The massacre of Qana

The massacre of Qana
The misery of humanism and the downfall of ethics

After seeing the terrible and shocking photos of children who were massacred today in Qana by Israel, one can ask this legitimate question: are those who committed this crime human beings? And if yes, then what’s the essence of humanity?

This is not the first massacre in human history, and for sure won’t be the last one. 10 years ago, in the same place, the Nobel price “for peace” winner Shimon Peres led a massacre killing more than 100 children and civilians. Since the establishment of the state of Israel our region knew many massacres to mention some of them only: Deir Yasin, Kofr Qasem, Sabra and Shatella, Jenin.
To be honest, many massacres happened in other places and other times. Therefore I raise the first question in a different way: are we as human beings human? Do we really belong to our race?
Israeli politicians, militaries, writers, thinkers, artists declare shamelessly and arrogantly in every occasion that the Israeli state and army are the most ethical in the world. Even more than that, they often claim that they are the only ethical while the entire world suffers from double morals. They talk about the purity of the army weapons.
Big philosophers from Socrates, Plato and Aristotle to the modern philosophers spent their whole life trying to define what ethics mean and contain, what’s right and wrong behavior, what’s justice. And they couldn’t give us a satisfying answer, while the smallest politician in Israel knows all the answers for these questions.
Who wants to look for racist quotations of Israeli leaders will find plenty of them, but he won’t be able to explain how these quotations go in harmony with ethics. When one dehumanizes his enemy then he legalizes his killing. Israel does this with Palestinians, Lebanese and other Arabs, and in lesser degree to the rest of the world. One Israeli said: they are cockroaches; other leader said they are snakes, and another said that they are genially distorted, and another said that God regrets that he created them. No need to say that it’s not a crime to kill cockroaches. Israel uprooted the Palestinian people and destroyed its villages in 48 for his own good. It occupied the rest of Palestine in 1967 also for its own good, since the Israeli occupation is civil sized and merciful. It’s impudent and ingratitude from the Palestinians to resist this occupation. Now, the modern definition that they are terrorists, that means it’s legal to kill them.
The same ethical principles are applied now in Lebanon, in pretext of fighting Hezbollah, Israel is destroying all of Lebanon. And why it’s doing that? For the sake of their own good, to liberate them from Hezbollah. There are no civilians in Lebanon. There are terrorists and supporters of terrorists and they are legitimate targets for killing. The only ones who can continue to live are those who collaborate with Israel. In this war there’s no difference between fighters, and non fighters, between men and children and women, all of them are kosher food for the Israeli missiles and bombs. One minister said: the destruction is not enough and the using of fire is not enough we have to delete complete villages from the map. Another Rabbi said: we’ve to kill them all, terrorists, civilians, women, and children.
Unfortunately, not only some leaders who think and talk like that but 81% of the population. All of them want to see more destruction, more fire, and more killings. The Israeli TV didn’t show the pictures of the murdered children under the rubble. The prime minister said that he needs 2 more weeks to finish the job, in other words to kill more people and destroy more villages.
The Israeli leaders, together with the American administration and their allies in Europe and in the Arab world are responsible for these war crimes. But we, human beings, are responsible for defending and saving the human face of humanity.