The current conflict in Lebanon brings to the fore one of the most basic questions any culture must try to answer: What is the value of another’s life? All people must struggle between the instinct of survival (my life is worth more than yours), the instinct for domination (I have a right to take your life) and the instinct of solidarity (our lives are equal in value). And all cultures provide a range of answers.
The conflict in Lebanon between Israel and Hizbullah, like the war with Hamas, pits against each other two cultures with radically different answers to these questions. On the one hand, Israeli culture values life in all its aspects, including the sanctity of the life of others. Their soldiers take risks to spare civilians on the other side, unprecedented in the history of warfare. Aware of Israeli inhibitions, Jihadi groups use their own people as human shields in fighting the Israelis.
Over the last few years, these Jihadi groups have developed a full-blown death cult in which they raise their children to want to die killing others. As uncomfortable as such statements might seem to a cultural egalitarian who recoils from invidious comparison, the enemy openly embraces the contrast: ...
[. Hat tip: ]
Contributed by Bill Faith on August 3, 2006 at 09:11 PM in , , |