Citizen Tom

When I have time to take a break, I participate in email discussions during the day.  Mostly, I just read; I do enough writing on my blog.  What the others write will occasionally stir a thought, and I put that on my blog.  From time I also include what the others have written.  This I thought quite good.

This may be silly but this is the way I have thought through the ethical dilemma Israel is in:

Your neighbor, call him Pal E. Stine,  is consistently shooting at you and your immediate family.  Fortunately his weapon lacks range and his aim isn’t accurate, so he very rarely hits anyone.  He is encouraged to do this by some other neighbors who have never liked you and resent your moving back to the neighborhood.

You are able to block deliveries to Pal’s house from the grocery and pharmacy and to block him from leaving his home to go to work.

You have asked Pal to stop shooting you and on the rare occasion that he does, Pal continues to negotiate with one of his neighbors for deliveries of additional and better guns.

Pal’s home is small, cramped and lacks many amenities.  He thinks he has a claim to your home and his stated purpose is to remove you and your family from the premises by any means necessary.  Pal’s shows no indication of ever backing down from the position that your family has no right to exist and may very well follow you any where you move to and attempt of obliterate your family.

As Pal is shooting at you, he is surrounded by all the members of his large family.  If you return fire with your superior weapons, there is a good chance that you will kill small children, the old and/or the infirm.  If you succeed in killing Pal one of his many sons will take his place and continue shooting at you.

You have a friend in another neighborhood (US) that supplies you with weapons and has, in the past, worked to facilitate a peace process between you and Pal.

Local law enforcement, the UN, refuses to interfere unless they are sure that none of their people will be harmed and they are granted complete control of both properties.  In the past, when you lived in a boarding house in another neighborhood, everyone in that neighborhood and the entire world stood by while most of your family was killed by the owner of the boarding house, G. Manny.  They finally intervened when G Manny began taking their houses and killing their family members.  You returned to your house in the old neighborhood because you feel safer with all of your family in one house.

What do you do?  Here are some options:

1. Do nothing.  Wait until Pal’s weaponry or accuracy improve and he kills you and yours off.
2. Ask U.S to try to negotiate a peaceful solution.
3. Move, possibly to a boarding house or with your family members living in different houses in different neighborhoods.
4. Place the safety of your family in the hands of the UN.
5. Return fire, aim exclusively at Pal and do your best to avoid killing any family members.
6. You return fire and deliberately obliterate the entire family with speed and no mercy.
7. Hire someone from another neighborhood to kill the Stine family by nefarious means that cannot be tracked to you.
8. ???

#7 is my personal favorite.   #6 is clearly the response most consistent with the Old Testament, so, perhaps, Israel’s response is measured.