Predictably, the airwaves are filled with immoral demands from the United Nations that Israel cease its military operations. There are demands for a “cease fire,” which is really a demand for Israeli capitulation, surrender and ultimately, destruction.
As despicable as Hamas is, I don't believe they will ever be gone. Just as the Nazis are still around. Evil exists in mankind, but we must at least confront it.
Destroying Hamas isn’t an achievable objective. You can kill all Hamas fighters but the idea will live on - born of hatred on the part of the Palestinians and, perhaps, by Israel’s policy decisions (although, it seems, the hatred will continue regardless).9
I’d like to know why Steve thinks Hamas will be gone. All the destruction in the Gaza Strip will fuel hatred for the Jewish people, and on and on it will go. I empathize however with Israel for trying, after such horrendous atrocities committed on them.
Your response as well as others are resonating with me. Alas, that is how I feel about what’s happening in the US. Trumpism and Magats will not go away even if Trump is resoundingly defeated in 2024. This is a cancer that will keep on metastasizing. I don’t know how you stop it, but the Maga ideology will live long after Trump leaves this earth. As I watch from north of the 49th, I am seeing this very same ideology invade parts of 🇨🇦 with antisemitism and anti-Islam rearing their ugly heads on a daily basis.
There are times a just war is the only action. But we need to remember that Gaza is only one battlefield. We have another in Ukraine. All are part of the same war and all part of the “all roads lead to Moscow” atrocities. We need to close down Hamas and our support of Israel is to that end I hope for a decisive victory with Hamas gone. Those living in Gaza deserve the country they were promised before Hamas took over in 2007. In turn, Israel deserves to live in peace.
We also have our own 5 th column to deal with. No, not those protesting, that is their right, but those in Congress who undermine our Democracy. So this is not an armchair evening news fight. It is here and now. Much work ahead
I agree. Evil has been a part of the universal dynamic since the beginning of time. Throwing up our hands and essentially "giving up" to true evil anywhere in the world is not the right thing to do. War is sometimes the only solution. Israel cannot sit back and let this play out. And as a supporter of Israel, the US must do what we can to support them. Egypt needs to be pressured to open the border.
On an individual level, we can all do something when we see how evil can infiltrate life; doing something is better than doing nothing. Perhaps the holocaust could have been prevented if the world had stood up at the time to the evil that was the nazi party. Perhaps we would still be a unified country if we did not turn our backs on the obvious fascist mindset that has wormed its way into the GOP since the early 80's to rid the US of that pesky "experiment" called Democracy. Now the dire warning signs that started in 2016 with tRump's authoritarian, blatantly evil nature have sparked a blaze that is getting out of control. Currently, all forms of local, state, and federal government across the US are being replaced by extremists. Just yesterday a town close to where I live had news about a stabbing murder of a mother and her child by their landlord because he hated Muslims…… One incident is perhaps no comparison to the death and destruction going on in Gaza. Obviously, the hate is growing. To react with hand wringing and looking the other way because Hamas will always be there with their brand of evil is not considering that the other side of evil - love and goodness - can and WILL triumph over darkness. We CAN fight this no matter where we are in the world! We CAN do something - call out evil no matter where you see it; participate in your local government; be kind and respectful to others; VOTE to support Democracy!
Steve is once again to the point and this is necessary reading for anti-war peace activists like myself. Also read Peter Beinart’s brilliant analysis in the Sunday NYTimes Opinin section. This is a horrible historical moment, but one that is actually upon us. I only hope that the elimination of Hamas is possible with the least amount of innocent Palestinian civilians --and that a just peace can be forged as soon as possible.
Excellent piece Steven and profoundly true in every respect. I did not realize that the United States gives billions of dollars to Egypt. All the more reason of course, that they should be providing aid to refugees.
I agree the United Nations should have been setting up sites to care for the Palestinian evacuees. I do not understand the delay except to fan outrage towards Israel. This war should not be used as a prop to fan the flames of antisemitism. This is a war that was initiated by Hamas, not Israel. Hamas deserves to be exterminated. Their mission is to rid the Middle East of all Jews and bring and end to the State of Israel. I fear the world will look back after this war and blame Israel for creating this humanitarian crisis and further fan the flame of antisemitism.
