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I recently answered a question in Quora that reminded me of a Dvar Torah I wrote many moons ago that got me in a bit of hot water.
Here’s the question and answer.
The general gist: Someone asked how Israel could justify killing hundreds of Palestinians in the process of rescuing just a few hostages. The basic theme of my answer was there’s no bodycount too high. Terrorists stole people and hid them among civilians. They composed their own death sentences. The instant those hostages are discovered, the gloves must come off immediately. It’s acceptable to go through heaven and earth to get them back to their families.
The vast majority of responses I’ve received to my answer have been positive. Yes, there’s always a propaganda hound or two who will shout at me and call me a liar and throw accusations against me or Israel without evidence.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t voices of dissent worth listening to.
Yaakov’s Daughter
The world has changed a bit in the twenty years since I wrote about Yaakov’s daughter Dina. A super-quick story refresher: His daughter was kidnapped and raped, and whereas Yaakov (Jacob) wished to negotiate, two of his sons had a different idea. They went ahead and slaughtered the entire town, either for perpetrating this disgusting act, or for harboring those who committed it.
Yaakov was quite displeased with his sons’ behavior. But my article expressed sympathy with their actions.
Why? Because Yaakov confused me. Possibly more so than anyone in the entire Bible. And the sons actions made sense to me. Maybe they went too far. But who wouldn’t be filled with violent rage after finding out that someone in their family was seriously harmed by some repugnant figure, and was nonchalantly being harbored by those who just wished to talk the matter over!?
Maybe some among us might look back a few days later and realize his actions were extreme. Maybe. But that doesn’t change how far most of us are willing to go when the people we care about most are threatened.
Uninterested in Extremes
So when I said the IDF was more than justified to save the lives of a few hostages, the responses were varied. I received everything from those saying it was unacceptable to those who felt the full destruction of Gaza would have been warranted. One should keep in mind there are plenty of folk who have expressed the latter approach since October 7th. In their minds the attack should have resulted in a response from us that took out the entire region, regardless of any details, and regardless of whether or not people we harmed were in any way connected to Hamas’s attack against Israel.
The extreme responses on either side don’t interest me. I am not interested in those who accuse Israel of apartheid or say something insane like killing others to get our hostages back is valuing our people’s lives more than their’s. Anyone with a shred of knowledge about Israel or the concept of apartheid knows how wrong these accusations are. And those who say we value our people’s lives more, you’re right. We put the lives of our captured people before the lives of those who kidnapped them or harbored them. I say that unapologetically.
And if anyone truly innocent was killed or harmed in the rescue operation, I am sorry this occurred. It’s a tragedy. But it’s on the heads of those who stashed hostages there, not Israel. The fate was written by the perpetrators of an atrocity.
Blemished Soul
But I am also uninterested in the opinion of those who say to burn all of Gaza to the ground.
I am not bloodthirsty. And I’m not interested in revenge. I want safety. I want justice. And I want peace.
The deaths of tens of thousands of people might be necessary to achieve those goals. But if it is not, I don’t want it.
I like culture. I love diversity. And I long for a world where we can be more than just tolerant of our neighbors, but we can be friends. We can feel comfortable and safe in each other’s places, and benefit from what we all have to offer.
Nothing good comes from the mass, random killing of people. And I think the net result would be disastrous. Yes, technically we’d be safer. But at what cost! Not only would our image be forever tainted historically, but the blemish on our souls would be overpowering.
Real Lives at Stake
But there are a lot of opinions in between these two extremes. And when I address these questions, that’s who I am speaking to. That’s where sanity lies. It is extremely possible to value Israel’s safety and the lives of the hostages more than anything else and still feel taking additional lives is not glorious. We can be overjoyed about the return of the hostages, and think all lives taken to get them home was 100% justified, but still feel remorse if there is a Palestinian mother mourning over the loss of her child who got caught in the crosshairs.
I believe one could be a perfectly good and moral person and still support ripping through the world to get innocent people home to their families. In fact, I think it reflects quite poorly on your moral character if you take issue with this approach. We glorify when Liam Neeson kills his way through the world to retrieve his kidnapped daughter or even when Keanu Reeves goes on a murder spree to avenge his dead dog. But when real people are sitting in a tunnel fearing for their lives for eight months, all of a sudden people become a bit squeamish when some eggs need to get broken to get them home.
Freed Hostages and Unnecessary Death
I’ll say two ideas, with pride. With my head way up high.
I do not want a single unnecessary death to happen in this war. If there were a new weapon that allowed the IDF to take out all of Hamas without harming any non-terrorist elements, I’d strongly advocate its usage.
However, it’s our collective family rotting in Gaza. And I see no problem in ripping the place apart, doing whatever it takes to bring them home.
And I see no contradiction whatsoever.
