An absurd call for a ‘ceasefire’ in Gaza from two U.S. bishops

Leftist bishops here in the states have got their focus on the overseas, not the stateside, and are calling for “an immediate and total ceasefire,” in Gaza, in a statement clearly directed at Israel in its military action against Hamas terrorists in Gaza.

According to OSV News, published in the leftist Jesuit-run magazine America:

Two U.S. prelates are urging an “immediate and total” ceasefire in the war that has convulsed the Gaza Strip for more than 100 days, while condemning Hamas and urging the release of Israeli hostages taken by the Palestinian militants.

In a Jan. 17 joint statement, Cardinal Robert W. McElroy of San Diego and Archbishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico, said the “tens of thousands” of deaths resulting from the Israel-Hamas war and the risk of wider escalation “calls us as Americans to press for a national policy which is focused unswervingly” on ending the conflict.

It’s preposterous. What do they think is going on here? Israel was attacked by organized terrorists of Hamas in a truly monstrous attack and is defending itself from these mass-murdering terrorists, who say they plan to do it again. Israel actually has the right to defend itself from this group. How do they think it should be done? With a stern warning from the United Nations? Yeah, that’ll git ’em. The hard reality is, there is no other way to get rid of Hamas other than the route they are taking. Left unsaid in the bishops’ statement is that Israel did send civilians warning to get out of the way and gave them directions on where to go. Not everyone followed them and what happened, happened. 

The other annoying omission in the statement is that these people danced in the streets when raped and murdered Israeli women were paraded through their streets. This is the local sentiment and huge parts of the Gaza population — some freed hostages have reported it’s all of them — are willing collaborators with the hate-filled murderous Hamas regime. They can spare us their tears on that bunch, who got what they got. Next time, don’t start a war.

The ceasefire call should have been against Hamas terrorism, not the inevitable Israeli military action that came of it, but they didn’t say that.

It’s a basic of established Catholic teaching that you can kill if there is absolutely no other way to defend yourself.  

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia:

Everyone has the right to defend his life against the attacks of an unjust aggressor. For this end he may employ whatever force is necessary and even take the life of an unjust assailant. As bodily integrity is included in the good of life, it may be defended in the same way as life itself. It must be observed, however, that no more injury may be inflicted on the assailant than is necessary to defeat his purpose. If, for example, he can be driven off by a call for help or by inflicting a slight wound on him, he may not lawfully be slain. Again the unjust attack must be actually begun, at least morally speaking, not merely planned or intended for some future time or occasion. Generally speaking one is not bound to preserve one’s own life at the expense of the assailant’s; one may, out of charity, forego one’s right in the matter. Sometimes, however, one may be bound to defend one’s own life to the utmost on account of one’s duty of state or other obligations. The life of another person may be defended on the same conditions by us as our own. For since each person has the right to defend his life unjustly attacked what he can lawfully do through his own efforts he may also do through the agency of others. I

Israel, 1; Leftist bishops, 0.

Now, to their credit, the bishops did call upon the terrorists to release the hostages, and did admit that atrocities had taken place in Israel on October 7.

“The massacre of … innocent Israelis, including children, and the abhorrent victimization of women on Oct. 7 stands as a shocking attack by Hamas upon the most basic principles of human dignity,” Cardinal McElroy and Archbishop Wester said in their statement. “It absolutely delegitimates any future role for Hamas in the Middle East and underscores the right of Israel to bring to justice all those who carried out this outrage.

“Moreover, the piercing moral claim of releasing the hostages should be a priority for the whole international community,” they said.

This is quite different from what your basic pro-Hamas protestor on the street or various West Bank leaders are claiming, which is that the atrocities never happened and that Hamas wouldn’t dream of doing such a thing — baking a baby in an oven, beheading 10-year-olds, mass raping women, girls and men, burning alive moms and kids tied together in their homes, torturing and mutilating young people at a music festival on a religious holiday. They get a point for not denying what happened against Israeli civilians, though their taking of undoubtedly mendacious Palestinian statistics on civilian deaths is skeevy. These creatures have lied again and again about their statistics so believing them now is kind of credulous.

Their solution leaves much to be desired, too. “Delegitimizes any future role for Hamas in the Middle East”? Again, what do they think is going on? Hamas was elected to office and sits in power by all those supposedly innocent civilians who voted for them over other alternatives. Hamas has lots of legitimacy among the street dancers of Gaza now seeing their apartment blocs blown to bits for storing terrorist weapons and the like. You want to throw them out from power, you need to send the army in, they don’t give up power for free, not rich and well-financed terrorists like Hamas who get their arms cash from Iran (and stolen Western aid). The idea that Hamas will gladly give up power after massacring 1,200 innocents because a stern warning letter is sent is ridiculous. They don’t know how these beasts work.

The bishops go the Full Pangloss again on Israel’s right to address what they did earlier — “underscores the right of Israel to bring to justice all those who carried out this outrage.”

Again, what do they think is going on? They’d like Israel to end its military action against these monsters and issue them a court summons to report to Israeli authorities for justice? They’d like to send process-servers in instead of well-armed soldiers? They know Hamas will be glad to turn themselves in to face Israeli justice just on a stern warning from the United Nations? Doesn’t work that way. 

What do they think Israel should be doing now that these beasts are running free after their rape-fest and torture-orgy and kill-o-rama with a full promise to do it again? Get the UN involved? Do a 20-year-trial on Hamas as a war criminal? Justice delayed is justice denied. Israel is giving these animals justice with the war they knew they would trigger. They wanted war? They got war. Now they can eat war.  

What I think is going on here is that the bishops envision Israeli employing the Chesa Boudin-style model of “justice” — of letting the bad guys walk free because authorities lack the will to do their jobs. Such things are why blue cities are blue cities, rife with unpunished crime and lots and lots of “injustice.” It’s made blue cities hellholes and it would make Israel something even worse, given the “morals” and motivations of the insatiable terrorists. That’s not justice. To let this crap going on is moral turpitude and contempt for the victims. If they’ve got a better solution to the warfare Israel has to employ to achieve self-defense, they ought to say it. That they don’t suggests that the usual methods out there — whether from the United Nations or the Soros-backed district attorneys — are what they want.

Catholic teaching says something different. Maybe the bishops should read about it some time.

Image: Twitter screen shot