It’s almost always a good idea to be logically consistent. When we forget that we almost always head down an ill advised path. We hear countries talk about going to war to achieve or preserve peace. For reasons that I can’t begin to comprehend, that makes sense to some people, yet we don’t hear about becoming sexually active to preserve chastity. Why not? The reason is that it doesn’t make sense. Apparently we are a lot more uptight about sex than killing, another truth that makes very little sense.

All of which brings me nicely to American support of Israel. I have heard more reasons for America’s unequivocal support of Israel than I can keep track of and they all share at least one thing in common. They don’t make sense, especially when Israel routinely commits war crimes they likely couldn’t afford to commit if it weren’t for America continuing to supply them with foreign aid including military supplies and equipment. Our government can prattle on about stability in the region all it wants, but the truth is that targeting civilians is always a war crime. You can tell me about Israel being a mythological “chosen people,” but would a chosen people routinely kill other people’s children? Some say that the wholesale slaughter of civilians is acceptable because Palestinian terrorists sometimes kill Israeli civilians, and then we are right back to fighting for peace. I’d also mention that a terrorist can kill a limited number of civilians when compared to American fighter planes sold to Israel. There is no moral equivalence in that position.

Then there is the argument from historical persecution. The holocaust was a real and unspeakably evil event. It is very difficult, however, to believe that America’s foreign policy is influenced in favor of victims of genocide when its domestic policy regarding Native Americans is not. America shows a blatant disregard for the genocide it has committed, and that makes it very difficult indeed to believe it cares about genocide other nations commit. I am not suggesting that America should or should not police the Middle East. That is a different debate. What I am asserting is that America must stop supporting Israel on the basis of its war crimes. There isn’t another moral option.