Wednesday 2 July 2014

What to do now?

Following the devastating news on Monday that 3 kidnapped Israeli students,Naftali Frenkel, Gilad Shaar and Eyal Yifrach had been murdered by terrorists we have all been in shock; the funerals yesterday were deeply moving. I've said this before, but I will say this again : our hearts and prayers are will the 3 families & friends, your Jewish brothers and sisters are all with you during this difficult time.

Clearly there needs to be a response to this outrage. But what to do? I have seen in several quarters, doubtless fuelled by grief and anger, for savage retribution not just against the perpetrators of this act, but that the whole of the Palestinian people need to be collectively punished. On the other extreme there has been more of a focus against Israels responses to this outrage, as if the terrorist murderers should simply be allowed to get away with this heinous crime. 

Neither is an appropriate response. 

I will say that precisely because Judaism places such an important emphasis on ethics, peace and life that Israel should NOT collectively or brutally punish the Palestinian people as a whole. This is against Jewish law, ethics and morality, as well as being politically counter productive.I condemn the murder of Mohammed Abu Khdair, a Palestinian boy of 17 & at present it is being alleged that his death is a 'revenge' killing. If this is indeed a 'revenge' murder, then it needs to be doubly condemned, for killing one innocent individual for the sake of other individuals will not bring people back from the dead, neither does it bring justice to anyone & neither is such a concept found in Jewish theology, for the sins of one person cannot be taken on by another, especially an innocent individual. This murder if done by Jews, is a disgrace to Judaism and to Hashem. We are Jews, not savages. We follow the rule of Torah, not that of the jungle. 

Likewise, we must also understand that Hamas, which controls Gaza with a totalitarian fist, is a terror organisation that will not stop until there are no Jews left in Israel. Their narrative of  no compromise, no agreement with Israel, of denying Jews the right to a homeland, of explicitly advocating the ethnic cleansing of Jews from their historic homeland, of honoring terrorists and raising children to want to blow themselves up as long as they kill some Jews is one of the large stumbling blocs for peace between Israel and Palestine. 

When I was in Israel a couple of weeks ago, I watched the sunrise over Jerusalem, an amazing sight, as beams of light gradually cascaded along the stones of the Kotel (the wailing wall), almost as if The Shekinah,  was reminding me of her constant existence, but if Hamas were ever to win, my friends, my family would be gone, no more beautiful sunrises or sunsets for the Jewish people of Israel to see. A second Shoah. Israel was built to make sure that this and other atrocities against Jews would NEVER happen again. We cannot possibly negotiate peace with an organisation such as this; we Jews do want peace, indeed the preservation of life is a cardinal belief in Judaism as is the concept of peace- Shalom- not just the absence of conflict, but completed oneness, completeness if you will. But peace cannot come at any cost. 

I do not know what the reaction of Israel will be in policy terms .Clearly the perpetrators - those who pulled the trigger- need to be punished and I understand that the authorities have already named the suspects. But as with any organisation, there are also the masterminds behind this atrocity. They too are accountable and they too must be punished. They are called the leadership of Hamas and they should be the target, not the people of Palestine. There are a range of options and a range of escalation points; air strikes against terror targets or the re-occupation of Gaza and overthrown of the Hamas terror enclave. All courses of action are not without risk or loss of life. But this is a war of Milchemet Mitzvah- which are defensive wars to protect the Jewish homeland & the people thereof. This is still applicable today and is the religious reason why the wars to defend the modern state of Israel are applicable via Halachah (Jewish law).

May we find a prayer for the leadership of Moses, the steadfastness of Deborah, the spiritual guidance of Samuel, the faithfulness of Hannah, the courage of Esther, the military prowess of David and the wisdom of Solomon. Above all, we as a people need to continue to follow Hashem and pray that he will swiftly deliver the children of Israel from harm.

May Hashem allow us to see the arrival of Mashiach [Messiah] and the end of all wars & universal peace  in the near future.

11 comments:

  1. Atheist Shrugged2 July 2014 at 13:20

    Already the group punishment for the Palestinians has begun and the Guardian allows its pages to be used to make excuses for these atrocities as if somehow the previous 80 years of terror that led up to this never happened.

    Children don't carry guns, soldiers do and if you live by the gun and by inflicting daily terror on the rightful citizens of the country then how can you possibly complain about dying by it?The utter hypocrisy of the occupiers of Palestine and their twisted Western backers backers never ceases to amaze me.it is about time that the Zionist regime stop importing so many zealots from Miami, new York and other areas of world into occupied Palestine.

    Also as a sign of good faith , the Philadelphia kid Netanyahu, should order his armies to destroy the homes of those Jews who have committed acts of murder and crimes against the occupied Palestinians.The Israelis should start by destroying the home of the person who murdered Rachel kourie first .That would be a great sign to send to Americans who have been bankrolling their little religious and ethnic empire in the middle east

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  2. Atheist Shrugged2 July 2014 at 13:22

    Already the group punishment for the Palestinians has begun and this site allows its pages to be used to make excuses for these atrocities as if somehow the previous 80 years of terror that led up to this never happened.

    Children don't carry guns, soldiers do and if you live by the gun and by inflicting daily terror on the rightful citizens of the country then how can you possibly complain about dying by it?The utter hypocrisy of the occupiers of Palestine and their twisted Western backers backers never ceases to amaze me.it is about time that the Zionist regime stop importing so many zealots from Miami, new York and other areas of world into occupied Palestine.

    Also as a sign of good faith , the Philadelphia kid Netanyahu, should order his armies to destroy the homes of those Jews who have committed acts of murder and crimes against the occupied Palestinians.The Israelis should start by destroying the home of the person who murdered Rachel kourie first .That would be a great sign to send to Americans who have been bankrolling their little religious and ethnic empire in the middle east

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  3. Murdering 3 innocent children is an atrocity. Israel has not actually done anything yet in response to this outrage, other than what any government would do in response (or at least a government with any care for its citizens). The rest is your usual BS, but note Israel is the only state in the ME that protects minorities, as we've said countless times on this blog .You could take your own chances being an atheist in Saudi or Iraq or Iran. See how you would feel then about calling Isarel a 'little religious and ethnic empire'.

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  4. Hi David,


    Thanks for this well balanced and thoughtful post. Much better than your initial thoughts, which were all over the place (:

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  5. David,


    My thoughts are with you and the Jewish community right now. I've always admired the strong sense of community and loyalty you show to one another. You're article is pretty balanced and I wish people on both sides would listen to people such as yourself more.

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  6. May Hashem allow us to see the arrival of Mashiach [Messiah] and the end of all wars & universal peace in the near future. Amen to that, David ,although for me as a Christian it will be the Messiah's second, not first visit to the world (: .

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  7. I'm an Anglican Zionist and I find him to be an embarrassing shit as well!

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  8. Bro, thanks for this article. I'm sorry if I was angry with you yesterday, it is just like arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Why? What to do and how do we stop this from happening again?

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  9. Hi Paul,


    Yes I know not all atheists are stupid. Thanks for your support always x (:

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  10. Paul,


    Thank you for your kind comments. They are much appreciated.

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