The Purpose of this Article
I am basically writing this piece to make my personal position clear: I am against those who spread violence and death, whoever they are, and whatever religion they might belong to. I support anyone who is innocent in times of war, whether they be Israelis or Palestinians. Simply as a human being, I am horrified by the deaths of ordinary Palestinians, as equally as I am by the deaths of ordinary Israelis.
The Problem of being seduced by Tribalism
The problem with many human beings, is that they cannot see evil when it is committed by their own side. There are few people around the world who can look back even at their own country’s history, and say, “In such and such a moment in history, my people / my country did wrong.” If you are a person who has the strength and courage to look at your people’s past objectively, realising that your own people are not and never have been perfect human beings, then you are a wise and godly person.
In times of war, extremist Jews make excuses for the deaths of ordinary Palestinians, and extremist Muslims make excuses for the deaths of ordinary Israelis. As for myself, my tribal inheritance is the Way of Yahveh; therefore I condemn a wicked action, regardless of the religion of the one who commits it.
Confronting Evil in Human Society
When confronting evil in society, the immediate concern should be that it not spread. When the Easter bombings took place in my birth-country of Sri Lanka in 2019, carried out by suicide bombers of an ISIS-affiliated group, my second immediate thought (that is, after the initial shock of the atrocity) was that there might be anti-Muslim riots on the island. So at once I did the rounds of various Sri Lankan chat-rooms, and did my best to calm down people’s emotions; thankfully I was not the only one doing so – I was not the only soul that God called to embark on this godly task. Social media in Sri Lanka was severely restricted following the bombings, but I am pleased to say that there were no major anti-Muslim incidents. Ordinary Muslims in Sri Lanka were not responsible for the horrific murders that Easter of 2019.
I was a Talmidi Jew, mourning the deaths of Christians, doing my best to prevent revenge attacks against Muslims. At that time, the spread of evil was contained.
Criticism of Hamas is not criticism of the Palestinian People
Nowadays, I fear that evil is spreading at a faster rate than any decent human being can contain. Those who only support the Palestinians think that any condemnation of Hamas is also a condemnation of Palestinians – I can assure you, it’s not. Hamas is evil, they do not want peace. If you look at the Hamas Charter (whether it be the 1988 one or the updated 2017 one), it seeks the destruction of the State of Israel, and the expulsion of all Jews from the Holy Land. If you specifically support Hamas in times of war, then you support the rape of women, the abuse of the elderly, the beheading of children, and the murder of the helpless and unarmed. If your response to criticism of Hamas is to answer with a ‘Yes, but …’, then the same applies. You need to be fully aware that Hamas even murders Palestinians, if they express opposition to Hamas.
If you must follow your emotions, follow the dictates of God’s Compassion
The vast majority of human beings follow their instinctual emotions, some including their negative ones, and as a result, evil spreads. Too many people, when looking at the Hamas-Israel conflict, fall completely on one side or the other, and forget that non-combatants on both sides bear no sin-guilt in war.
At the moment, Israel is in an unprecedented state of grief, and many ordinary Israelis are saying things that they would not normally say. Their raw anger comes from their grief. Israel is a small, tightly-knit country, and nearly every family was affected by the 1,400 Israeli civilians who were killed by Hamas.
Now out of revenge, not only Hamas terrorists are being killed, but also ordinary Palestinians. The sinners in this conflict are the far-right Israeli government, who did nothing for the peace process, and the murderous Hamas, who want nothing less than the complete annihilation of Israel, and the expulsion of all Jews from the Holy Land.
If you must follow your emotions, then follow the compassion that God has placed in your heart for all human beings who are in suffering.
How the Israeli Demographic became so extreme Right-Wing
There is an interesting story behind why the Jewish-Israeli population is increasingly so far-right. I watched a video the other day which contained some interesting facts. While Arafat was alive, he said that one of the PLO’s strongest weapons was the Palestinian woman’s womb. He felt it was the duty of every Palestinian woman to have as many babies as possible, so that one day, by sheer force of numbers, Muslims would outnumber Jews in the Holy Land.
The extreme religious section of the Jewish population within Israel could not, of course, leave this challenge unanswered. Consequently the ultra-Orthodox, right-wing Haredi community decided that they would produce as many Jewish babies as possible, to counter the potential Arab demographic explosion. As a result, Haredim are currently about 25% of the Israeli population, and by 2100, it’s estimated that they could be as much as 50% of the Israeli population.
