“Tell me who you walk
with and I’ll tell you who you are,” author Esmeralda Santiago wrote. I recalled this Puerto Rican proverb after
watching All In with Chris Hayes on August 1, 2014.
The segment was about
the civilian death toll in Gaza. Chris
Hayes cited a Wall Street Journal op-ed article, “Hamas’s Civilian Death
Strategy,” written by Thane Rosenbaum.
Mr. Rosenbaum argues Hamas’s uses civilians and children as “cannon
fodder” to entice worldwide sympathy for Palestinians and condemnation towards
Israel.[1]
Furthermore, Mr.
Rosenbaum argues, “On some basic level, you forfeit
your right to be called civilians when you freely elect members of a terrorist
organization as statesmen, invite them to dinner with blood on their hands and
allow them to set up shop in your living room as their base of operations. At
that point you begin to look a lot more like conscripted soldiers than innocent
civilians. And you have wittingly made yourself targets.” [2]
Also, in the segment, the
President of the New York Board of Rabbis, Rabbi David Seth Kirshner said at a
Pro-Israel rally in New York City, “When you are part of an election process
that asks for a terrorist organization which proclaims in word and in deed that
their primary objective is to destroy their neighboring country and to not
build schools or commerce or jobs, you are complicit and you are not a civilian
casualty.” [3]
I recalled a similar attitude
towards civilian casualties. “The American people are the ones who
choose their government by way of their own free will; a choice which stems
from their agreement to its policies. Thus the American people have chosen,
consented to, and affirmed their support for the Israeli oppression of the
Palestinians, the occupation and usurpation of their land, and its continuous
killing, torture, punishment and expulsion of the Palestinians. The American
people have the ability and choice to refuse the policies of their Government
and even to change it if they want.
“The American people are the ones who pay the taxes which
fund the planes that bomb us in Afghanistan, the tanks that strike and destroy
our homes in Palestine, the armies which occupy our lands in the Arabian Gulf,
and the fleets which ensure the blockade of Iraq. These tax dollars are given to
Israel for it to continue to attack us and penetrate our lands. So the American
people are the ones who fund the attacks against us, and they are the ones who
oversee the expenditure of these monies in the way they wish, through their
elected candidates.
“This is why the American people cannot be not innocent of
all the crimes committed by the Americans…”[4] The author of this statement is Osama bin
Laden.
Bin Laden was condemned. Terrorism against civilians is an abomination. But Mr. Rosenbaum and Rabbi Kirshner have not been censured for advocating state sponsored terrorism against Palestinians. According to Mr. Rosenbaum and Rabbi Kirshner, there are no innocent civilians, thus they occupy the moral high ground. However, they occupy the same moral high ground, shoulder to shoulder with Osama bin Laden above Gaza’s destruction. Mr. Rosenbaum and Rabbi Kirshner agree in theory with bin Laden. “Tell me who you walk with and I’ll tell you who you are.”
[1] “Hamas’s
Civilian Death Strategy,” Thane Rosenbaum, Wall Street Journal, 7/21/14.
[2] “Hamas’s
Civilian Death Strategy,” Thane Rosenbaum, Wall Street Journal, 7/21/14.
[3] “If
You Voted for Hamas, Israel Has a Right to Kill You,” Phillip Weiss, Op Ed News,
7/30/14.
[4] “Full
Text bin Laden’s Letter to America,” The Guardian, 11/24/02.
