A great majority of people insist on seeing the world in black and white. On every issue one side is everything that is good and the other is everything that is evil. I first remember being hit over the head with this perverse world without grey during the Vietnam War. It seemed that most of those opposed to the war concluded that since the war was wrong therefore all US soldiers were baby killers and all North Vietnamese and Vietcong were paragons of virtue. I believe the war was wrong, fought in support of a corrupt government in South Vietnam to prevent a domino effect on all of Southeast Asia that as time has shown wasn’t a problem. But I also believe the great majority of US soldiers were doing nothing more than trying to stay alive and the North Vietnamese and Vietcong often used tactics were reprehensible.
On the subject of middle east peace Sheelby Steele writes[1],
“Today the world puts its thumb on the scale for the Palestinians by demonizing the stronger and whiter Israel as essentially a colonial power committed to the ‘occupation’ of a beleaguered Third World people.”
Sadly, a correct assessment at least as far as the world’s press is concerned. But rather than point out the black white fallacy he falls into the very same trap, demonizing Palestinians while ascribing nothing but virtue to the Israel.
“And this recalcitrance in the Muslim world, this attraction to the consolations of hatred, is one of the world’s great problems today…”
A more reasoned view sees both sides as deeply at fault. Anyone who cheers when rockets are fired into Israeli towns deserves our condemnation as does anyone who feels justified when helicopters fire rockets into Palestinian residential areas. Palestinians will never see a better life while demanding that Israel cease to exist and Israel will never be secure while forcing Palestinians to live in conditions that some label apartheid. What we need is for people on both sides to realize that violence only leads to more violence and that a respect for human dignity is the only viable path forward.
[1] Sheelby Steele, “Israel and the Surrender of the West,” the Wall Street Journal, (June 21, 2010)
One Response to Black and White