There is only one way in or out of Gaza that is not controlled by Israel. That one gate is controlled by Egypt. Neither Israel nor Egypt are letting anyone in our out, including Americans for very different reasons. Nor are they getting humanitarian aid in. The UN is strongly urging Egypt to allow refugees out of Gaza and humanitarian aid in. It has been warning of the humanitarian catastrophe that is unfolding since the first days of this most recent conflagration. Egypt does not want responsibility for 1 million+ refugees. Other Arab countries have so far not stepped up to help. Blinken has been all over the Middle East trying to keep this conflict from spreading. No doubt humanitarian relief is part of the discussion. It is very worrying that the UN and US aren't getting cooperation in that regard from countries who have benefited so much from the U.S.
I agree, re: Egypt. However, one of the reasons they are withholding aid is that they have no way to differentiate Palestinians from Hamas. It's not like they have ID cards, or wear a T-shirt emblazoned with their affiliation.
That is quite true. Probably also yet another reason they don't want Gazan refugees as well. Hamas fighters will be among them. And so the tragedy for Gazan and Israelis civilians continues . . . just as Hamas planned.
Likely as a result of childhood influences I believe in both shame and punishment. Righteous anger is almost a holy thing. But it only leads to ravaging indescriminate death.
The murderers and their teachers deserve extreme punishment. No one challenges that. For the sake of mankind, it’s instructive in an elemental way. Hamas deserves annihilation for its irredeemable actions. No innocent adjacent to them does however.
I really find this article offensive. Pray for the poor Palestinians just like we pray for the victims of mass shooters?
Israel can figure it out without mass murder. They’ve got the assistance of the world’s richest countries, the best minds too and the best they can come up with is revenge. So what, it’s too bad we have to murder some innocents who happen to have been born in the wrong place. I have no power to stop this but I can voice my anger and concern that we have yet to learn anything from previous wars.
People think that war is not real, that it is just something that happens on political reality TV. That kind of thinking will allow this type of thing to happen here, as well. This is what extremism brings, and I encourage anyone to watch any worthy documentary about Timothy McVeigh to understand that his type, and the extreme MAGA base, consider all of us to be "collateral damage". That is precisely what McVeigh called his victims. Yes, I am saying there are similarities between MAGA and Hamas.
Hamas is an organization of mostly young men with guns who will simply fade into the population. The same invisibility that enabled this attack in spite of Israeli sigint will enable them to evaporate, while the 200 children in Holy Family Church in Gaza City (one example) who truly have no place to go will be killed. Ironically, those Christian children will then be presented as martyrs by Islamic madmen.
Hamas is an idea: The destruction of Israel. It is despicable. But more war, cutting off food and water, will not make the idea die. It will make it stronger.
Bush's Iraqi war did not rid us of Islamic extremism. It created Isis.
Similarly, the complete eradication of northern Gaza will not make Israel safer.
Ed, Steve is obviously stating the need to prevent Hamas from existing in its present form as a functioning threat capable of planning and carrying out mass murder, as well as preventing it from being any form of recognizable, organized political entity. THOSE must be destroyed, and I share his hatred for them, as should all humanity.
Let us also hope that this war has not deflected American assistance away from the Ukrainians who are now contending with the bully of the north.
And let us hope that the bully of the south, Iran, does not move toward assisting hamas, and thus prolonging this short war and ratcheting the short war into a long slog of destruction and death.
That is a report that seems consistent with other bits and pieces of information floating around the worldwideweb. Rumor also has it that Km Jong Il may be in on their deal. Could be the contemporary "Axis". . . Russia, Iran, North Korea. ..as in the WWII axis, Germany, Italy and Japan or the WWI axis, Germany, Austria-Hungary, OttomanTurk.
Biblical readers (such am I) may also include in this historical category the ancient axis mentioned by the prophet Ezekiel in the 38th chapter of his book: Persia, Ethiopia and Put (Libya) which also included Rosh (Russia?) and Gomer (Germany). . . all of them being powers that opposed ancient Israel.
Intelligence and Security seems they should be congruent . I read some of the best writers who see most of the flaw , write about it well, and have substantial audience.
And yet ...
Violence springs upon us here there as if the guards are ‘asleep at the wheel’ is common. I spend long hours contemplating what more I can do ...rattling sabers of the deviant undermine and ..
GET AWAY WITH IT!
Free speech it is NOT!
