear conscience.

    • Consistent with this fender-bender observation, and extending my comments above, here are two added points:

      FIRST, if Islamic “fitrah” overlaps in some way with what the West understands as universal natural law, for Muslims fitrah is then encapsulated for only those who accept all of Islam. Hence, the House of Islam versus the House of War. Is this division actually a continuation of (mega)tribalism from “the days of ignorance” prior to Muhammad and yet added to the mix?

      Which leads to a needed examination whether the term “fraternity” always means the same thing to Muslims as to Christians? Or, whether instead, the term can be perceived ambiguously as a partial admission by Christians that we are really Muslims, but without yet knowing it (an Islamic belief).

      SECOND, in the West and under Christianity (and Judaism), the God-given and inborn natural law is contained in the Decalogue (a needed reminder!). The Qur’an refers countless times to this “Law of Moses” but, so far as I can find, actually lists only the first four Commandments, and not the final and prohibitive six (“Thou shalt not…”). Instead, external jihad, booty, bearing false witness, and polygamy partly carry forward from earlier Arabian history (not unlike early history in the West).

      Which leads to the curious parallel, that some current Church “theology” and discernment also discounts the prohibitive moral absolutes as affirmed in, say, the Catechism and Veritatis Splendor. Is entropy equally comfortable in either a colorful turban or a collarless blazer?

  7. As if Adolf Hitler emerged from the depths of darkness to once again spread his hatred of the Jew. The Eternal Jew. A 1940 Nazi propaganda film spews the evil disease that has resurfaced worldwide. Jews. Who no nation wanted. When in 1939, German passenger ship the Saint Louis sailed the seas in search of haven for its German Jewish emigres. Not one nation wanted them. Our champion of social justice president Roosevelt joined the rejection.
    Was the curse brought upon themselves when in response to Pilate’s symbolic washing of Jesus’ innocent blood from his hands, the frenzied crowd of Jews shouted, Let his blood be upon us and our children’s children. Catholicism initially was inimical to Judaism, Paul’s missionary efforts violently opposed, Christian communities persecuted throughout the Roman empire. Afterward the now larger Christian communities persecuted Jews with a seeming vengeance. That changed within Catholicism when the Roman pontiff offered refuge to Spanish Jews during Spain’s inquisition. Many settled in the ancient Jewish quarter in Rome. Each year the popes would visit the Jewish quarter and meet the chief Rabbi exchanging appeals for conversion to the true faith. A form of concordat the result and change in policy. Reached its zenith under John Paul II. Reference in scripture to the self inflicted curse was ignored.
    Is their plight a form of punishment? I cannot speak for the mind of God. Although I can say God is just, not vindictive. The Apostle promises the remnant of Jews will return to Christ. Theoretically, Satan would have the murderous hatred of Jews to inspire that hatred. That, because they brought forth the Messiah who destroyed his suzerainty as Prince of this World. Personally, how can I possibly hate Jews, especially when I worship and love the God who comes to me in the Eucharist through Jewish flesh and blood taken from the Blessed Mother.

    • You’ve read NOSTRA AETATE, right? What a mob that may well have been put up to doing by the enemies of Jesus said should not be taken as the opinion of all the Jews in Jerusalem, much less Jews throughout the ancient world–half of Jewry lived in the Parthian Empire at the time. Those words be taken as a trigger for a perpetual Divine curse!!

      Greeks and Romans were not exactly fond of Jews before the birth of Christ. Remember the Maccabees? Conflicts experienced by St. Paul are hardly comparable to official Roman persecutions of Christians.

      People who want to excuse Hamas need to look at its own statement of principles and the policies of the Muslim Brotherhood, not to mention the infusion of Nazi propaganda into the Middle East via the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. That raid was precisely planned to kill, torture, rape, and kidnap as many Jewish civilians as possible. “Intrinsically evil acts,” wouldn’t you say?

