Nearly 4,000 years ago, our legal system was founded in the Code of Hammurabi. Hammurabi was the King of Babylon, a Semitic empire. The code predated Leviticus, but he described it well in the Torah.
“If anyone injures his neighbor, as he has done, it shall be done to him, fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him."
The goal of Hammurabi and Leviticus was to limit violence. If you slap a man twice, he gets to slap you twice, not 15 times. He's entitled to justice, not vengeance.
About three weeks ago, Hamas launched a sneak attack on Israelis so insanely savage that Hamas will be forever linked to the Rape of Nanking, the fire-bombing of Tokyo and Hitler's genocides. Israel lost 1,400 people, many of them civilians murdered one at a time.
The Code of Hammurabi has been superseded, of course, by newer laws that Hamas and Israel do not follow.
The old code would have entitled Israel to crude justice, the deaths of 1,400 enemy people. Instead the Israelis have killed thousands of civilians, including several thousand children. The deaths were modern war crimes. And they aren't stopping.
Anyone can see this broad stream of death. The killings are broadcast on television in Russia, Africa, India and Latin America. Antisemitism has surged around the world. New generations of terrorists are forming. Hostages wait for release.
Nearly 4,000 years ago, our legal system was founded in the
Code of Hammurabi. Hammurabi was the King of Babylon, a Semitic empire. The code predated Leviticus, but he described it well in the Torah.
“If anyone injures his neighbor, as he has done, it shall be done to him, fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him."
The goal of Hammurabi and Leviticus was to limit violence. If you slap a man twice, he gets to slap you twice, not 15 times. He's entitled to justice, not vengeance.
About three weeks ago, Hamas launched a sneak attack on Israelis so insanely savage that Hamas will be forever linked to the Rape of Nanking, the fire-bombing of Tokyo and Hitler's genocides. Israel lost 1,400 people, many of them civilians murdered one at a time.
The Code of Hammurabi has been superseded, of course, by newer laws that Hamas and Israel do not follow.
The old code would have entitled Israel to crude justice, the deaths of 1,400 enemy people. Instead the Israelis have killed thousands of civilians, including several thousand children. The deaths were modern war crimes. And they aren't stopping.
Anyone can see this broad stream of death. The killings are broadcast on television in Russia, Africa, India and Latin America. Antisemitism has surged around the world. New generations of terrorists are forming. Hostages wait for release.
No comments:
Post a Comment