NPR - Diversity

[Bret Ripley]

I don't think anyone seriously argues that the death and suffering inflicted upon the civilian population in Gaza has been orders of magnitude greater than the suffering inflicted by Hamas on October 7.

Of the tens of thousands killed in Gaza, approximately 60% have been women, children, and elderly folks. Additionally, several hundred aid workers have been killed by Israeli forces. (Aid workers includes doctors, nurses, paramedics, ambulance drivers, food distribution volunteers, etc.)

This by no means diminishes the atrocities inflicted upon Israeli citizens on October 7. It is only meant to highlight the asymmetry of Israel's response.

This is probably not a great analogy, but consider this: let's say a group of teenagers from a nearby apartment complex breaks into my home and murders several members of my family. Furthermore, I have reason to believe they may do so again. Question: what moral arguments can I cite as justification for burning down that apartment complex?

[Chap]

This is probably not a great analogy, but consider this: let's say a group of teenagers from a nearby apartment complex breaks into my home and murders several members of my family. Furthermore, I have reason to believe they may do so again. Question: what moral arguments can I cite as justification for burning down that apartment complex?

That comparison is not at all bad in terms of the disproportionality of what is going on in Gaza at present.

The terroristic attack of October 7 was an appalling aggression, and Israel had the clear right to retaliate to defend itself. But the actions of the IDF in Gaza show such clear violations of the obligations of an occupying power to the people of an occupied region under the Geneva Conventions that it looks very much as if (in accordance with the expressed wishes of some members of the Netanyahu cabinet) they intend to turn Gaza into an uninhabited heap of rubble, without a single care for the welfare of the people who live there.

[Kishkumen]

This is probably not a great analogy, but consider this: let's say a group of teenagers from a nearby apartment complex breaks into my home and murders several members of my family. Furthermore, I have reason to believe they may do so again. Question: what moral arguments can I cite as justification for burning down that apartment complex?

I can see Netanyahu arguing that the apartment complex and perhaps every other structure in the vicinity, with all of the occupants, must be bombed into oblivion. He would say that everyone there was complicit in the threat that resulted in the violence, would have done it themselves if they had the chance, and are probably planning to do it again in the near future, this time with advanced weaponry they are developing in their boiler rooms. If not, we all know these other occupants are cynically being used as human shields, and so they must be treated with equal cynicism by those who claim to feel threatened.