      • I’m aware of the document, the rectification of the belief of a curse and collective guilt of the Jewish people. There was certainly a chastisement for Jesus’ rejection, consistent with previous chastisements. Christ’s words refer to chastisement elsewhere in the Gospels, And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades Mt 11:23.
        Personally, I’ve always had questions regarding Matthew’s insertion of the text 27:25, not mentioned in the other Gospel texts [there are for example variations of events in the four Gospels]. What you say, that those who retorted to Pilate, ‘Let his blood be upon us’ were a segment of the populace, as Matthew alludes noting they were incited by the Sanhedrin.
        What’s occurring today, a worldwide phenomenon [I follow Mark Levin Fox from whom I learned of the Mufti Nazi scenario] results from Leftist oriented academia, a corrupt media, Islamist propaganda efforts. And it was inevitable that a people who were persecuted worldwide and whose existence was threatened sought to establish a place, a nation of their own, on ground with long historical relevance would meet with opposition by its Muslim inhabitants, as well as Marxist idealists. Jews are an enigma largely because of their unusually gifted talents, and their ability to survive rejection.

      • Thank you Miss Sandra.
        Someone once said that whatever we are guilty of we then accuse the Jews of. Jews are the eternal scapegoat for our own failings and brokenness.

    • Good for the pope during the inquisition. The Ottoman Empire also reached out & provided the Spanish Jews passage to Turkey if I remember correctly.
      A good friend’s Sephardic grandparents emigrated to the states from Turkey years ago.

      • Spain, known for its cruel inquisition of Jews, they went so far as to investigate converts, is also the origin of one of the world’s most beautiful musical pieces, the Zarzuela titled El niño judío. A love story of a young Catholic woman’s love for a Jewish boy [young man].

        • Correction. The theme of this Zarzuela is about the love of a Spaniard, a young Spanish woman for El niño judío [a play on words for a young Jewish man].

        • The Spanish Inquisition was specifically founded to ferret out insincerely converted Jews who were still practicing Judaism in secret and potentially disturbing the faith of their genuinely converted brethren. The Inquisition has NO power over actual Jews. The latter were expelled in 1492 by royal decree because the “Catholic Kings” (more Ferdinand than Isabella) had concluded that even having practicing Jews around was a deadly distraction. The Spanish Inquisition also punished heresy, Protestantism, moral failings especially among priests, and superstitions as well as censoring books. Tryt reading Henry Kamen, the best modern historian on the subject.

          • Thanks Sandra. Yes, converted Jews who secretly practiced Judaism were called Marranos. Unfortunately Jews, not all, were also a fifth column danger to Catholic hegemony in the Iberian Peninsula because of their alliance and support of Muslims.
            As a point of personal interest and affection for a Jewish convert Saint, San Angelo of Jerusalem [born 1124], was also a missionary who preached the faith in Europe eventually in Licata, Sicily. My Dad’s place of birth. San Angelo was martyred 1220 by an Albigensian knight called Berengarius, following a sermon condemning Berengarius’ incest with his sister [Angelo had previously convinced the girl to abandon the practice]. Today, that church is the Sanctuary of San Angelo.

          • Thank you Father Peter and Miss Sandra. I’ll have to look for that song.
            If I remember, a number of Spanish and Portuguese Jews just continued to practice in secret to avoid expulsion. Later on, those who could emigrated to the New World and practiced more openly there. Other emigrants assimilated and mostly lost touch with their Jewish traditions.
            Where we live, hard boiled eggs are found in stews which was a practice carried over from Spain and in turn from Shabbat dishes.

