The Monster & The Abyss

I was watching Steven Spielberg's "Munich" a while back and in the scene where the top ministers of Israel were deciding whether to go after the terrorist responsible for the massacre at the Olympics, the then prime minister of Israel Golda Meir said, "We have been treated brutally in history, therefore we have to be brutal in order to survive." After that she gave the green light to go ahead with the operation.

It is sad that a single race of people have been singled out and treated so brutally throughout history. What makes things worse is that this race of people now think that they have the right to treat others with that same brutality. The saddest thing of all is that this people are God's chosen, holy and set apart.

Friedrich Nietzsche once said that, "he who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." Therefore when you are fighting an enemy, you have to be careful not to become the enemy yourself because that will defeat the purpose of fighting in the first place. A classic example of this happening is in the middle east where Israel is fighting terrorism with terror, murder with murder, cruelty with cruelty and the list goes on. Other than a few overtures of peace, there appears to be no end to this vicious cycle. Israel has effectively lowered themselves to the level of the very terrorist they are trying so hard to fight. They are becoming terrorist themselves. Israel has become the monster they are fighting.

We here in sunny Singapore can do nothing but pray that God will do something to improve the circumstances in that troubled region. But while we do that, maybe there is a new tactic we can try to combat the evils of this world. We can fight terrorism with love and understanding, murder with forgiveness, cruelty with mercy and the list goes on. That might just be the difference maker.