Poetic Justice for Hamas

By Walter E. Block

By Micha Brikman, CC BY-SA 3.0

What is “poetic justice?” It is more than merely a fitting punishment, one that fully “fits” the crime. In addition it “is the highest justice, the most satisfying justice … meaning punishment unique to the crime that has been committed.” It constitutes a chastisement such that even the friends and family of the criminals must admit, even against their will, that justice has truly been done.

On October 7, 2023, a day that will ever live in infamy, Hamas raped, brutalized, tortured and killed a total of about 1,200 innocent Israelis, including a few foreigners. This was a tragedy for the Jewish community that ranks only second to the Holocaust. Who knows but perhaps some of these more than one thousand human beings might have encompassed a Mozart or an Einstein, or a Schweitzer or a Jonas Salk. Who knows how much misery mankind will now have to endure, given the loss of these women and children and men. To add insult to injury, although several of the more than 200 hostages have been released, dozens remain imprisoned, and all too many have by now been callously murdered (when you kidnap people and allow them to die when under your control, you are a murderer). More recently, they murdered six of their captives, directly, not merely through negligence. They have piled abomination upon abomination.

One would think that in the face of this calamity, world opinion would be demanding repercussions against Hamas. Serious ones. Severe ones. Instead, the peoples in most nations are blaming the victim country, Israel, for defending itself. They reject the attempt by the IDF to try to prevent the oft mentioned threat of a repeat of October 7, uttered by the perpetrators of this despicable deed. Just ask the some three dozen student clubs at world class university, Harvard, who on the very next day blamed Israel, entirely and alone, for this horrid event. Now that school has started in again, just ask the pro-Palestinian student (that is, mostly outside agitators) protesters. Just ask the UN, which has found Israel guilty of crimes more than twice as often as all other countries on the planet put together.

What would be poetic justice in this case? What would be a punishment that would set the bells ringing in Heaven? The fact that some 40,000 Gazans have now perished (if the statistics of Hamas can be believed) in Israel’s attempt to root out these terrorists does not count as a castigation. Not a single civilian was targeted. Many perished, but this was due to the policy of these fanatics to place rocket launchers and other military capital in schools, hospitals, Mosques, residential areas, safe zones set up by Israel. The IDF dropped leaflets warning such people of immanent attack, but Hamas would not allow them to flee. Even if this were a punishment, and not mere collateral damage brought on by Hamas itself, this would still not count as poetic justice, quintessentially deserved by the guilty parties.

Would it be poetic justice for Israel to seize 1,200 innocent Gazans, pretty much at random, and do to them what Hamas did to its victims on October 7, 2023 (plus capture and imprison an additional several hundred hostages)? In some tit for tat sense, this would be “fitting.” But, no, that would not even be justice at all, let alone of the higher poetic variety. Israel is far too civilized a country to even contemplate such a monstrosity. It is genocide when an invading army targets civilians. The Arabs do this; Israel? Never. Yes, the IDF imposes collateral damage upon Gazan women and children, but this is the fault of Hamas for using them as shields.

What, then, would suffice at poetic justice? Israel has almost 10,000 Arab prisoners in its jails. Many hundreds have been convicted of murder. This nation, the only civilized on in the Middle East, has the death penalty on its books. However, so far, in all of its history, they have only executed one person, Adolf Eichmann.

Poetic justice would constitute executing 1,200 of these Palestinians who were duly convicted of murder. This is entirely fitting. It is also unique to the crime which occurred on October 7 by their brothers in arms. There is nothing uncivilized about executing criminals who have been duly convicted of murder.

However, my suggestion is that the Knesset hold off on this exercise of pure justice, for perhaps one week. If by that time Hamas has released all of its hostages, this instance of poetic justice should not be undertaken. There is, in addition to poetic justice, such a thing as mercy, and that, too, is beloved of the gods.

It is said by many that Israel will never entirely conquer Hamas. Maybe so, maybe not. But one way to increase the odds of this happy event actually occurring by more use of the stick, and less of the carrot.

Poetic justice requires that the punishment truly fit the crime. It entails that what the perpetrator did to he victim be done, precisely, to him. On October 7, 2023, Hamas selected some 1200 innocent Israeli civilians, pretty much at random, for rape, or death, and another 250 such people for kidnapping. Poetic justice mandates that Israel return the “favor” and seize a similar number of Gazans for such treatment. The only Jewish state on the planet has done nothing of the kind, and never will. It is too civilized to seriously entertain such poetic justice.