This may help explain the frustration of M. J. Rosenberg, a liberal American Zionist commentator who now takes to task American supporters of the Palestinian cause for what he calls their lack of humanity when it comes to the fate of the kidnapped Israelis. Rosenberg tries to lay out his objection in absolute moral terms:
"There is no justification for harming kids [the ages of the victims are 19, 16 and 16] no matter what the cause. Never. ...The test of your humanity is whether you condemn the harming of children without caveats and quasi-justifications. If not, just shut up."
Part III -- Idealism Destroyed by Reality
Perhaps Rosenberg's rather harsh demand brings to the surface yet another tragedy inherent in the present situation -- the tragedy of insisting on moral ideals which, while admirable, are just not realizable under the present circumstances.
To be succinct:
There is the world as we say it should be (the ideal) and there is the world as it actually is (shaped in large part by state practice).The rule of law and most points of morality seek to move the world in the direction of the ideal.
If a state demands the sympathies of those who take seriously the ideal, it must at least demonstrate national behavior that does not purposely contradict the ideal.
Thus, in the hypothetical case of an Israel moving in the direction of an inclusive society based on genuine democratic behavior, we could certainly feel sympathy for the three missing young men. We would condemn out of hand not only their kidnapping but all the prior instances where Israelis -- men, women and children -- had suffered and died due to communal violence.
However, there is no such Israel. If anything, we have the real Israel moving away from genuine democratic practice and toward the status of an exclusive apartheid state. In other words, Israel provides us no room, no environment, for what might otherwise be a natural human impulse toward sympathy for their suffering.
But what about the children? After all, children "have no agency" and therefore should not be held responsible for the conditions created by their elders. But again, the Zionists cannot demand such an exception while agents of the Israeli state regularly arrest and incarcerate Palestinian children. This is a sad truth of the world as it actually is: double standards make ideals impossible.
Part IV -- Conclusion
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