Ed Morrissey examines a quote from Michael Yon about the Israel/Gaza conflict:

It is simply astounding that many foreign governments do not see this for what it is. Good Muslims are murdered by Muslim extremists in probably dozens of countries, yet certain European governments insist that there is some sort of moral equivalence between Hamas and the democracy called Israel.

Both Yon and Morrissey make the clear connection between the European sympathy for Hamas and the appeasement policy Europe adopted towards Hitler in the years before WWII.

But I’d like to draw another connection, or at least draw attention to what I think is part of the root of the problem, what George Weigel calls a “crisis in civilizational morale.”

Social commentators from Weigel to Bloom to Solhenitsyn have all discussed the origins of atheistic humanism, a concept now taken for granted in America today.

Atheistic humanism, which finds its roots in the philosophical progression begun by Machiavelli and culminating in Nietszche, has led to this crisis in civilizational morale. The idea that one can separate man from Maker and still genuinely value humanity is inherently flawed. The problem is this – when religion, when God is removed from the equation, there is no inherent reason to value man. John Paul II called it the loss of the “sense of the sacred.” How can we see to what purpose the reason and consciousness (and the dignity that results from the two) of man is directed if we have removed the source of them from the discussion? How we can protect the rights of a man while denying the very source of those rights?

And this leads to a problem with morality. Because if we have separated our reason from its source, then we have also separated it from the end to which is was directed. The actions of reason are no longer guided by a goal but rather are allowed to wander without focus. Atheistic humanism produces atheistic morality – morality no longer directs one towards God, because God is dead. And if the source and goal of morality is gone, then so are its guiding principles and soon morality itself.

Atheistic humanism is cannibalistic – no, suicidal. With no understanding of the origin of man, humanism itself will eventually fail. We can see it in the sympathy European and American liberals feel for Hamas, as Morrissey points out.

There is no longer a desire to respect rights anymore, only a desire to enforce tolerance.

Even if Hamas desires to eliminate Israel, we must be tolerant. Even if Hitler desires to rule over Europe with a master race, we must be tolerant. There is no moral line that we can draw and say, “you shall not pass!” Only an empty desire to value humanity for reasons unknown.

The reason I went into all of this is the “moral equivalence” that liberals draw between a terrorist organization and a democracy. Only a few days ago I was discussing the issue of abortion with a friend who, quite expectedly, asked me how I could be so against abortion, and yet support the idea of the death penalty. When I tried to point out the moral equivalency she had just created (between an innocent unborn child and a convicted murderer), she did not or could not understand.

The murderer was equivalent to the child because there is no grounded moral standard to say, “What he did was wrong and deserves punishment.” No, we must be tolerant. We should be, in her words, “pro-human” (what does that even mean?).

This kind of moral equivalency is what helps pro-abortionists justify the horrific act. We can muster no repugnance towards abortion because we are of course tolerant of the mother’s desire for convenience or health. The child has become equivalent to a convicted murder, just as much an inconvenience, but conveniently unable to voice its opposition or be seen. And because of that, it does not deserve tolerance.

And while the Israeli conflict gets comparisons to the Holocaust, the more accurate comparison would be to draw attention to abortion. The issue gets ignored, of course. But the same arguments are being used: the life of the unborn is “lebensunwertes leben” as the Nazis described the Jews – “life unworthy of life.” And since 1973 over 50 million lives have legally been deemed “unworthy” in America.

So as we focus on the stimulus package, the wintry storms, and the conflict in Gaza, don’t forget the problem that the Obama Administration is doing its best to quietly cover up.

Because when the Freedom of Choice Act (and whatever else this administration has planned) makes it way to Congress soon enough the fight will not just be against a piece of legislation. The fight against the culture of death is the fight for the very future of our nation.