Denial of benefits to families of terrorists
Today, the government approved a proposal to examine the denial of social security benefits to the families of terrorists. I wanted to ask whether it is moral to withhold benefits from the children of a terrorist who are not guilty of their father’s actions? And if the answer is that it is indeed immoral, but the benefit of deterring terrorists and saving the lives of many Israelis is more important than withholding benefits from innocent children, is it possible to justify terrorist attacks against innocent Israeli citizens based on this, which is indeed immoral, but the benefit of resisting and expelling the State of Israel is more important than how many citizens will die?
This is a baseless comparison, although each of its sides can be argued.
Denial of benefits is justified as a deterrent. The actions of terrorists are certainly justified from their perspective in order to expel us. But we do not have to accept their position on the matter. And the comparison between one and the other is pointless. In both cases, it is a matter of value versus value, but the question of which value is greater depends on each of us’s scales, and the scales are not necessarily equal.
I don't mean to compare the immorality of murder to the immorality of denying benefits. I mean the comparison between how we view ourselves as moral despite the immoral act for the moral purpose and how we view them when they do the same thing (as mentioned, not the same act but the same thinking) and call them human animals and so on.
Well, that brings us to the question of whether to judge a person by his own method. I devoted a detailed column to this 372.
But if one does not judge by his method, then again there is no contradiction.
In other words, if the Palestinians are right and we really need to flee the Land of Israel (or at least the West Bank), then do you think that terrorist attacks are a legitimate thing?
I referred to column 372. See there.
Apart from the position in the column mentioned, it is also possible to discuss from your point of view that if a certain person (the IDF) comes and threatens to murder me (a Palestinian) if I do not allow him to steal a shekel (sovereignty in the land) that belongs to me, then it is permissible (also morally!) to carry out targeted thwarting of him. And in this sense, all Israeli citizens who live in Israel and pay taxes in Israel have a "responsibility" for the demand of that certain person. [But even if it is found to be said that it is permissible for someone to kill me and that I have a duty to comply with his demands or not to interfere with him killing me, this does not mean that I will stick my neck out for slaughter for the sake of the uniqueness of pure morality, may it be so].
Leave a Reply
Please login or Register to submit your answer
