Lapid calls out intellectuals over Gaza

Finance Minister Yair Lapid criticizes contemporary intellectuals in a Huffington Post op-ed, saying they allow themselves to be used by Hamas.

“Too many American and European intellectuals have taken moral relativism to its absurd extreme, falling back upon the ‘validity of every narrative’ and repeating the mantra that ‘every story has two sides,'” writes Lapid. “They treat those who have a clear moral stance as primitive. For them, if you take a moral stand or choose a side in a conflict you must lack the necessary tolerance to ‘see the other side.'”

For intellectuals, Lapid writes, “the Palestinians are suffering more and so they must be right. Why? Because they have turned suffering into the only measure of justice.”

“Hamas, of course, is acutely aware of the weakness of many western intellectuals and treats them as a tool in its propaganda war,” he concludes. There is significant intelligence information — not only in the hands of Israeli intelligence — which shows that Hamas believes, theologically, that there is no barrier to sacrificing the lives of the children of Gaza to garner sympathy in the western media. Those who are aware of the intelligence also know how the Hamas sees western intellectuals who buy into their gruesome propaganda — they are a tool, to be used and to be mocked.”