Do Israel’s critics understand Evil? – UnHerd

Hamas, whose hateful ideology was directly influenced by Nazism, has claimed that the brutal murder of Jewish children and babies in Israel was perpetrated by enraged civilians from Gaza. In fact, documents recovered from Hamas terrorists killed in southern Israel show detailed plans to target children and young people . Hamas s supporters cite facts that are supposed to justify the terrorists vile deeds, including the seizure of Palestinian land in the 1948 War of Independence, when the Jews of the new nation of Israel fought the armies of five invading Arab nations. But there can be no justification of Hamas s atrocities, not even in principle. They are so vile as to fall beyond the realm of explanation, let alone excuse. History teaches us at least this much.

In other words, Hamas s vicious deeds were Evil. They exemplified useless violence, for they were designed to make their victims Israelis, and insofar as possible, all Jews suffer in the cruellest possible way. This must be understood, because the organs of supposedly judicious opinion are already explaining that Israel s military response to Hamas must not be disproportionate . We ve seen this movie ad nauseam: it plays on an endless loop. Israelis are murdered in terrorist attacks, and then they are denounced for taking concrete steps to protect themselves.

There is something absurd about the demand that Israel exercise proportionality in the face of Evil. As Douglas Murray has observed, that would mean that Israel should try to locate a music festival in Gaza and rape precisely the number of women that Hamas raped& kill precisely the number of young people that Hamas killed.& [They should] go door to door and kill precisely the correct number of babies that Hamas killed.

via unherd.com

The distinction between “useful evil” and “useless evil” is a good one. However, the evil of Hamas’s action *was* useful in the sense of inspiring terror, or trying to. (It has inspired a lot of rage and desire for vengeance as well, which Hamas seems not to have fully anticipated.