Obama’s moral equivalence – Everyone’s hands are dirty

In his usual fashion, former U.S. President Barack Obama felt compelled to weigh in about what’s happening in the Hamas/Israel war, trying to sound even-handed in order not to tick anyone off. What he fails to comprehend, however, is that in his pitiful attempt to bring moral equivalence to the two parties, he not only angers both sides, but he indicts himself as being incapable of understanding the history of the Middle East as well as the players.

During his recent appearance on Pod Save America, Obama’s representation of “the big picture” was to say, “What Hamas did was horrific and there’s no justification for it, and what’s also true is that the occupation and what’s happening to Palestinians is unbearable. And what is true is there are people right now who are dying who have nothing to do with what Hamas did and the problem with the social media and TikTok activism and trying to debate this or that, is that you can’t speak truth. You can pretend to speak the truth. You can speak one side of the truth, but if you want to solve the problem, then you have to take in the whole truth and you then have to admit that nobody’s hands are clean.”

The only thing that can really be defined as “unbearable” is the former president’s ignorance in using the word “occupation,” because Israel is not occupying any land – certainly not Gaza. In 2005, under then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s leadership, Israel left the area of the Gaza Strip and has not returned since, an act considered to have been a huge mistake by many, citing that the evacuation gave way to the present attacks on the Jewish homeland. 

Israel is a country which was permitted to exist, per the Nov. 29, 1947 UN vote of world nations. Contrary to the uninformed claims of today’s protesters, Jews did not conquer Palestinian land, displacing the people who previously lived there. At the time of the partition vote, an estimated 809,000 Arabs lived in what was then known as British-occupied Palestine. Among them, around 650,000 left voluntarily, as opposed to the myth that “one million Palestinians were expelled by Israel from 1947-1949.”

It is also important to note, “In numerous instances, Jewish leaders urged the Arabs to remain in Palestine and become citizens of Israel,” as substantiated in the Oct. 2, 1947 appeal, issued by the Assembly of Palestine Jewry, stating, “We will do everything in our power to maintain peace and establish a cooperation gainful to both Jews and Arabs.” 

Yet, Obama, like so many others, ignores the facts and creates his own mythological version, which is more in keeping with the perpetual victimhood of the Palestinian people. But history cannot be rewritten no matter how tempting it is to do so. The occupation lie is useful in creating a moral equivalence, because it DOES serve to justify the Oct. 7 barbaric slaughter of innocents, in the minds of protesters who are now unashamedly declaring their allegiance to the terror group Hamas. 

The statement that “everyone’s hands are dirty,” actually belies his previous words of there being no justification for the horrific acts of Hamas, because, according to Obama’s twisted logic, if there truly is an unbearable occupation, and if “people are now being killed who had nothing to do with Hamas,” then Israel got and is getting everything it deserved. 

But the whole truth, which Obama claims should be heard, is that if people are being killed now, who is responsible for their deaths? Would those people not be alive today had Hamas not perpetrated their heinous acts of Oct. 7? 

So, who’s kidding who here? Were the 1,400 innocent children, babies, moms, dads and young people in the forest those with dirty hands? And if they weren’t, why use them as a convenient moral equivalence in order to put everything on a level playing field so as to obscure the real facts and truth? It all comes down to this – Israel is being vilified for having made a good and successful life for all of its citizens – both Jew and Arab. 

In just 75 short years, the land of promise has become a beacon of freedom, democracy and opportunity, the likes of which few other nations have ever achieved. We are the helping hand in times of need, the innovative creator to better mankind and the bright light in a world which is growing darker each day.

For anyone to blatantly accuse Israel of having dirty hands, without substantiating in what way, is unconscionable.  How is it right to classify others, in the same breath, as Hamas terrorists, who are the evilest specimens of inhumanity that the world has seen in recent days.  To do so is to be devoid of all moral clarity, humane ethics, rational thought and the ability to distinguish good from evil. Sorry to say, but if the shoe fits… well, we know the rest.

There is absolutely no moral equivalence in the events which occurred on Oct. 7. The only dirty hands, in this picture, are those of the filthy, drugged-up terrorists who parachuted into Israel’s sovereign territory in order to kill as many innocent civilians as possible, with the focus on children. Those, in fact, were their targets – babies, toddlers and children. Hey, Obama, it takes no guts to go after the segment of society which is most helpless and vulnerable, totally unable to defend themselves as opposed to targeting Israel’s military.

Here's another picture that’s all too similar to this visual reminder of spinelessness. One of the most iconic photos of Nazi Germany, during WWII, is the picture of a strapping, young Nazi soldier brandishing a whip under the chin of an elderly woman who sat cowering in a chair. If anything, it serves to contrast true bravery vs. rank cowardice. Who couldn’t take on a frail, 80-year-old woman?  

It is pathetic that the former leader of the free world would be guilty of the same type of immoral imagery as he purports to tell the rest of us what the real truth looks like.  

My advice to former President Obama is to do his homework before lecturing the rest of us on a false moral equivalence. Take a trip to any Holocaust museum, preferably Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, do some serious research by going online to the Jewish Virtual Library. Learn the facts from the myths. Listen to the families of those who tragically lost their lives on Oct. 7 at the hands of evil terrorists, but, perhaps, most important of all, open a Bible and read Genesis 15 for yourself, because that is the undeniable and incontrovertible truth that Israel was promised to the Jewish people by Almighty God. 

After that, you may want to repent of your own hubris which deigns to rescript 4,000 years of actual history, including God’s plan for the Jewish people, through whom He, Himself chose to be the oracles of salvation and redemption for all mankind. And that’s the Whole Truth!!!