ourselves succumbing to the same moral weaknesses we observe throughout the book. We will never eradicate hate until we accept that any one of us could be deluded into believing our neighbor is less than human. As long as any group believes it is incapable of succumbing to barbarity, they risk becoming barbarians themselves. So, if you are Jewish as am I, join me in a little introspection. Forget about current events, because they are too emotionally charged. Let’s go further back. One of the most disturbing accounts of genocide from antiquity can be found in the Torah, where we learn that God ordered the Israelites to slaughter the Amalekites and Midianites and enslave their women. The Israelites were persuaded into believing they were acting with God’s blessing, and they followed God’s orders without question, killing tens of thousands, as part of the conquest of Canaan. We are their descendants, with many descendants to be proud of, so we were able to overcome our own history. In many ways, the modern world should be less susceptible to mass media manipula- tion because of the explosion of the internet. That may bode well for the future, but for now several generations of Palestinians have been educated from Kindergarten on portraying Jews as an evil, satanic force bent on world domination. The vast majority wasn’t even alive in 1948. I am told that this practice has diminished in the West Bank, but it will probably be generations before the kind of visceral hatred that motivates people to become suicide bombers shows any appreciable decline. So, the Horse Adjutant’s mission must go on. Leon’s mission must become our own. Every generation needs to teach its children about the price of unbridled hatred.
Frank Shooster
13
Made with FlippingBook Digital Proposal Creator