We found this humble missive from Austria in our Hate Mail Bag this morning:
Do you recommend the violence of Israel on Palestinian people? I am Christ (aren´t you?!), I hate all kinds of fascism and I am against islamic extremisms. But this violence and this MURDER ON INNOCENT CHILDREN is not the solution. Shame on you! Shame on Israel! Where is your conscience? Where is your respect towards religion? You demand absolute press freedom, but you mean: the freedom of insulting religion and people. You torpedo peaceful efforts and you agitate. You are godless Americans.
Alrighty, then. Let’s go point-by-point:
Do you recommend the violence of Israel on Palestinian people? I am Christ (aren´t you?!)
Huh. Does “Christ” work for Reuters? Language barriers aside (as “Christ” is the adjective for “Christian” in the German language), just to restate the obvious: A sovereign state has the right to defend itself. Israel is a sovereign state; Hamas’ regime in Gaza is not. And if it were, Hamas’ conduct — persistent, random rocket fire, genocidal agitation, and the destruction of another state as its raison d’être — would not be tolerated from any other sovereign state in existence. Why, then, is Hamas so special that the rules don’t apply?
I hate all kinds of fascism and I am against islamic extremisms.
That’s nice. Good for you.
But this violence and this MURDER ON INNOCENT CHILDREN is not the solution.
Surely, you’ve also sent a strongly-worded letter to Hamas honcho Mahmoud Zahar, who today said that Israelis “have legitimized the killing of their children by killing our children. They have legitimized the killing of their people all over the world by killing our people.”
A few questions: First, are Israeli children, in your mind, also innocent? More importantly, what of Hamas’ long-standing habit of storing its weapons in and launching attacks from mosques and other civilian areas? It has even boasted about using human shields and hidden its operatives in hospitals. Thus, Hamas — an illegitimate regime — is both deliberately targeting Israeli civilians, and deliberately acting to maximize Gaza’s civilian suffering and casualties in a war of its own making. Who, then, is playing fast and loose with human life?
Shame on you! Shame on Israel! Where is your conscience? Where is your respect towards religion? Where is your respect towards religion? You demand absolute press freedom, but you mean: the freedom of insulting religion and people. You torpedo peaceful efforts and you agitate.
So “respect” requires never, ever criticizing or giving offense, intentionally or not, to “religion,” by which you likely mean one religion in particular. Freedom of speech without the freedom to offend is hollow and self-defeating in that it creates a climate of fear for the consequences of speaking “freely.”
You are godless Americans.
Say, now, that’s kind of offensive. Where would that fall in your vision of limitations on freedom of speech and the press?