“When religion turns men into murderers, God weeps” (“Not in Gods Name,” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks).
AS DETAILS EMERGED about the attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists, the savageness of the massacres on civilians was so barbaric that the world has been stunned.
This attack has been compared to the equivalent of seven 9/11’s and the U.S. Holocaust Museum reported this was the deadliest single day for Jews since the Holocaust. The images of the thousands of innocent, unarmed civilians murdered, some decapitated, including babies, pregnant women, the elderly and Holocaust survivors, are beyond comprehension.
This is not war … this is brutal savagery seeking nothing but annihilation.
“What will stick will be the videos of grandmothers dragged into captivity, children shot dead, young women stripped naked and raped, and corpses desecrated. For many Jews, the echoes are primal and go back to the two-and-a-half-millennia-old Book of Lamentations: ‘Her virgins are afflicted … Her young children are gone into captivity … the youth and the old man lie on the ground in the streets…Thou has slaughtered unsparingly.’ These scenes are ones that scar so much of Jewish history, from the massacres of the Crusades to the pogroms of the 19th and 20th centuries, to the ultimate horror of the Holocaust” (Eliot Cohen, The Atlantic).
They are deep and indelible in the Jewish psyche.
Sadly, we are already hearing com-ments of false moral equivalence that since Israel has often treated Palestinians with disregard, especially the current right wing Netanyahu coalition, they are to blame for this attack.
But Israel’s past actions can never be compared to these evil, ISIS-type murders of innocent civilians. There is a difference between Israel’s defensive response to these atrocities and the explicit targeting of civilians by Hamas.
Atlantic Journalist Anne Applebaum points out that the “rules-based” world order idealism established after WWII has disappeared “to one in which states and quasi-states are using extreme, uninhibited violence against civilian populations.”
The Hamas terrorists paid no attention to any modern laws of war or norms of any kind. Anyone reading their founding documents would see this has always been their clear intention.
Judaism has never extolled pacifism, recognizing that war is sometimes necessary if for a moral cause or in self defense. After thousands of years of pogroms, massacres and the Holocaust, Jews are keenly aware of the importance of defending against tyrants who wish to utterly destroy an enemy.
However, the Torah does give clear rules for war.
First of all, every effort must be made for a peaceful resolution. The Torah recognizes both “a time of war and a time of peace” (Ecclesiastes 3:8), but a premium should be placed on avoiding conflict.
“Search for peace and pursue it’”(Psalms 35:15). Anyone who has studied the history of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict knows that this has been a constant pursuit for decades.
Even in war, the humanity of our enemies must not be ignored.
Both the Torah and Talmud teach that, along with protecting the innocent, one must take care to not destroy sources of food, and if a city is under siege, one side must always be left open for people to escape.
These are the principles that Israel absolutely must follow.
Despite our differences, Jews ultimately see each other as a family, always aware that, even in democracies, we are at risk of violence.
New York writer Amy Klein wrote recently that “We Jews Are Not OK,” pointing out how quickly blaming Israel can shift to antisemitic violence. “Because we know the drill: Even if the world is on our side today, once the death toll rises on the other side — even if it’s without pillaging and baby-snatching, even if it’s because the heavy military response may be the only way to stop this, even if it’s what any other country would do to defend its citizens — much of the world will turn against us again.”
Despite the horror of this attack on the most joyous day of the Jewish year, Jews in Jerusalem now gather nightly on their balconies and sing Israel’s national anthem, Hatikvah, which means “The Hope.”
The strength and resilience of the Jewish people is reflected in this beautifully inspiring song.
As long as within our hearts
The Jewish soul sings
As long as forward to the East
To Zion, looks the eye —
Our hope is not yet lost,
It is two thousand years old,
To be a free people in our land
The land of Zion and Jerusalem.
Kein yehi ratzon … may it be God’s will. Shalom.
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Issues of Faith is a rotating column by religious leaders on the North Olympic Peninsula. Suzanne DeBey is a lay leader of the Port Angeles Jewish community. Her email is debeyfam@olympus.net.
