I saw post today that sent shivers through my body. The writer, pleading for Israel to stop its attack on Iran, appealed to Israel’s sense of concern for civilization: “Don’t you realize you are destroying a civilization,” the writer wrote. At this point in time, Israel has the blood of so many civilizations on its hands. I can’t help but wonder as the the moral compass of the writer of the post. Did the writer not notice the brutal death of women, children, men, and all those classified as ‘other’ in Palestine and Lebanon? Did the writer miss the destruction of thousands of years of cultural and religious infrastructure? Did the writer not notice the blood pouring in the streets beneath the debris? How could the writer miss the relentless and horrific destruction of civilizations in full live performance on their media of choice? Or, maybe, just maybe, the writer use of the term ‘civilization’ is code for a particular type of belonging towards which the writer imagines Israel will be more compassionate.
