In October, Hamas wickedly murdered 1,400 people in Israel, targeting civilians without discrimination.
Since then, Israel’s military forces (and civilians) have slaughtered over 10,000 people in Gaza and additional numbers in the West Bank Palestinian territories. While the Israeli’s have often not specifically ‘targeted’ civilians, they great majority of those they have killed are civilians, and about half of the dead are minors/children.
Torah command that revenge is against God’s will for his people, yet if they revenge then the revenge must not exceed ‘and eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’. Even if it is imagined that the current nation of Israel is somehow synonymous with the Jewish people (and clearly it is not) they this level of retaliation is an order of magnitude out of keeping with the restraint commanded in Torah.
For the rest of the world, Israel’s retribution upon the people of Gaza may, at first have been understandable. Those who have been wickedly violated often are indiscriminate in their lashing out at their aggressors. Yet we all have a responsibility to hold the Israeli nation accountable for their actions. We must exert influence to invite Israel to act like a mature and responsible nation. This slaughter of the people of Gaza is, in moral terms, reprehensible, as was the murderous actions of Hamas. This is not the way the allies of America should conduct themselves. The USA’s offering of aid should reflect our values.
