By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal
SAN DIEGO — In the midst of the battle between Israel and Hamas, I read a provocative article by Rabbi Daniel Gordis on “The Times of Israel” website (if you would like to read the original article, click here).
Rabbi Gordis, who lives in Israel and is Senior Vice President and Koret Distinguished Fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem, critiqued Rabbi Sharon Brous’ recent letter about the current violence. (Rabbi Brous is the founding rabbi of IKAR, a Los Angeles congregation seeking to invigorate Judaism and Jewish life.)
What Gordis found particularly offensive was Brous’ empathy with the residents of Gaza at the same time that Israelis were under attack. While forcefully arguing that Israel has the right to defend herself, Brous also wrote, “I also believe that the Palestinian people, both in Gaza and the West Bank, have suffered terribly and deserve to live full and dignified lives.” Gordis also was disturbed by Brous’ comment, “We are deeply entrenched in our narratives of good and evil, victim and perpetrator – and we are scared,” implying that “good and evil, victim and perpetrator” are not objective categories but personal points of view.
“The “we’re all entrenched in our narratives of good and evil” world view leaves no space for calling evil what it is,” writes Gordis. “Why can we not simply say that at this moment, Israel’s enemies are evil? That they’re wrong?”
Gordis continues: “As I read Rabbi Brous’s missive, I couldn’t stop thinking about my two sons, both in the army, each doing his share to save the Jewish state from this latest onslaught. What I wanted to hear was that Rabbi Brous cares about my boys (for whom she actually babysat when we were all much younger) more than she cares about the children of terrorists. Especially this week, I wanted her to tell her community to love my family and my neighbors more than they love the people who elected Hamas and who celebrate each time a suicide bomber kills Jews. Is that really too much to ask?”
On one hand, Gordis argues that we Jews need to care more about other Jews than we do about the world at large, and that in the current battle there is a clear line between right and wrong. Brous says that while we need to care about Israelis who are under attack, we must not lose sight of the suffering and humanity of her enemies, and that we must always be prepared to acknowledge the validity of different points of view. Who is right and who is wrong?
In this dispute I come down squarely on the side of Rabbi Gordis.
While I acknowledge the suffering of the Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, I also believe that their plight is of their own making. The Gaza Strip is not “occupied territory.” Israel pulled its military and settlers out many years ago. She was rewarded by the locally elected Hamas leaders driving out the Palestinian authority and rockets being reigned down upon her citizens.
Even though Hamas’ sworn goal is the destruction of Israel, food, medicine, and other humanitarian supplies come through the Israel-Gaza border each day by the truckload. Israel also supplies Gaza with electricity, fuel, and water. The Gaza coast is blockaded, not to keep food out, but to prevent weapons from flowing in, which they do anyway through Egypt. Furthermore, I do not understand how Hamas can currently argue that Gaza is under seize, because Egypt could supply Gaza with anything its residents need through its border.
Israel wanted out of Gaza. She has only gone back in to defend her citizens from the nonstop barrage of rockets. If there were not rockets, there would be no retaliation. Hamas wanted Israel to attack, and Israel had no choice but to do so
I pray for the continuation of the current ceasefire and, hopefully, a long term truce, followed by a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. However, as long as a significant number of Palestinians seek the destruction of Israel, there will not be peace.
*
Rabbi Rosenthal is spiritual leader of Tifereth Israel Synagogue in San Diego. He may be contacted at leonard.rosenthal@sdjewishworld.com