Swedish newspaper Sydsvenska Dagbladet publishes an article by two Marxist activists and a former Green Party MEP. The entire article is an example of a popular fallacy. The three authors states that many Palestinians have died from weapons fired by the Israeli Defence Forces. This is a fact, no one is arguing with that. However, counting bodies in an armed conflict will not tell us which side is morally superior. The only thing we learn is how many lives have been lost on either side.
This line of ethical reasoning seems to be the new big thing among leftist activists, but honestly, would anyone buy into this kind of argument unless they already possessed a strong bias against one party. Let us take a closer look at this.
Imagine we come across two men having a fistfight in the street. We see them fight, but don’t know why. Suddenly, one of the men falls to the ground dead. My guess is that our first reaction would be that the man still standing is in the wrong. Now, this is what I think anyone lacking more information would assume. From what we know, one man killed another with his fists. However, we later learn that the dead man attacked the killer and his family only minutes before our observation began. It turns out the killer defended himself and his family from a brutal attack, which resulted in the death of the attacker. Now, if we were to apply the reasoning of the article authors, the man who defended his family should be condemned on ethical grounds because the attacker’s loss was greater. After all, one party lost his life while the other will be able to go on with his. The loss was unevenly split.
Is this sound ethical reasoning? I say no, and so would probably most unbiased judges.
Palestinian terrorists, some elected leaders in democratic elections, have sent nearly 7,000 rockets into Israel over the past two years. Israel’s response was violent and resulted in many dead Palestinians, many of whom were civilians. These are the facts. And to fairly judge who is to blame in this conflict, one must contemplate all the facts, not just settle for a body count.
