Israel is in the tradition of Abraham as are Muslims and Christians.
Abraham, if you remember, was asked to sacrifice his child to God. God interrupted Abraham's ritual sacrifice and substituted an animal in the place of the child.
Eric Auerbach wrote a book called Mimesis which is an excellent book of literary criticism. In writing about the story of Abraham, Auerbach explains that its significance is in the fact that , first, God speaks to a human being and second, that God rejects human sacrifice. That was a milestone in our civilization in valuing human life above all else.
I differ with the speaker in the video on one point. I think that when this story is fully told, we will realize that, and I point this out again, when faced with deaths of Israelis due to suicide bombers and other bombs within Israel, Israel built a wall to keep bombers out. When rockets were sent to kill and injure Israelis, Israel built a missile shield at incredible expense. The wall and the missile shield were defense tactics. They were not weapons to be used in offense.
But Palestinians still wanted to attack Israelis, so they built tunnels in order to circumvent the peaceful defenses of Israel. The deaths we see are horrible. They should not happen. But neither should Palestinians be placing bombs in Israel or shooting rockets into Israel or building tunnels into Israel.
Israel is trying to defend its people. Is Palestine? I think that the Palestinians risk the lives of the Palestinian people with their rockets and bombs and tunnels. Why are they attacking Israel?
The land was acquired by Israel when Palestine attacked Israel and lost. Israel could easily give the land back if Palestinians gave Israel peace.
Israel's weakness is its adherence to the Abrahamic value of protecting the lives of its people. The Muslims and Christians in Palestine share that same Abrahamic tradition.
As I see it, Israel has tried to defend itself without taking Palestinian lives, but the Palestinians have found a new way to attack Israel and to defy each defense system.
Sorry, but the Palestinians need to value the lives of their people more than their homeland. When they do, they will have their homeland back. There will be room enough for all.
The killings are tragic and very horrible. But they do not tell the whole story in my opinion.
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