Moral Cowardice: Why Won’t Leaders Do The Right Thing?
By
Leonard Zwelling
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/opinion/israel-hamas-antisemitism-republicans.html
Tom Friedman writes of three examples of moral cowardice in the news today:
- The neo-Nazi problem in the Republican Party
- The pro-Hamas problem on the left
- And the Jewish problem of radical settlers controlling the governing coalition in the Knesset in Israel.
All of these problems are about small, but vocal minorities in political entities controlling those entities because those who claim to be leading those entities do not have the courage to expel them.
Now you have to be a little careful here because sometimes it’s the minorities that have a bead on the right course of action.
For example, some members of the board of the San Jose Clinic, on which I sat, felt, as I did, that there were deep problems warranting dramatic action to protect the clinic. The Catholic archdiocese did not agree with our small minority and threw us out. So, it works both ways. Moral courage is a great attribute. Just be ready to pay the price as most people will not agree with those who display such a virtue.
At MD Anderson, more than a few faculty members have had the moral courage to stand up to the current administration’s directive to milk every last reimbursable dollar out of the faculty clinicians at the cost to those clinicians of their mental health being damaged as burnout sets in. Burnout will occur in clinicians who have been turned into assembly line workers and billing clerks. Unfortunately, vocal faculty are not welcomed in PistersWorld. Several have been declared “unprofessional” and dismissed.
But, to Friedman’s point, there is clearly a large segment of MAGA world that wants to turn America into a white, male dominated, Christian nation. This form of ethnic cleansing is indeed what the Nazis had in mind when they took over Germany in 1933. No one should doubt that America’s neo-Nazi “Groyper” leader Nick Fuentes wants people like me gone. The GOP, and especially Donald Trump as the MAGA leader, needs to rid the party of these people, but that’s a lot of votes and Trump has never been one for moral courage.
On the other side of the political spectrum, the progressive left of the Democratic Party cost the party a lot of support with its backing of Hamas as early as October 7, 2023. I understand that many of these supporters are young people who know nothing about Hamas or the history of the Middle East. So instead of taking over libraries, go to one and take out some books and read them. In the meantime, these folks should not be welcome in the Democratic Party.
And as for what is happening in the West Bank, Jewish settlers are trying to solve the Palestinian question by killing as many Arabs as they can and then seizing their land as the IDF and Israeli police stand by. And in the Knesset, Netanyahu’s extreme right-wing ministers who have captured the coalition and with it the prime minister who is just trying to keep his job and stay out of jail, advocate that Israel must occupy the land “from the river to the sea.” That’s not viable solution either when half of the people who live between the river (Jordan) and the sea (Mediterranean) are Arabs.
I still see no courage of any kind in Israel or in Washington, D.C. Yes, Trump helped get the hostages back, but what has happened since then? Nothing. Hamas is even resurging in Gaza (see NYT, Dec 8, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/08/world/middleeast/hamas-gaza.html).
Part of this is the unwillingness of the Arab states to put their money where their mouth is and start to rebuild Gaza. Of course, the current Israeli government categorically says that there will never be a Palestinian state. I understand the stance. Ok. What’s a better plan? Letting settlers prey on olive farmers? I don’t think so.
No one is willing to display true courage for fear of upsetting their political base and potentially losing power. But what good is power of you don’t use it for good?
Republicans—dump the Nazis.
Democrats—dump the radical left.
Israelis—dump Netanyahu and his nasty coalition partners.
For goodness sake people; show some courage. Moral cowardice will not etch you into the history books. It was moral courage on the part of the Founding Fathers that allows us all to live in America.
