By Walter E. Block
By Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, CC BY-SA 2.0
The latest charge emanating against Israel on the part of its enemies is that jailers of that nation have been engaged in the rape of their prisoners. As of this writing, Israeli courts are in the process of determining whether or not these charges are true. Let us stipulate, arguendo, that this is indeed the case.
Does this support the contention of moral equivalence that some commentators might wish to draw? Certainly not. One thousand times no. Maybe 10,000 times no. That would be akin to the proportion of rapes that the Jews and the Arabs perpetrate upon those of the other group, again on the hypothetical thus far not proven assumption that some Israelis are indeed guilty of such an abominal crime. When there is a difference of this order of magnitude it almost becomes a difference in kind. This is the wartime policy of Hamas, and only an aberration on the part of some one or few of the citizens of the Jewish state – arguendo – if indeed this is true.
Then, too, and perhaps even more important, there is a decided divergence in the reaction to this phenomenon on the part of the two authorities in charge of these events. If and when this occurs on the Israeli side a court of law will look into the matter, and if the charge is found to be valid, the rapist will be punished. Israelis are not moral supermen. They, too, have criminals amongst them. The Jewish state is a country in which the rule of civilized law is upheld, and a jail sentence will be administered to those found guilty of this heinous crime.
In very sharp contrast Palestinian rapes of Israelis are treated in a starkly different manner. They are celebrated! The terrorists film these indecencies. They are rewarded for taking part in these atrocious acts. If the perpetrators subsequently die, their families are awarded a pension. It is difficult to imagine two more different ways of dealing with such matters. One is civilized. The other is barbaric.
Yet the students at Columbia University (my old alma mater, I am ashamed to say) and other such institutions of “higher” learning such as Harvard, Yale, Berkeley, Stanford, side with the institution that supports rape, not the one which punishes it. These students can of course distinguish between supporting rapists and punishing them; yet they invert the two! Whatever happened to take back the night vigils? Here, students and faculty on campus unite against this crime.
How do we account, then, for the moral blindness of these Jew haters? How can it possibly be that they protest against rape on numerous college campuses in their Take Back the Night vigils, and yet when it comes to the Middle East, they forget all about this quite proper view of theirs? Israel derangement syndrome would appear to be just about the only reasonable explanation for these otherwise inexplicable occurences.
It cannot be denied that there were mobs in Israel demanding that the court not hear the case of the Jews accused of rape. One can only put this down to the extreme frustration in the aftermath of October 7, 2023. But how did the government of that supposed “Hitler,” Benjamin Netanyahu, react to these understandable but unjustified protests? The police, under the aegis of the Likud run Knesset, dispersed them.
Speaking of sexual crimes, the issue of homosexuality arises. The basic principle of all civilized societies is that, when confined to consenting adults, this should not be considered a crime. After all, we believe in self ownership: people may do with their own bodies exactly as they wish, provided, only, that no violence or fraud is perpetrated upon anyone. We take no position whatsoever as to whether or not such behavior is moral; we are concerned here, solely, with legality. Or conclusion is the homosexuality, bi-sexuality any such combination should not be criminal.
In Israel, this is indeed the case. There are gay bars there in which people with these proclivities can meet one another. For example, Shpagat, D.T.M Gay Bar, Apolo Club, and the Alphabet Club. Are there gay pride marches in the Jewish state? There are, even though the ultra Orthodox community is not receptive to such events.
What, pray tell, is the situation in the Arab countries? Do they have gay bars? They do not. Are gay pride marches allowed in those communities? To ask this question is almost sufficient to answer it: they do not. Are activities of this sort limited to consenting adults legal in the other nations of the Middle East? They are not. But I go further. It is common for the authorities to impose the death sentence on members of the LGBTQ community. Often, such innocent people are thrown off roofs, to their death.
Which is the only civilized country in the Middle East? I will leave you to guess about that. Ok, ok, I’ll tell you: it is Israel.
The open question is whether males or females were raped. If it was females, at least the homosexual component is left out. However, our Hamas enemies reportedly raped both males and females without preference. While males raping females would apparently satisfy momentary lust (perhaps), raping males could only be considered as torture.
As the article describes, nobody in the Gaza Strip cares a hoot about such depravities. In Israel, the accusations are taken seriously and culprits are dealt with accordingly.