    • Then Our Lady of Guadelupe is a hoax as there is no way she could be an Aztec, no Japanese can ever be TRUE Catholics because they have no Jewish Roots. That thing with Our Lady of Lavang is a fairy tale and Vietnamese should all go off and be Buddhists because there is no way Mary was Vietnamese. The very first to worship Christ were the Arab Shepards wouldn’t that make them the original Christians, sad they have no place in your Church or Church History. For me, how could I hate Jews when they gave us St Theresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) or St. Theresa of Avila or two of the original six followers of Loyola is a more correct statement. But then every race and ethnicity has given us Saints, doesn’t scripture say niether Jew nor Greek. Didn’t Christ say “greater faith have I never seen in all of Israel” about a dispised Roman Centurion and don’t we remember the Centurion everyday in Mass? Shouldn’t we hate him because of what the Romans did to the Jews? And wasn’t Herod a good guy deep down because he was Jewish?

      • I think Herod’s family background was rather complicated & so was his relationship with Judaism.
        Thank you for pointing that out about St. Teresa of Avila. Many people aren’t aware of her Jewish ancestors. Nor are a number of folks in Spain or former Spanish/Portuguese colonies aware of their own family histories. Many Jews fled from Spain & Portugal to the New World & mostly assimilated into the wider culture.

    • “By the way, it is US bombs that are being dropped on the Palestinians. Can you live with that, neo-con Catholics?”

      Yes.

      “On a concluding note, Netanyahu has made his genocidal intentions explicit, likening Palestinians to Amalek.”

      Please. Netanyahu is not going to eradicate the Palestinian population. Rhetoric is not action, and a misguided bomb here and there is tragic, but not genocide.

      Netanyahu will do all he can to eradicate Hamas, but that is a terrorist organization, not a nation. This is justice, not genocide.

      • Well Chris, I believe in self defense and freeing captives. Destroying terrorist tunnels involves explosives. I’m sorry that any of this violence has occurred but Israel has the same right to defend itself as we do and as our ally, it’s fitting that we assist them in doing that and freeing the kidnap victims.

      • “misguided” bombs? They are landing exactly where the Israeli pilots want them to land: on neighborhoods where Palestinians are present–whether those are Hamas or Palestinian children. They don’t care.

        • Someone commented in an editorial recently that what Hamas practices is mass Palestinian human sacrifice to further their agenda. More Gazan civilian deaths is a real goal for Hamas. It gives them global sympathy & legitimacy, not to mention humanitarian funding. There’s a reason Gazans haven’t been evacuated as instructed to. And a reason Hamas hides it’s terrorist operations under hospitals.
          Gaza deserves much better than Hamas.

  8. Truth is the first casualty in war, and we have to be careful when claims come in from either side of a conflict. The UN has already said that war crimes have been committed on both sides, bearing in mind the illegality of collective punishment (such as carpet-bombing and total sieges depriving populations of food, water, electricity etc). It’s very clear that Hamas has committed war crimes – appalling and hideous. But let’s not just accept everything we hear as gospel (the beheaded babies story for example has been thoroughly debunked – search for “beheaded babies claim is Israeli settler leader who incited riots to ‘wipe out’ Palestinian village”). Or search for a piece on October 7 and ‘friendly fire’ by Max Blumenthal, a highly qualified Jewish American journalist who is an expert on Gaza and uses local sources. We have to be more even-handed than Western coverage of this issue standardly is (you get better coverage from within Israel itself from the newspaper Haaretz – or outside Israel, from antiwar.com, Channel 4 News in the UK or indeed, Al Jazeera). Human rights organisations like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem when they investigate past and current Israeli operations in Gaza show a picture far from what the Israeli government would have us believe. More than 3,000 children have been killed so far in this new bombardment – for which the Israeli government has actually stated that it’s prioritising damage over accuracy. Hamas is not alone in committing war crimes.