The general observation for many years is evil survives , waiting quiet until we’re complacent again , then sneaks in all nonchalantly and it starts anew.
We can NOT underestimate .
We can not sit idly by complacent again once peace is reestablished.
We must strive for better education, vigilance, equality, and love.
While I understand your righteous anger at the atrocities, and they were beyond the pale atrocities, I too have members of my family that are Jewish, and can’t fathom their experiencing what happened in Israel a week ago. Hamas deserves to be exterminated, especially as an idea, but it didn’t grow in a vacuum, it was nurtured from the beginning, carefully tended by policies of Sharron and Netanyahu among others, that most of us have watched from afar and thought were wrong. Going after the leadership of Hamas is what Mossad is very good at, although you might ask why they are still around today if that was true. I am struck by the thousand + number of people who participated in the attack on the unarmed and innocent, why did they do that? It’s not normal to spray an infant with bullets and you might say “he’s not normal” but there were over a thousand of them. That level of hatred had to have a cause, how could you go home to your own family after having done that? So I think there is a poison that is circulating on both sides of this horror. Most everyone acknowledges that a ground invasion is going to claim a lot of innocent lives, to my way of thinking 2 wrongs do not make a right. Israel with all of their might wants to strike at their enemy and I get that, but it might be exactly what Hamas and Hezbollah want, and I had been taught that you never want to do what your enemy wants you to do. The targeted strikes that they have been doing are going to have an effect, Hamas and their infrastructure are being degraded and will continue to be. No one is arguing that Israel should not continue to do that, at least not here. I still believe that a ground invasion will produce unacceptable costs both to the IDF forces who are currently alive and well, as well at to the innocent in Gaza and their relatives who potentially will become the basis for another Hamas. There are other ways to go after the leaders of Hamas that will leave them just as dead, maybe not as soon, but without all of the ancillary costs.
You are absolutely right! The gratuitous savagery and unprecedented targeting of babies and women and the horrific ISIS-like butchery, all deliberately captured on video with the intent of enraging all of humanity, were carried out by individuals with a "suicide bomber mentality" with the intent of arousing Israel to just the kind of revenge that is contemplated here. The idea of Hamas was to provoke Israel to a Biblically disproportionate response that will put it in the wrong in the eyes of a world that right now is united in sympathy with Israel. I do not know what "proportionate" constitutes here, as a person lacking in expertise in the relevant areas, but as an American who has witnessed the results of a disproportionate and gratuitous response to 9/11 (the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq) I would plead with Israel to stop and think about what the ultimate goals should be here. To flatten Gaza in the way that Putin flattened the capital of Chechnya or certain cities in Syria would not be in the best interest of the long-term well-being of Israel or its standing in the world. Worst of all, as Mr Montagne states above, it would be playing right into the intent of Hamas in carrying out this massacre in the first place. Israel's unpreparedness may well have factored into the planning of those who must be brought to justice as the perpetrators of crimes against humanity that they are. But it would amplify the horror to fall right into the trap that they have set.
Hamas will be gone? How naive. Killing babies and children will only heighten the hate Palestinians feel for Israel, ultimately perpetuating the cycle of violence.
The ripple of this conflict will reverberate onto every shore- not one nation or person is removed from this embittered hornlock; make no mistake- we are within the next world display of active enmity, and how it is handled, on a nation-by-nation basis, on a person-by-person basis, will have ramifications for into the future. Those of our gutless, ego-possessed, power seeking goblins who would cavalierly destroy the world so that they may rule stop smoldering ashes represent the worst of us, the foil against which we must rally, against which we must defend, every bit as fiercely as against terrorism, for it is a form of terrorism in its own right.
We must not look away or disengage, but must be prepared to defend humanity, democracy, in the name of ultimate peace and equality.
As despicable as Hamas is, I don't believe they will ever be gone. Just as the Nazis are still around. Evil exists in mankind, but we must at least confront it.
Destroying Hamas isn’t an achievable objective. You can kill all Hamas fighters but the idea will live on - born of hatred on the part of the Palestinians and, perhaps, by Israel’s policy decisions (although, it seems, the hatred will continue regardless).9
My thought too. Ideologies live and people adopt them. I want to believe “evil” or using it is learned. I don’t know anymore.
