The Israelis are the Canaries in the World's coal mine. If we can't come together as a community of humans and see to it that they are safe from vile and illegitimate abuse and existential threats, then we do not as a species deserve to survive global warming or nuclear holocaust. Let whichever come and cleanse the earth of us. The universe would be better off without a world of amoral cowards.

On the subject of the current war that was precipitated by Hamas' attack on October 7, we are not talking about an issue where reasonable people may disagree. We are talking about an issue over which there is no exemption from either taking the only moral stand that is rational, or identifying yourself, otherwise, to be devoid of the moral courage and mental clarity to take a stand on rape, torture, murder, burning babies alive, or otherwise beheading them, and talking innocent hostages to use in the negotiation for the release of your fellow criminals.

What is at stake, here and now, is a very real existential threat, not only to Israelis, but to the entire world, if we fail to unite in unequivocal intolerance for sociopathic medieval insanity among ourselves. Do we excuse a ravenous lunatic for raping our wives and daughters, burning our babies alive, slaughtering scores of innocents in front of their children and loved ones in the name of some tyrannical God of their own imagining who demands it of them? Or do we finally grow up and find the courage to acknowledge that there is no safe "sideline" of apathy in the matter of recognizing, unequivocally, the true nature of the evil that is among us and the moral obligation to ourselves and our fellow human beings to eliminate it entirely?

It is indefensibly naive to think a world of fools will outrun their own foolishness and survive the outcome. Before any evil (especially so serious as the religious insanity that justifies or excuses, in any way, what Hamas has done) can be corrected, it must be acknowledged to exist. This particular evil is a threat to the entire human family. No one should be exempt from declaring their position on it and being appropriately judged, thereby (on the basis of their expressed opinion), by everyone else.

Varanick

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