Operation Protective Edge and Parshat Pinchas

Operation Protective Edge and Parshat Pinchas

In this week’s parsha Ha-Shem commands Moshe: “fight the Midianim and strike them, for they fought you with their strategies… (Num 25:17-18).” The Midrash Tanhuma cites this verse as support for the principle of self-defense: “if someone attacks you to kill you, rise up first to kill them.” The Hizkuni notes that the command is only to fight the tribe of Midian, not Moav. He explains that the Moavim, in challenging Am Yisrael, were only trying to defend themselves from what they thought was an impending attack. But the Midianim had no skin in the game. They were not being threatened, they initiated their attack out of spite and unprovoked violence. The Kli Yakar draws from this the principle that when it comes to just warfare, discerning the motives of the enemy is important. Warfare should be limited and targeted and matched to the intentions of the enemy.  The Or Ha-Hayyim adds that the wanton destruction, typical of the fog of war, is prohibited, unless there is a countervailing need for self-defense, in which case it is permitted, but only on limited terms, to accomplish what is required.

These moral and strategic issues are challenging Israel right now with great urgency. Hamas and branches of Fatah, without provocation, are both heaving scores of rockets into Israel daily, reaching major population centers as far away as Zikhron Yaakov (the Rosenbergs, Oxmans and Barads, Young Israel of Sharon families, live there). Hamas has attempted to send squads of suicide bombers and kidnappers into Israel in the last few days, but so far the attempts have been foiled. Israeli Arabs as well as Palestinians are rioting around the country. Israel Defense Force Reserves have been called up, including young men and women of our Young Israel of Sharon families who have made Aliyah, and Israel is bombing numerous targets in Gaza with precision munitions. Hamas is clearly trying to lure Israel into a dangerous ground offensive through the alleyways, warrens and tunnels of Gaza city.

Israel could lay total siege to Gaza and bomb them into the Stone Age without setting foot into that hellhole, without risk to Israeli life, and that would quiet the rockets, but it would result in severe civilian casualties and suffering. Instead, before bombing a Hamas leader’s home, they place a phone call to the family and warn them to leave the house – mamash! Some commentators are operating under the assumption that the Palestinian populace is unwilling hostage to the violence of its leadership and not complicit with that violence, so they should be distinguished from that leadership and protected as much as possible. This may be wishful thinking. On the night that the news came out that the three Israeli teenagers who had been kidnapped were murdered, while Israelis were in shock and mourning, there was celebratory gunfire and cheering crowds in Bet Lechem and other Palestinian towns around the country.

The rest of the world has no appreciation of the level of moral restraint exercised by the Israel Defense Forces. This restraint is not aimed at appeasing American or European opinion. It is the code of Taharat ha-Neshek, Purity of Arms, that guides the Israel Defense Forces in principle, that every soldier must learn and internalize, and it is an expression of the moral uprightness of Am Yisrael even under the stress of war, from the time of Moshe Rabbenu onward. As members of the Young Israel of Sharon sit here in Tzfat, in Yonatan, in Efrat, in Bat Ayin,  in Zikhron Yaakov, in Modi’in, in Hashmonaim, in Tel Aviv,  in Be’er Sheva, in Maalei Adumim and Kfar Adumim, in Yerushalayim and elsewhere in solidarity with all Jews of Israel, and some of our young members, men and women, have been called up, the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air, give proof through these nights and days of violence that our humanity is still here. We are proud of our Israel Defense Forces and proud of our nation, an island of humane morality in a sea of barbarity. May Ha-Shem protect His People Israel and may our courageous soldiers show the world what it means to behave like human beings in the image of God.

BiVrakhah
Rabbi Meir Sendor