  9. Thank you for sharing the interesting aspect of a major faith …to also help discern its influences- even as the spirit of the antiChrist amidst us, as loss of faith,its bitterness/ hardness of hearts etc: in blaming God for the effects of the rebellion/ misuse of our self will against the Divine Will.
    ‘Mankind will not have peace until it turns to My Mercy’ -words familiar to those who try to be devoted to the Divine Mercy devotion – yet , its deeper aspect often hidden from our hearts/ eyes …The eyes take in the sunlight,processes it as its own to help us to see …yet, accepting the merits earned by The Lord , given us as graces through The Mother to be taken in with profound gratitude as our own, to will and live in same – many fail … having ‘blocks/ bondages’, forgiveness difficult etc: .
    Holy Father often brings to our attention the theme of the oneness in the wounds – its deeper meaning too as intended often missed -such as how the pain / wounds from lack of compassion/ hardness of hearts can be occasions of gratitude to The Lord in The Passion …who makes reparation for every such wound as His own, allowing us to experience a bit of His own pain/ sorrow, to love Him and others with His compassion / Love, to help bring conversions – as explicated in page 21 in the 24 Hour Passion meditations book below –
    https://www.ltdw.org/newsletter-subscription—publication-orders.html
    Bl.Mother too doing same for us ..The dance of the sun at Fatima , the miracle allowed by The Father – of the role/ grace is given to The Mother in the Holy Spirit, to help us to love others with His Love – as the powerful blessing, a fruit of the Synod ,imparted to us in gratitude by the Holy Father at the closing Holy Mass !
    The promises in the Divine Will revelations as the means for our times to help those who are blind to see love in The Way of our Lord , who respects human freedom , yet gives us the great role/ call to be united to His Divine Will – the Eucharistic Reign in hearts with the grace to love others with His Love and Truth as the antidote for darkness ! FIAT !

  10. As to Reilly’s thesis of evidence free mentality, this phenomenon, a well known feature of the one track mindedness found in Middle East Islamic thought, remarkably coincides with the one track mindedness of the secular Left plaguing America.

  11. I’m aware of the document, the rectification of the belief of a curse and collective guilt of the Jewish people. There was certainly a chastisement for Jesus’ rejection, consistent with previous chastisements. Christ’s words refer to chastisement elsewhere in the Gospels, And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades Mt 11:23.
    Personally, I’ve always had questions regarding Matthew’s insertion of the text 27:25, not mentioned in the other Gospel texts [there are for example variations of events in the four Gospels]. What you say, that those who retorted to Pilate, ‘Let his blood be upon us’ were a segment of the populace, as Matthew alludes noting they were incited by the Sanhedrin.
    What’s occurring today, a worldwide phenomenon [I follow Mark Levin Fox from whom I learned of the Mufti Nazi scenario] results from Leftist oriented academia, a corrupt media, Islamist propaganda efforts. And it was inevitable that a people who were persecuted worldwide and whose existence was threatened sought to establish a place, a nation of their own, on ground with long historical relevance would meet with opposition by its Muslim inhabitants, as well as Marxist idealists. Jews are an enigma largely because of their unusually gifted talents, and their ability to survive rejection. We’re closely linked historically, spiritually, and the humanness of our predilections.

  12. There is no nation that is free to behave as Israel does now because it is not a terrorist organization like Hamas. A nation under attack of terrorism can NOT attack civilians en masse: 1. it is wrong; 2. it is futile.

    It is wrong because it attacks civilians. It is futile because you are sidestepping the real right approach.

    But there is also the dimension of raw hate that Zionists are cultivating in this area as well as in others. It is its own kind of polarization and plan to terrorize. Parts of the world are aligned to it including the Lodge.

    It has nothing to do with Christianity.

    There isn’t any magic and mystery to what Israel is doing. The reason Netanyahu says that IDF is “the most ethical army in the world” is because it is both following orders well and doing what they set out to do beyond what they name. Which means everything unethical you already see and whatever else truly bad they have done and yet will enact.

    They are deliberately targeting civilians as a purposeful form of warfare to intimidate the “unseeable orgasnization”; and this can not stand.

    Israel dazzles you because “it has something to do with the Bible” and you want to be dazzled ….. “by Israel”.