I’d like to know why Steve thinks Hamas will be gone. All the destruction in the Gaza Strip will fuel hatred for the Jewish people, and on and on it will go. I empathize however with Israel for trying, after such horrendous atrocities committed on them.
The new born are not evil. Of course evil is learned and that is the problem on both sides in the middle east.
Your response as well as others are resonating with me. Alas, that is how I feel about what’s happening in the US. Trumpism and Magats will not go away even if Trump is resoundingly defeated in 2024. This is a cancer that will keep on metastasizing. I don’t know how you stop it, but the Maga ideology will live long after Trump leaves this earth. As I watch from north of the 49th, I am seeing this very same ideology invade parts of 🇨🇦 with antisemitism and anti-Islam rearing their ugly heads on a daily basis.
As a Canadian I sadly agree that antisemitism and Islamophobia are rearing their ugly heads here too.
Hatred is like a cancer that metastasizes and begets more and more suffering.
There are times a just war is the only action. But we need to remember that Gaza is only one battlefield. We have another in Ukraine. All are part of the same war and all part of the “all roads lead to Moscow” atrocities. We need to close down Hamas and our support of Israel is to that end I hope for a decisive victory with Hamas gone. Those living in Gaza deserve the country they were promised before Hamas took over in 2007. In turn, Israel deserves to live in peace.
We also have our own 5 th column to deal with. No, not those protesting, that is their right, but those in Congress who undermine our Democracy. So this is not an armchair evening news fight. It is here and now. Much work ahead
I agree. Evil has been a part of the universal dynamic since the beginning of time. Throwing up our hands and essentially "giving up" to true evil anywhere in the world is not the right thing to do. War is sometimes the only solution. Israel cannot sit back and let this play out. And as a supporter of Israel, the US must do what we can to support them. Egypt needs to be pressured to open the border.
On an individual level, we can all do something when we see how evil can infiltrate life; doing something is better than doing nothing. Perhaps the holocaust could have been prevented if the world had stood up at the time to the evil that was the nazi party. Perhaps we would still be a unified country if we did not turn our backs on the obvious fascist mindset that has wormed its way into the GOP since the early 80's to rid the US of that pesky "experiment" called Democracy. Now the dire warning signs that started in 2016 with tRump's authoritarian, blatantly evil nature have sparked a blaze that is getting out of control. Currently, all forms of local, state, and federal government across the US are being replaced by extremists. Just yesterday a town close to where I live had news about a stabbing murder of a mother and her child by their landlord because he hated Muslims…… One incident is perhaps no comparison to the death and destruction going on in Gaza. Obviously, the hate is growing. To react with hand wringing and looking the other way because Hamas will always be there with their brand of evil is not considering that the other side of evil - love and goodness - can and WILL triumph over darkness. We CAN fight this no matter where we are in the world! We CAN do something - call out evil no matter where you see it; participate in your local government; be kind and respectful to others; VOTE to support Democracy!
Steve is once again to the point and this is necessary reading for anti-war peace activists like myself. Also read Peter Beinart’s brilliant analysis in the Sunday NYTimes Opinin section. This is a horrible historical moment, but one that is actually upon us. I only hope that the elimination of Hamas is possible with the least amount of innocent Palestinian civilians --and that a just peace can be forged as soon as possible.
Excellent piece Steven and profoundly true in every respect. I did not realize that the United States gives billions of dollars to Egypt. All the more reason of course, that they should be providing aid to refugees.
I agree the United Nations should have been setting up sites to care for the Palestinian evacuees. I do not understand the delay except to fan outrage towards Israel. This war should not be used as a prop to fan the flames of antisemitism. This is a war that was initiated by Hamas, not Israel. Hamas deserves to be exterminated. Their mission is to rid the Middle East of all Jews and bring and end to the State of Israel. I fear the world will look back after this war and blame Israel for creating this humanitarian crisis and further fan the flame of antisemitism.
There is only one way in or out of Gaza that is not controlled by Israel. That one gate is controlled by Egypt. Neither Israel nor Egypt are letting anyone in our out, including Americans for very different reasons. Nor are they getting humanitarian aid in. The UN is strongly urging Egypt to allow refugees out of Gaza and humanitarian aid in. It has been warning of the humanitarian catastrophe that is unfolding since the first days of this most recent conflagration. Egypt does not want responsibility for 1 million+ refugees. Other Arab countries have so far not stepped up to help. Blinken has been all over the Middle East trying to keep this conflict from spreading. No doubt humanitarian relief is part of the discussion. It is very worrying that the UN and US aren't getting cooperation in that regard from countries who have benefited so much from the U.S.
