Evaluating Israel’s Decisions
It is no Herculean task to support the State of Israel and disagree with how she is conducting the war against Hamas. These are not mutually exclusive positions. Evangelicals — and anyone committed to consistent moral reasoning — can support the State of Israel while at the same time question her political decisions and military strategy. Disapproval of how Israel is conducting the war does not logically lead to questioning the legitimacy of her existence. If it did, you would have to question the legitimacy of America’s existence. And probably every other nation on earth.
In August of 1945, America dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Though it forced the immediate surrender of Japan and arguably shortened the war, the morality of the decision is still vigorously debated by historians, ethicists, and military strategists alike. An estimated 38,000 children were incinerated or died of long-term radiation sickness. Could the U.S. have dropped those bombs on less populated, more purely strategic targets and still achieved the desired effect? Who knows? But in my thinking, what America did was morally reprehensible — not because the goal of ending the war was wrong, but because the means employed crossed a clear moral line. Why? Because it is always wrong to intentionally target and incinerate civilians, including babies and children. Similarly, the American bombing of Dresden in Germany during WW2 was responsible for an estimated 25,000 civilian deaths — many of them babies and young children. One of the stated rationales was to support the Soviet advance from the East, a strategic calculus that placed military convenience above the lives of noncombatants. But again — it is always wrong to intentionally incinerate babies, regardless of the strategic justification offered.
America has been immoral in the prosecution of many wars throughout her history. Yet I do not question the legitimacy of America as a nation. A nation’s moral failures — even catastrophic ones — do not nullify her right to exist. And though one might argue forcefully and passionately against a particular administration, a rotten administration does not delegitimize a country. It may destabilize it, damage it, or bring it into disrepute — but it doesn’t delegitimize it. If someone is adamantly opposed to the Netanyahu administration and its specific decisions, that opposition does not translate into the illegitimacy of Israel as a nation.
Antisemitism is the new — and very old — cultural currency of the moment. Yet if an antisemite condemns Israel for allegedly stealing the land, intellectual consistency would demand they apply the same standard globally. They would also have to be anti-American, anti-Canadian, anti-Mexican, and anti-virtually every nation that has ever existed — ad nauseam. Not only is nature red in tooth and claw — so is history.
Israel is not more or less moral than any other nation on earth. To paint Israel darker than all other nations is intellectual dishonesty and self-deception dressed up as moral clarity. This inconsistency is one of my chief objections to antisemitic reasoning — it selectively applies principles of national morality to one nation while extending grace to all others. Any nation has a right to defend itself against aggression. And if a nation oversteps the boundaries of morality in that defense, it will be held to answer for it — whether in legal courts or in the court of public opinion.
Yet when public opinion is willfully blind to the faults of its own nation, and is inflated with a pseudo-elitism that artificially elevates its moral self-perception — watch out. The so-called “moral” judgments flowing from the self-appointed moral elite fall far short of the justice they claim to champion. When a moral principle is not consistently applied across all nations and all peoples, justice is not achieved. What is achieved instead is yet another injustice that cries out for redress.
“Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the gate! Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” — Amos 5:15, 24
Tim Brown has been in some sort of ministry since February of 1973 – as a youth pastor, an assistant pastor, and a senior pastor. Tim planted Calvary Chapel Fremont in January of 1997 and continues to pastor there. Tim has been married since August of 1976 to Fran. They have three children and nine grandchildren.