    Once you have thrown off the Lord God you will not obey and follow what else is there for you but to charm everybody on your powers, your sweets and your display, O Delilah; and your Samson lad.

  13. there is no casual connection between “the quenching of thirst and drinking, satiety and eating …

    I’m assuming the author or editor means causal connection.

    I’ll refrain from otherwise commenting, as this thread mostly revolves around anti-Semitic libel.

    • I don’t think I’ve ever been so ashamed of some of my fellow Catholics as I have these past few weeks since the massacre in Israel. I had to listen to a Protestant news source on YouTube this morning just to wash my ears out from the antisemitism I’ve been encountering-both from the left & the right.
      I was thinking today that civilization is really like a sticky, thin contact paper we wear. When you tear that off, barbarism, ignorance, & savagery lie right below the surface.

      • So now any criticism of the Israeli government whatsoever is “antisemitism?” Labels are so handy for stifling opinions you’d rather not deal with. Add that one to all the other labels that have lost their meaning and become just a synonym for “something I don’t like.”

        • Antizionism is just a modern version of antisemitism.
          It’s true, you can disagree with Israeli politics. That’s perfectly legit. Plenty of Israelis disagree also. But we can’t disagree with Israel’s right to defend itself after being savagely attacked or its right to exist.
          There is real antisemitism afloat today & I’m truly distressed when I find that amongst Catholics.

          • Catholics have a long and regrettable history of antiSemitism right back to to the early Church. I’ve been researching this to prepare for a long article on the modern variety thereof which I hope to publish here next spring. Then you’ll really see CWR’s combox explode!

  14. No but look again.

    If the hostages have been ferreted off long ago to Egypt, what is bombing Gaza to the ground going to affect? Or if by now the hostages have been spread around everywhere, Jordan. West Bank. Golan and Lebanon?

    And if you go through Gaza in phases that you “planned”, so what. Or if you are actually doing it ad hoc and in spurts of reaction described as “phases” – so what.

    Viewing it from tactics, you’re dealing with an intelligent array that will defy force.

    Morally, you kill goodwill and trust, it can amount to grave sin; and it’s your fault.

    This applies to everyone. Noticing how some Jews hold themselves above it all, is not anti-Semitism.

    People who notice this are not “against Jews”.

  15. The recording cited by Mr. Reilly as proof of Hamas’ admission that its rocket hit the hospital was provided by the IDF. Is it genuine? I don’t know. Some analysts doubt its authenticity. The same can be said of the videos adduced by Israel. In any case, both sides tell self-serving lies regularly. Also, Israel has flattened many other non-military structures over the last three weeks, including a church, and killed thousands of civilians. Hamas hides behind non-combatants and most Gazans surely support its terrorist and military tactics. Does that justify Israel’s indiscriminate bombing and shelling campaign?

    • Israel first calls Gazan civilians in harm’s way on their phones to alert them. Then they drop leaflets warning of a coming strike. Finally they drop small explosive charges on roofs (“roof knocking”) to shake apartment buildings get occupants’ attention. What other nation takes those precautions to avoid collateral damage? There’s nothing indiscriminate about how the IDF operates.
      Hamas desires & benefits from high civilian deaths in Gaza. That’s the whole point. Not everyone in Gaza supports Hamas but’s like going against the Mafia or the Sinaloa cartel.

  16. One fact that has not been widely reported in the coverage of this conflict is that Israel was involved in the creation of Hamas in the 1980s. The Israelis were looking for an Islamist rival to weaken the PLO. Lest anyone accuse me of spinning conspiracies theories, one can go, for example, to the Times of Israel for an account of the story. Israel also supported ISIS and other Islamist groups in the recent Syrian civil war.

    • Just so, Tony, I’m glad you mentioned this. This also ties in with the very real possibility of collusion (passive or active) between Hamas and Israel in regard to October 7th and to prior terrorist incidents.

      They provide convenient pretexts for Israeli devastation of the Palestinian populace.