I totally agree with you. We should be cutting aid to these countries not Ukraine or Israel
I agree, re: Egypt. However, one of the reasons they are withholding aid is that they have no way to differentiate Palestinians from Hamas. It's not like they have ID cards, or wear a T-shirt emblazoned with their affiliation.
That is quite true. Probably also yet another reason they don't want Gazan refugees as well. Hamas fighters will be among them. And so the tragedy for Gazan and Israelis civilians continues . . . just as Hamas planned.
How sadly right you are, Patrick
Believe that was the entire point of it
Likely as a result of childhood influences I believe in both shame and punishment. Righteous anger is almost a holy thing. But it only leads to ravaging indescriminate death.
The murderers and their teachers deserve extreme punishment. No one challenges that. For the sake of mankind, it’s instructive in an elemental way. Hamas deserves annihilation for its irredeemable actions. No innocent adjacent to them does however.
"No innocent adjacent to them does however." Period.
I really find this article offensive. Pray for the poor Palestinians just like we pray for the victims of mass shooters?
Israel can figure it out without mass murder. They’ve got the assistance of the world’s richest countries, the best minds too and the best they can come up with is revenge. So what, it’s too bad we have to murder some innocents who happen to have been born in the wrong place. I have no power to stop this but I can voice my anger and concern that we have yet to learn anything from previous wars.
Totally agree!!
People think that war is not real, that it is just something that happens on political reality TV. That kind of thinking will allow this type of thing to happen here, as well. This is what extremism brings, and I encourage anyone to watch any worthy documentary about Timothy McVeigh to understand that his type, and the extreme MAGA base, consider all of us to be "collateral damage". That is precisely what McVeigh called his victims. Yes, I am saying there are similarities between MAGA and Hamas.
Peace is what comes after war, after several million innocent people are incinerated and misplaced. No big deal for the masters of war...
Steve, your message is simply filled with rage.
With deep respect, please consider this.
Hamas is an organization of mostly young men with guns who will simply fade into the population. The same invisibility that enabled this attack in spite of Israeli sigint will enable them to evaporate, while the 200 children in Holy Family Church in Gaza City (one example) who truly have no place to go will be killed. Ironically, those Christian children will then be presented as martyrs by Islamic madmen.
Hamas is an idea: The destruction of Israel. It is despicable. But more war, cutting off food and water, will not make the idea die. It will make it stronger.
Bush's Iraqi war did not rid us of Islamic extremism. It created Isis.
Similarly, the complete eradication of northern Gaza will not make Israel safer.
It will create yet another generation of hate.
Ed, Steve is obviously stating the need to prevent Hamas from existing in its present form as a functioning threat capable of planning and carrying out mass murder, as well as preventing it from being any form of recognizable, organized political entity. THOSE must be destroyed, and I share his hatred for them, as should all humanity.
Spot on.
Spot on !!
Actually, it sounds more like a mass slaughter, to me.
Let us also hope that this war has not deflected American assistance away from the Ukrainians who are now contending with the bully of the north.
And let us hope that the bully of the south, Iran, does not move toward assisting hamas, and thus prolonging this short war and ratcheting the short war into a long slog of destruction and death.
I think the bully of the north and south have joined forces to some extent. Putin benefits from this as we take our attention off Ukraine.
That is a report that seems consistent with other bits and pieces of information floating around the worldwideweb. Rumor also has it that Km Jong Il may be in on their deal. Could be the contemporary "Axis". . . Russia, Iran, North Korea. ..as in the WWII axis, Germany, Italy and Japan or the WWI axis, Germany, Austria-Hungary, OttomanTurk.
Biblical readers (such am I) may also include in this historical category the ancient axis mentioned by the prophet Ezekiel in the 38th chapter of his book: Persia, Ethiopia and Put (Libya) which also included Rosh (Russia?) and Gomer (Germany). . . all of them being powers that opposed ancient Israel.
You apparently don't study too hard. It's Kim Jong Un and religious texts simply promote religion, not facts.