What Jewish Extremism means for the Future Existence of Israel
I fear, however, that this entrenchment of Far-Right extremism within the Jewish-Israeli population will bode ill for the future fate of Israel as a state. An increasingly extremist far-right Jewish population, will mean that they will be more prone to doing more wicked and destructive things to anyone who is not Jewish – and that would include not only Muslims, but also Christians and Druze as well (Haredi men and boys are known to spit at non-Jews). This means that the sacred reputation of God is seriously at stake. Because of the ungodly actions of the extremist Far-Right in Israel, the Name of the God of Israel – that is, the reputation of our God – will become associated with evil and wicked behaviour, and God will not stand that happening.
Continued Jewish presence in the Land depends on us following God’s ways, and on adhering to Yahveh’s just and compassionate values. Oppressing non-Jews in the Land is an anathema to God’s ways. I fear that the religious section of the Jewish population of Israel will become more and more extremist as time goes on, and that they will do more and more unspeakable things against anyone who is not Jewish. If that should ever happen, then it won’t matter that Israelis have military superiority, because if Israel descends into being a society defined by religious hate, thus rejecting Yahveh’s noble and honourable principles, then it will not be Israel’s enemies who defeat her; it will be God who will ensure that Israel is defeated and exiled once more.
Jews need a Homeland, a Place where we can defend ourselves
“Eyn li éretz akhéret” – ‘I have no other country’, is a poem written by Ehud Manor (and set to music by Corinne Allal). You will find the phrase popping up on walls during times of conflict with countries who want to expel all Jews from Israel. With a history of being persecuted everywhere else we have been in the world, an Israeli Jew would say, “There is no other country I can go to where I can protect myself – where I have the right to defend myself and my family”.
Jews have the right to live in Israel. Palestinians have the right to have their own state too. The Israeli government should not treat ordinary Palestinians, who are just trying to go about their daily lives, in the contemptuous and racist way that they currently do. Ordinary Israelis, whatever religion or ethnicity they may be, have the right to live free from the threat of terrorist violence.
I oppose extremism, I am for peace; I am against hate, and I am for treating all people as human beings, with common human decency and dignity. Israel has the right to defend itself, just like any other nation on earth. However, I seriously question the severity of its methods, such as collective punishment (which is against Torah; only the guilty are meant to be punished). Palestinians have the right to seek self-determination, but I do not and cannot support those who use violent and evil methods. Violence foments violence, evil breeds evil, wickedness engenders wickedness. Hamas knew full well that this catastrophic war on Gaza – in which thousands of Palestinians would be killed – was going to be the deadly result of murdering so many Israeli civilians, and yet they did it anyway.
Humanitarian Aid must be allowed into Gaza
Israel must allow humanitarian aid to come into the Gaza Strip. This will likely go through the Rafah Crossing, in the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
Gazans see Gaza as one huge prison. Even if all access points into Israel are closed, there is still the border with Egypt – so why is Egypt not criticised for closing their borders as well? Egypt does not want Palestinians in Egypt. Therefore, we must never forget that Egypt contributes to making Gaza into an open prison, by not letting Palestinians leave.
Additionally, many Arab countries do not want to accept Palestinian refugees, because they have had unpleasant and bitter experiences with militant Palestinian organisations. Most notably, Jordan expelled tens of thousands of Palestinian militants in the early 1970s, because they were behaving in a mafia-like style towards Jordanians and harassing them; the last straw was when they tried to overthrow the Jordanian government and remove the king, so Jordan ended up going to war with the Palestinians. Kuwait, Egypt and Lebanon have had to expel Palestinian militants for similar reasons.
Nor should we forget that the Gaza Strip was originally part of Egypt before 1967, and that its citizens were Egyptians until that point (likewise the Arabs in the West Bank were Jordanians, not Palestinian). During the 1967 war, Israel captured the whole of the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, along with the Gaza Strip. When it came time for Israel to hand the Sinai back to Egypt gradually between 1979-82, Egypt refused to take back the Gaza Strip – the Egyptians simply did not want it. Egypt let Israel have the Gaza Strip. The Sinai had a reputation for being a lawless and ungovernable place, and Gaza was not somewhere the Egyptians wanted to be. In a sense, Egypt lumbered Israel with all the problems of Gaza that they didn’t want to have to deal with themselves.
The best solution to the entire problem would be to create a two-state solution: a Jewish state and an Arab state. Unfortunately, on four occasions this was proposed – in 1937, 1948, 2003 and 2008 – each time the Jews said yes, but each time the Palestinians said no; they wanted the entire Holy Land. Most notably in 1948, the entire Arab Middle East rejected the partition into two states. Since 2008, far-right governments in Israel has stalled on any peace-talks.
