J. M. Sorrell’s column published on Sept. 3 uses references to “Group A” and “Group B” to make the worthy point that moral judgments should not change depending on the identities of the groups involved [“Moral inversion insanity“]. Unfortunately, it goes on to promote a false argument of guilt-by-association.
Any reasonable person must concede that there are civilians in Gaza who bear no responsibility for the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas on Oct. 7: babies and young children, if nobody else; also in fairness any adults who have never supported Hamas’s rule and perhaps were children themselves when it seized power.
Now imagine for an instant if those innocent civilians living in Gaza were Jewish, not Palestinian. Do you think that the Israeli government would be conducting war in the same brutal manner? Would they starve and bomb indiscriminately a Jewish civilian population to get at Hamas enemies? You know the answer: they would not. This discrepancy draws our attention to an important truth, that all innocent civilians deserve humane treatment regardless of their ethnicity. As Sorrell points out, moral judgments should not change depending on the identities of the groups involved.
I consider myself a longtime friend of Israel. When a friend is making a terrible mistake, one must speak up. Stop the slaughter.
Nicholas Howe
Florence