There is no moral equivalency between Israel and Hamas

Canadians were shocked when thousands of armed Hamas fighters breached a border security fence and indiscriminately slaughtered at least 1,400 innocents while raping women, beheading babies and taking more than 200 people of all ages and nationalities as hostages.

Yet when some politicians, university deans or leaders of professional associations were asked to denounce Hamas for this barbaric attack, that request was met with silence. Worse yet, arguments were made that there is some sort of moral equivalency between the actions of Hamas and Israel, before and after the attack.

There is no moral equivalency to be found here. 

When people say that Israel’s past involvement with Gaza or its actions in the current military conflict are morally equivalent to the actions of Hamas, they are essentially advocating that Jews anywhere in the world are fair game for slaughter, rape or worse. By morally equating victims and aggressors, they are demonizing the victims and laying the groundwork for atrocities.

Hitler started by demonizing Jews

In the 1930s, Adolf Hitler began by demonizing Jews, while also targeting the Slavs, the Roma, people with mental deficiencies and others. That progressed to more aggressive tactics, culminating in the wholesale murder of six million Jews and millions of other people. Across Germany and beyond, good people stood by in silence or tacitly accepted Hitler’s arguments about the dangers that Jews posed. 

I have a beard and wear a skull cap. I look Jewish. And in 2023, I feel exceptionally vulnerable, even in the supposedly safe haven of Canada. Many of my Jewish friends in Canada are also frightened. We are getting a little taste of what it was like in Germany in the 1930s.

In late October, protesters demonstrated in front of a Jewish-owned restaurant in Toronto. According to a media report, they waved Palestinian flags, intimidated staff and chanted for a boycott. Another report notes that there were 15 reported anti-Semitic hate crimes in the city between Oct. 7 and Oct. 25, including the theft of mezuzahs that contain a religious scroll and are affixed to doorposts as an expression of faith.

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A media report notes that at Toronto City Hall, demonstrators waved Hamas flags at a pro-Palestinian rally. And in Perth, Australia, demonstrators chanted “Gas the Jews” in a similar rally, a media report states. Who would have thought that such hatred could be expressed in a public area in a constitutional democracy similar to Canada without any consequences?

I fear the situation for Jews in Canada could grow as bad as it is in Europe, where the Star of David is being crudely splashed on Jewish storefronts by vandals. And let’s not forget about the 2015 slaughter at a kosher grocery store in Paris, where four shoppers were slain for no other crime than being Jewish. Very few people spoke up after that attack.

‘Then they came for the Jews’

As Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller wrote about the rise of Nazism after he was released from the Dachau concentration camp:

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist …
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.

Silence, or moral equivalency arguments, give strength and encouragement to Hamas. 

Let’s take this argument a little bit further. Some people, in good faith, feel that Israel is responding disproportionately in Gaza as many innocent people are now going without fuel, food, water and medicine. (Interestingly enough, there is no lack of missiles and the fuel needed to launch them.)

Concern for the innocent civilians in Gaza is commendable. But what people may not realize is that their moral equivalency arguments are providing fuel for anti-Semites. What they are essentially saying through moral equivalency arguments or silence – to Hamas and its sponsor Iran – is that they tacitly accept Jews being killed, raped and worse. 

Hamas’s dangerous goals

The danger Hamas poses does not stop in Israel. Along with eliminating Jews, Hamas calls for the elimination of Christians worldwide. It also wants to launch an Islamic caliphate across the Arab world and then across the globe. Establishing a peaceful state of Palestine alongside a peaceful state of Israel is not one of its goals.

When someone makes the argument for moral equivalency regarding the ongoing Hamas/Israel war, I would suggest they are simply uninformed and at best, naïve. They do not realize just how threatening their words are to their Jewish colleagues, friends and neighbours. Their stance also fuels anti-Semitism and gives comfort and succour to Hamas, an organization recognized by the government of Canada as a terror group. 

Inciting hate and murder against an identifiable minority is illegal in the United States and in Canada, where it is a crime under s.319 of the Criminal Code. I mentioned that to Solicitor-General Michael S. Kerzner during a recent email exchange, when I asked him to cancel a pro-Hamas rally planned for Queen’s Park. He responded that he could not, in the interest of freedom of speech.

‘Face of evil revealed’

His reasoning in that regard is short-sighted, in my opinion, but I am pleased that he took a strong stand for Israel in the Legislature on Oct. 17 when the conflict between Israel and Hamas was discussed.

As transcripts state, Kerzner noted: “We’re here in this chamber of democracy, and we must reject any moral equivalency. This is not a land dispute or competing aspirations for national sovereignty, a he-said-she-said dispute about conflicting dual narratives. This is a face of evil revealed, a violent ideology that would kill Jews for being Jews, that neither represents the Muslim faith or the national interest of the Palestinian people or any future of coexistence. Mr. Speaker, we have a big problem when we cannot call evil ‘evil’ – of condemning targeted violence against innocents. We also need to understand again that for Israel, when you are dealing with the devil, it is incredibly hard to act like an angel.”

Well said, and a clear explanation of why there is no moral equivalency when comparing the democratic State of Israel to a terrorist group whose members celebrate the raping and killing of innocent children and women. 

Those calling for Israel to lay down its arms are essentially calling for the liquidation of Israel and of the Jewish people. Since Hamas’s goal is to eliminate Jews, the Israel Defense Forces are obliged to eliminate Hamas members first. I hope and pray that the number of civilian casualties will be minimal. But Israel cannot nor must not stop until it eradicates Hamas. 

This is the second of a two-part series. In part one, Gene C. Colman discussed the reaction from Ontario law faculties to the Israel/Hamas conflict.