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Praising the Slaughter of Babies, the Rape of Women and the Beheading of Civilians Is a Stain on Humanity
(The Times-UK) Ephraim Mirvis - There is an inescapable moral chasm between those who publicly rejoice in the purposeful massacre of innocent civilians and those who seek to avoid harming them. There is a moral chasm between those who use non-combatants as human shields and those who are deterred by their use. There is a moral chasm between those who proudly broadcast their desecration of life for all the world to see, and those who unequivocally lament the inadvertent loss of any innocent life as a tragedy. There is a moral chasm between those who positively celebrate the inhuman war crimes of rape, torture, mutilation, burning alive and child-killing, and those who would immediately prosecute any person found to have committed such heinous crimes. The contrasting world views are presented nowhere more starkly than in the rallying call of Hamas leaders themselves: "We love death as our enemies love life." It is a stain on our common humanity that so many seem to have lost sight of the moral distance between Hamas and Israel. Advocating for the welfare of innocent Palestinians must go hand in hand with a clear-eyed condemnation of the barbarity of Hamas. The writer is Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of Great Britain and the Commonwealth.