      I mentioned in a prior post how almost every Islamic/Arab terrorist group is *not* organic. Al-Qaeda, ISIS/ISIL, Hamas, –all have their roots, development, and maintenance in Western or Israeli governments.

      Want to know who is really fighting terrorism? It’s the opposite of what the MSM is telling you. The real anti-terrorist heroes are Putin of Russia, Assad of Syria, and Suleimani of Iran (whom we murdered). Not Talmudic thugs like Netanyahu, or his lackeys Trump and Biden.

  17. Another telling moral point raised by some on other sites. On Oct. 7, the world’s most thorough surveillance system failed to notice hundreds of Hamas in trucks knocking over a wall and driving full speed for the Kibbutzes. On Oct. 8, the same intelligence system mysteriously recovered and now “knew” where every Hamas terrorist was–so that they could justify flattening Gaza.

    • Only presumptions motivated by unchristian venom could fail to realize that knowledge of entrenched positions does not guarantee foreknowledge of savage infamy with certitude.

  18. The progression of “military acts” by IDF and Netanhayu is undermining your earnest defenses for them -outstripping anything you propose as good to be upheld and outdoing the worst with each new atrocity.

    I’m not trying to get the better of it over you or anyone. I don’t need to do any such thing. Christ is the victory not Zionism or Netanyahu.

    There is a prudent way to sort through who can qualify for the 2-state solution. Whatever this is now, however, is not it. Even if we allow that Netanyahu is some sort of worthy character free of all taint in the Rabin assassination and other moral breakdown since before and after that time -this is not the way.

  19. Without untangling all of the above, we’ve not seen much here yet about Hamas’ use of human shields. Surely this tactic complicates at least a little the calculus of a Just War and the targeting of civilians.

    And, while we’re at it, there’s the witless politics that enabled Hamas to be elected to power in Gaza. In 2006 those other-than-Hamas ran several competing names for each position, while Hamas entered only one name–such that Hamas garnered a winning plurality (far less than fifty percent) while all the others lost by splitting the remaining votes among their multiple selves.

    For the world’s democracies, there’s got to be a lesson here, somewhere… And even for the Synod (while “not a parliament”), with the soundbite and divide-and-conquer roundtable arrangement.

  20. I have been thoroughly disgusted by many of the anti-semitic comments here, in addition to many I have heard in the general media.Its astounding to me that muslim terrorists could mow down hundreds of teens at a music festival, behead babies and worse, and yet still end up as the “victims” in the view of much of the world. No mention that it is THEY who began this carnage. It’s all ok, and Israel is forced to play by Marquis of Quuensbury Rules while the opposition street fights with knives and guns. I dont think so. I also doubt many in Gaza are “civilians” in terms of their own hatred of Israel.They have been propagandized since the day of their birth. If Hamas hides their men and munitions behind , under or near schools, hostages and hospitals, those remain legitimate targets. Hamas will learn quickly then that such a tactic is fruitless, and perhaps will cease using it. War must always be waged all-out.Remember the tactics of our own Civil War General Sherman. It is the only way to bring it to a more rapid end with therefore fewer overall casualties. A stalemate “peace” is nothing but a guarantee of ongoing death and destruction. Death by 1,000 cuts, as it was once termed. And that serves no one. The US should get out of the way of Israel as they do what they must in order to survive as a people. Such policy should include NOT giving away $100 million in “humanitarian” aid which we all know will be used by Hamas to buy more weapons. War is horrible for a good reason . People die gruesome deaths. Its what makes war a thing to be avoided.Maybe after THIS war, the people of Gaza may finally learn that lesson. And now we wait and see if we will also suffer Israel’s fate thanks to Biden’s moronic open border policy.

    • I don’t think channeling Gen. Sherman is good advice for anyone today much less a moral nation like Israel.
      Capturing and disarming brutal terrorists is good. It’s all the Israelis are trying to do. The Gazans are not the enemy and it’s not a civil war.

