Shylock: Hath not a Gazan eyes? Hath not a Gazan hands, organs, senses, passions? Are they not subject to typhoid, hunger and despair? If you bomb them, do they not bleed? When you speak of “safe zones” or “targeted strikes”, do they not laugh in disbelief? If you starve them, do they not die? And if you wrong them, will they not seek revenge, as you have done? The evil you teach them, they will execute in return, and like you, they will call it justice.
Portia: The quality of mercy is not strained,
but droppeth down from heaven more gently
than drones on the place beneath. Mercy is
not “anti-Semitic”. It is twice blest.
It blesses them that gives and them that takes.
It is an attribute of God, and we
are most divine in exercising earthly
power when mercy seasons justice.
Therefore, Mr Yahu, if justice be
thy plea, consider that in its pursuit,
none of us should see salvation. Rather,
we pray for mercy, and that same prayer
doth teach us all to render deeds of mercy.
I have spoke thus much to mitigate
the justice of thy plea, which, if thou still
pursue it, such hateful zealotry must
needs give sentence of cruel death to all.
© Graham Lock, 2024
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