Intelligence and Security seems they should be congruent . I read some of the best writers who see most of the flaw , write about it well, and have substantial audience.
And yet ...
Violence springs upon us here there as if the guards are ‘asleep at the wheel’ is common. I spend long hours contemplating what more I can do ...rattling sabers of the deviant undermine and ..
GET AWAY WITH IT!
Free speech it is NOT!
The general observation for many years is evil survives , waiting quiet until we’re complacent again , then sneaks in all nonchalantly and it starts anew.
We can NOT underestimate .
We can not sit idly by complacent again once peace is reestablished.
We must strive for better education, vigilance, equality, and love.
💙💙VOTE THE COMPLICIT OUT💙💙
💙💙 Support the eradication of dictatorships💙💙
While I understand your righteous anger at the atrocities, and they were beyond the pale atrocities, I too have members of my family that are Jewish, and can’t fathom their experiencing what happened in Israel a week ago. Hamas deserves to be exterminated, especially as an idea, but it didn’t grow in a vacuum, it was nurtured from the beginning, carefully tended by policies of Sharron and Netanyahu among others, that most of us have watched from afar and thought were wrong. Going after the leadership of Hamas is what Mossad is very good at, although you might ask why they are still around today if that was true. I am struck by the thousand + number of people who participated in the attack on the unarmed and innocent, why did they do that? It’s not normal to spray an infant with bullets and you might say “he’s not normal” but there were over a thousand of them. That level of hatred had to have a cause, how could you go home to your own family after having done that? So I think there is a poison that is circulating on both sides of this horror. Most everyone acknowledges that a ground invasion is going to claim a lot of innocent lives, to my way of thinking 2 wrongs do not make a right. Israel with all of their might wants to strike at their enemy and I get that, but it might be exactly what Hamas and Hezbollah want, and I had been taught that you never want to do what your enemy wants you to do. The targeted strikes that they have been doing are going to have an effect, Hamas and their infrastructure are being degraded and will continue to be. No one is arguing that Israel should not continue to do that, at least not here. I still believe that a ground invasion will produce unacceptable costs both to the IDF forces who are currently alive and well, as well at to the innocent in Gaza and their relatives who potentially will become the basis for another Hamas. There are other ways to go after the leaders of Hamas that will leave them just as dead, maybe not as soon, but without all of the ancillary costs.
You are absolutely right! The gratuitous savagery and unprecedented targeting of babies and women and the horrific ISIS-like butchery, all deliberately captured on video with the intent of enraging all of humanity, were carried out by individuals with a "suicide bomber mentality" with the intent of arousing Israel to just the kind of revenge that is contemplated here. The idea of Hamas was to provoke Israel to a Biblically disproportionate response that will put it in the wrong in the eyes of a world that right now is united in sympathy with Israel. I do not know what "proportionate" constitutes here, as a person lacking in expertise in the relevant areas, but as an American who has witnessed the results of a disproportionate and gratuitous response to 9/11 (the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq) I would plead with Israel to stop and think about what the ultimate goals should be here. To flatten Gaza in the way that Putin flattened the capital of Chechnya or certain cities in Syria would not be in the best interest of the long-term well-being of Israel or its standing in the world. Worst of all, as Mr Montagne states above, it would be playing right into the intent of Hamas in carrying out this massacre in the first place. Israel's unpreparedness may well have factored into the planning of those who must be brought to justice as the perpetrators of crimes against humanity that they are. But it would amplify the horror to fall right into the trap that they have set.
Right, we will be sitting in our easy chairs watching the carnage play out on TV. What a fucking mess!
Hamas will be gone? How naive. Killing babies and children will only heighten the hate Palestinians feel for Israel, ultimately perpetuating the cycle of violence.
The ripple of this conflict will reverberate onto every shore- not one nation or person is removed from this embittered hornlock; make no mistake- we are within the next world display of active enmity, and how it is handled, on a nation-by-nation basis, on a person-by-person basis, will have ramifications for into the future. Those of our gutless, ego-possessed, power seeking goblins who would cavalierly destroy the world so that they may rule stop smoldering ashes represent the worst of us, the foil against which we must rally, against which we must defend, every bit as fiercely as against terrorism, for it is a form of terrorism in its own right.
We must not look away or disengage, but must be prepared to defend humanity, democracy, in the name of ultimate peace and equality.