      • I am sure that you make your comments in complete sincerity. However, some of them have no connection to reality. Wishing something to be true does not make it so .

  21. Moral indignation can not give way to barbaric and senseless violence.

    Savage terrorism is not met with savage warfare.

    None of that is Christian. There is a way in prudence to get at terrorists without resort to what can not be justified and HAVING to put yourself in that position.

    All are bound by rules of war – if there is a war. When it is not a war other strictures take precedence and they too must measure right reason and efficacy.

    These things were worked out among states a long time before the Balfour Declaration and if anything Israel is demonstrating a forfeit of its own nationhood.

    The thesis worked out in the ’70’s that terrorism is a warfare, is a falsehood.

    • On the contrary, ALL are NOT bound by rules of war. That could not be more clear. The barbarians who choose to play by NO rules are the ones who often come close to winning. The US put an end to WWII by its well thought out use of nuclear weapons. While civilians died, It ENDED a war which could have otherwise dragged on for another 20 years of hand to hand fighting on each Japanese Island. Thats NOT a realistic cost of war. When YOU are the one who is the victim of an unprovoked attack, all bets are off when you respond. Tracking back old historic wrongs from 50, 100, or 200 years ago is idiotic and does not provide any moral cover. The object of any war is to kill enough of the enemy to force their surrender, and prevent your own people from being killed. Period. It is no time to figure out how many angels dance on the head of a pin. The US in general tries to minimize civilian casualties when practical, as does Israel. However, there are times when tough choices need to be made and civilian collateral damage is inevitable. War is not a game of chess.

      • All are bound by rules of war. This exemption status is precisely the impudence of Zionists and the edict against them.

        What are you afraid of. If God disowns Israel as He said He would, you have to accept it or be disowned by Him too.

      • Yes, LJ, while all may be bound to the rules in a greater moral sense it’s pretty ludicrous to expect that from criminals & terrorists. Criminals don’t play by the rules but they can attempt to hide behind them.

        • You mean such as Israel at the point in time, mrscracker.

          Neither Israel nor Netanyahu nor Zionists can hold the world to a “principle” that “Israel is obliged to exterminate Amalek”. Those days are gone and done for in the Blood of the Lamb Who attests to Himself and to every rational mortal being on His own behalf and on theirs.

          Netanyshu’s “Amalek” business and any other “Biblical right” he will want to foist on the world, is to tantalize you and hold you fast to the false and wicked idea that as a norm it is unassailable and preeminent among nations; making Israel -Zionists- unassailable and preeminent.

          That is a mega-plan of mega-violence against everyone who will not bend to Netanyahu and Zionists and whoever allies with them. Murderous and smug. You’re not supposed to look at it because you’re allowed to call him Bibi?

    • Israel “forfeit[ing] its own nationhood”?

      I admit to cognitive dissonance in these incoherent times. Israel was already a “nation” when the (e)uropeans were still barking at each other in caves.

      • In further response, here, to ONLY your comment: “The US put an end to WWII by its well thought out use of nuclear weapons.”

        Some on-site observers NOTICED that when the first nuclear blast was tested in Alamogordo, New Mexico, the exclamation-point mushroom cloud (!) was deformed by upper wind currents into the shape of a question mark (?).

        So, rather than your “20 years of hand-to-hand combat,” the scientific community (Szilard, Einstein, et al) urged Truman in writing to refrain, because in their judgment the actual use of atomic bombs on Japan would trigger a massive and decades-long NUCLEAR ARMS RACE with Russia–putting all of us, more or less, where we are today, now with broader proliferation. The letter was slow-walked by others and the “decider” Truman never saw. Momentum rather than a fully thought-out decision?

        Then there’s the ambiguity of WORDS–something we have all witnessed recently in other contexts–namely the slogan “unconditional surrender” (yes, mobilizing, but an ultimatum lifted from one Civil War battle, at Fort Donelson, Tennessee; across cultures the limited meaning would be easily misunderstood).

