Dear Editor:
RE: Wellington-Halton Hills MP Michael Chong’s comments about Israel’s legal right to wage war.
The young men of Hamas, who likely broke free from the Gaza prison for the first time, arguably also had a legal right to attack Israel after decades of illegal occupation and blockades. One war crime does not justify another. International law should be used to prevent, not justify conflict.
Should we begin in the Roman period, the pogroms of Europe, or Oct. 7? History teaches us that further violence will not end this cycle. Settling territorial disagreements in favour of those who can murder the best promotes sociopathy and is a gross violation of our alleged western values.
I fear that we have abandoned our historic role as a respected peacekeeper, tethered to a U.S. military machine that’s been happily captured by the Israel lobby.
The irony surrounding this conflict is palpable. War mongers around the world cry out for each other’s demise, legitimizing each other’s existence and confirming each other’s fears in a downward spiral.
Russia is condemned for annexing Ukraine while Israeli settlers occupy Palestine. The Zionist dream of a Jewish ethnostate suffers from the same racism that fueled the holocaust. Democracies plant the seeds of despotism by violating their cherished principles abroad.
I am neither anti-Semitic nor pro-Palestinian. I am anti-war. All is lost if we continue to behave like the bacteria in my shoe. Race, religion and state are mere ideologies that must serve, not destroy us.
If war is politics by other means, our politicians need to do much better.
Richard Baumgarten,
Georgian Bluffs