The growing support for Palestine is misguided. In this situation, it is Israel which has the moral high ground as it fights what is commonly described in the Roman Catholic church as a Just War.

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, item 2309, the conditions for a just war are outlined:

• The damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain;

• All other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;

• There must be serious prospects of success;

• The use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. the power of modem means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.

So, let’s examine the situation in the Middle East.

Israel, a country with a population of almost 10 million people, was attacked by Hamas terrorists who crossed over into Israel and killed innocent Israelis and took hundreds of them as hostages, parading their bloody bodies throughout the streets of the Gaza to the cheers of Palestinians. That was the start of this war. Hamas, the Palestine nation, was the aggressor.

The original constitution of Hamas called for the killing of every Jew and the total and utter destruction of the state of Israel, a country of almost 10 million people. The deaths of those people will be the inevitable result if Israel lays down its weapons. We know that because even after Israel had pulled out of the Gaza, leaving behind homes and greenhouses, in an attempt at making peace with the Palestinians, they still launched this terrorist attack.

So far, the death toll in Palestine, the number of Palestinian lives lost to this war, is about 60,000, or a little over one per cent of the Palestinian population. That’s a lot of lives lost. But it’s hardly a genocide. It does not at all compare to the massive death toll of six million Jews in the Nazi concentration camps or to the 650,000 or so Tutsis killed during the 100 days of the Rwandan genocide, particularly since Hamas has been deliberately using its own people, the Palestinian people, as human shields, putting them in harm’s way as it continues to fight against Israel.

When looking at the first condition of the Just War doctrine, it is obvious to anyone that Hamas fully intends to commit lasting and grave damage to Israel. They want to obliterate it. That’s what the chant “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” means. Hamas and the Palestinian population does not want to peacefully co-exist with Israel. They want to destroy it. That’s a pretty grave consequence.

The second condition of the Just War doctrine, that of war being the only means left of resolving the situation, has also been met. Israel already tried pulling out of Gaza. It didn’t result in peace. It resulted in Hamas launching a terrorist attack against innocent Israelis. It’s pretty hard to make peace with a neighbouring country when you give them want they want and they still want to kill you.

The third condition of the Just War doctrine is there must be serious chances of success. Clearly, Israel is winning this war. It has greatly weakened Hamas, inflicted punishing damage on Palestine, and has driven the Palestinian population to their knees. The only thing, ironically, that seems to be keeping this war going is the aid being sent to Palestinians by the international community, aid that prevents the Palestinian population from turning against Hamas and ending this war. The situation in the Middle East right now is analogous to what might have happened during the last days of the Second World War if Allied countries had sent foreign aid to Germans and the Nazis even as the war was still on. In many wars, hunger, homelessness and suffering are what drive the conquered nations to surrender. As long as the population is fed and clothed and housed, they may well continue to support their armed forces and keep fighting. In this case, foreign aid worker are propping up a terrorist regime and keeping this war going.

The last condition of the Just War doctrine, that the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated, is the one that causes many people to waver in their support of Israel. It is indeed heartbreaking to see a child suffer from hunger or die from bombs, mothers crying over their children’s bodies, men and boys mutilated.

These are the horrors of war. And they are the result of evil in our world.

The question then becomes: Is the death of 60,000 Palestinians and the suffering of hundreds of thousands of others a greater evil than the genocide of all Jews and the utter destruction of the state of Israel?

In Israel, there are 10 million people. Hamas wants to kill all of the Jews in that country. They want to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth.

I respectfully submit that an atrocity worse than that perpetrated by the Nazis when they killed six million Jews during the Second World War, the utter and complete destruction of Israel and the death of all its 10 million people, is a worse atrocity, a greater evil, than the loss of 60,000 Palestinians lives in a war started by the Palestinians with a terrorist attack.

During the Second World War, more than seven million Germans were killed, including more than two million civilians. And yet, no-one calls that a German genocide. No-one decries the efforts of the Allied forces to rid the world of Nazism as unjust or immoral. Although all of those Germans were loved by their parents and friends and suffered horribly, we accept that those casualties were the inevitable result of a war started by Germany and that we had to fight a Just War to make things right.

The situation in the Middle East is the same. Jews are once more under attack by a vile and merciless aggressor. Israel is defending itself. It needs to win this war or face the very real possibility that all of its citizens will be killed and the nation utterly destroyed. It is not fighting for land or oil or money or glory. Israel is fighting for its very survival.

Every single person of good conscience on Earth should be supporting Israel and praying for the day when Hamas and its terrorism comes to an end and the Palestinian people agree to a real treaty to live in peace with Israel.

When that day comes – and only if it comes – should Palestine be recognized as a nation.

It’s all about the votes.