Can We Agree on a Few Basics?

W.J. Astore

Sides in War Are Not “Teams”

1. Killing civilians and especially children is wrong.

2. Cutting off water, food, electricity, and fuel to millions of vulnerable people is wrong.

3. Forced mass evacuations of hundreds of thousands of people in preparation for a destructive invasion is wrong.

4. Dropping thousands of bombs and killing thousands of innocents is wrong. So is launching hundreds of unguided rockets and killing scores of innocents. 

5. Holding hostages and threatening to slay them is wrong.

Whether Hamas or Israel are doing these things, they are wrong.  Putting an end to such wrongs through a ceasefire is right.  Certainly, it’s less wrong.

In going to Israel and embracing Netanyahu, President Biden is obviously choosing one side, that of Israel, and empowering it to do whatever it wants in Gaza. Interestingly, Biden claimed that yesterday’s destruction of a hospital in Gaza was done in his words by the “other team,” meaning Hamas.

The terminology here is striking. Israel and Hamas are not sports “teams” in which we choose to root for one side against the other. Israelis and Palestinians are people equally deserving of human dignity and human rights.

I’ve written about the invasion (so to speak) of war terms into sports and vice-versa. Biden’s dismissal of Hamas as the “other team” that’s allegedly responsible for the hospital’s destruction and the deaths of hundreds of innocents trivializes a deep human tragedy.

Are we ever going to move beyond this “team” mentality where we root for the total victory of one “team” over another?

6 thoughts on “Can We Agree on a Few Basics?”

  1. Questioning: If the US is attacked with nuclear weapons, does the US respond likewise with nuclear weapons on high population areas, killing millions of innocent civilians who were not responsible for the initial attack that was ordered by perhaps one single person, not a nation? How does one use nuclear weapons against the military of an opponent without killing innocent people who happen to be in uniform? I think I know how Generals would answer the first question, since war is their job, not peace.

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  3. What is this, a “both sides” argument? Hasn’t that approach already been invalidated because one side or the other (or both) are barbarians? Doesn’t dehumanizing “them” mean “our” side/team is justified sinking to the same levels of brutality? Why bother asking these questions when the Hatfields and McCoys in this perennial struggle are just gonna keep on keeping on until, finally, they can’t anymore?

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    1. It’s not my intent to suggest both sides are equally guilty, or equally “evil.” Just that when innocents are killed in war, often indiscriminately, whichever side (or “team” as Biden would say) is doing it deserves condemnation.

      In the case of Israel and Hamas, there is a huge power disparity. The IDF is capable of far more destruction than Hamas. Meanwhile, the Israeli government can kill through its policies of denying food, water, electricity, and other essentials to Gaza. Hamas obviously can’t do the same to Israel.

      Dehumanizing another group of people is always wrong. The Nazis did it to the Jews. It’s not right or somehow less wrong when Israel does it to Hamas or the Palestinians.

      What do you think, Brutus?

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      1. Perhaps it wasn’t clear that I was being arch. I find it utterly ridiculous to pit one atrocity against another to determine which is worse. Both are atrocities, and motivations and justifications behind them matter to me less than that they stop. I empathize with suffering whenever and wherever it occurs and exhort those inflicting suffering on others to stop. So it’s me taking a “both sides” approach.

        The power disparity you mention is obvious, so I tend to think more about the underdog. Considering their long plight, it’s not at all difficult to understand why the weaker people found their condition intolerable and fought back. Most discussion to which I’m privy elides that basic human understanding.

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