        About PUNCTUATING, rather than actually ENDING the War in the Pacific, the plot thickens…For example, this from the “Strategic Bombing Survey” (1946): “certainly prior to 31 December 1945, and in all probability prior to 1 November 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated.” So, in the interest of historical CURIOSITY, much more has been published and chewed on from the enormous pile of wartime material declassified in 1995 (after being sealed the mandatory 50 years)…

        Was it a “well thought out” decision, or more of a tragic “momentum” during complex and fast-moving-events, as in so many compartmentalized and “forwardist” bureaucracies throughout history?

  22. Many have expressed shock here in regard to so-called “anti-semitic” posts.

    What I find shocking here are the many posts that display ignorance of a basic principle of morality: “unrighteous deeds may not be done, even for a righteous end/cause.”

    The righteous end here would seem to be the punishment of the guilty, of the terrorists. OK so far.

    But, force, especially lethal force, can be justly applied to the guilty alone.

    Obviously therefore this rules out the targeting of (aiming at) the innocent (in this case, civilians).

    I would argue that what Israel is doing: cutting off all food, water, medicine, electricity (and therefore the functioning of hospitals) *is a targeting of civilians.*

    The proximate end is to injure (even unto death) the Palestinian populace and its infrastructure in the hope that the remote goal of killing/injuring the terrorist might be attained. Israel is targeting the innocent–which is wrong.

    I would also ask the question: how likely is it that a (initially, at least) well-supplied Hamas terrorist will be harmed by these measures?

    If Israel wants to kill terrorists in an ethical manner, it should use its intelligence services, find out who the terrorists are, where they are, and then send in its much-vaunted commandos and snipers to attack the terrorists.

    Will this entail a greater risk to Israeli armed forces than starving Gaza?

    Yes, of course, but isn’t that what ethical warfare often requires?

    I may post again in regard to another ethical question, if anyone might be interested (probably not, I know–but in any event, pray for peace!)

  23. Zionism is polarization, extremism and fundamentalism even among Israelis. It’s a peculiar thing that voices that have been loud against fundamentalism have fallen silent coinciding with these circumstances prioritized by Zionists, Netanyahu and Biden.

    Zionists want to engulf the whole world and every part of history with their aggrandizement, usurpations and vitriolic using God’s Name about how special and favoured they are for the sake of everyone’s advantage. No better than Islamic extremists -and no different.

    Meats of strangled animals. Meats sacrificed to idols. Blood. Envy. Greed of glory. Lust of glory. What is anti-Semitic or anti-Jew is to encourage and laud Israel in the malignancy and gorging it is engaged in presently.

    Coming out of this is, unfortunately, also, is the complete nullifying of US neutrality for Middle East affairs, for as long as the present US Administration subsists. No-one who counts for peace is going to be able to trust it or going to want to trust it.

  24. I was hoping -am hoping- to convince mrscracker of my views by a form of argument not by insult or demeaning.

    Nor do I read anything in mrscracker as “me me me me” or “low IQ” etc. Where these things came from I don’t know.

    I typically allow that everyone thinks he is right on his arguments and that he could possibly well be right in part or whole.

  25. This is ZioNazism. With the 10,000 Palestinians now killed by the Israelis, this is history repeating itself with a twist. This is comparable to the scale and ferocity of the Holocaust. The victims of genocide have now turned into perpetrators of genocide.

1 Trackback / Pingback

  1. Is Islam a Violent Religion? – David P. Goldman - VBLSA

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

All comments posted at Catholic World Report are moderated. While vigorous debate is welcome and encouraged, please note that in the interest of maintaining a civilized and helpful level of discussion, comments containing obscene language or personal attacks—or those that are deemed by the editors to be needlessly combative or inflammatory—will not be published. Thank you.


*