The hateful Attacks against Jews and Muslims in Britain and around the World
There has been a steep upturn in attacks on Jews and Muslims in Britain, and around the world in countries where these two communities are a minority. Jews outside Israel are not responsible for the actions of the government of Israel, just as Muslims outside Palestine are not answerable for the actions of Hamas. People do not attack Muslim South Asians around the world, when Pakistanis inside Pakistan commit atrocities against Christians and Hindus there; and people do not attack Buddhists outside of Burma when Buddhists in that country commit atrocities against Muslims. So why hold Jews outside of Israel responsible for the actions of the Israeli government? Why hold Muslims outside of Palestine responsible for the actions of Hamas?
Double Standards
There are a lot of hateful comments being directed towards Jews outside Israel, even those Jews who are disturbed by the deaths of ordinary civilians in Gaza (which most of us are). When the Russians bombed Muslim cities in Syria into dust, so that not one brick was left standing on another, there were no demonstrations by outraged people around the world; the world simply let the Russians get on with it. When the Communist Chinese persecute the Uigur Muslims of Xinjiang (and still are), there are no outraged demonstrations around the world; most people simply let the Chinese get away with it. So it needs to be said that, when the only time you stand up for people, is in order to stand against Jews who are not even Israeli citizens, then that is anti-Semitism. Someone who only participates in angry demonstrations when Israel does something, is someone who has a problem with Jews.
As for myself, in the past, I have written emails and letters to governments on various problems around the world, from the Chinese oppression of Tibetans and Uigurs, to the lack of action to assist desperate Kurds during the anti-ISIS war. I have done similar things like this ever since I became politically aware of human injustices at the age of 18.
To an extremist, someone who hates all Jews, it doesn’t matter that you are a Jew who is grievously upset over the deaths of Palestinians, a Jew who supports justice and fairness for Palestinians; all that matters is that you are a Jew, and that alone is justification for abuse and angry demonstrations against you (even Jewish schoolchildren in Britain are now afraid to go to school for this reason).
I used to attend a Liberal Jewish synagogue at the time of the last major Gaza war. The overwhelming majority of the congregants there were opposed to the policies of the far-right Israeli government, and were deeply concerned over the ill-treatment of Palestinian civilians. That didn’t matter. The Muslim community of Lincoln still organised a joint far-left demonstration against the synagogue (which, thankfully, the police diverted away from the thousand-year-old synagogue before it reached the building).
The Wider Political World
Senior Hamas leaders have been holding regular talks with Russia and Iran over the last few months. Russia wants attention drawn away from its brutal invasion of Ukraine, and for US resources earmarked for Ukraine to be diverted elsewhere. Iran wants the growing rapport between Israel and the Arab world to be halted, even reversed. Hamas wants the reputation of Israel to be utterly destroyed on the world stage. These are the reasons why Russia and Iran encouraged Hamas to begin its terrorist attacks on ordinary Israeli civilians, because it would be a foregone conclusion how Israel would respond.
Putin has made sham, cynical offers of help to mediate, and made hypocritical criticism of Israel. Putin is only interested in conflicts which will destabilise the West, and so actively wants the Hamas-Israel situation to get completely out of hand – Putin wants the war to spread, and for other countries to get involved. He also makes fake anti-colonial gestures and statements to Third-World nations, knowing all the while that Russia’s own history makes it the poster-child for bloody colonialism and oppression of ethnic minorities, which Russia has brutally conquered over the span of 500 years, and forcibly made part of its Empire. Putin’s ultimate strategy is to interfere in the elections of other countries, to get governments elected who are favourable to Russian Fascism, and so build an alliance of countries who are opposed to the US and all the democratic countries of the world.
The Endgame
Hamas has stated that they want Israel to invade – I’m sure they have something particularly horrific planned for when IDF troops eventually enter the Gaza Strip. Hamas also knew full well how Netanyahu’s far-right Israeli government would respond, and is perfectly willing to sacrifice thousands of innocent Palestinian lives to achieve its goal of having the world turn against Israel, in the hope of drawing in other Muslim Arab states to the conflict.
When engaging with others…
Our world has reached a point where there is nothing you can say to someone who has already made up their mind against Israel and all Jews collectively. If you encounter someone who lists all the things that Israel has done wrong, don’t answer with a ‘Yes, but…’. There are other ways of supporting Israel and ordinary Israelis, that don’t involve combatting faceless people online – you don’t need to do that, it will only get you riled up and make you frustrated. You will have more success in moving Mount Everest, than you will in changing the mind of someone who firmly believes all Jews are terminally evil. You can safely leave that up to God to deal with.
The highest goal of Talmidis is to further the good reputation of God’s Holy Name. We achieve this by how we interact with others. We should therefore speak in support of anyone who suffers, whether they be Jewish or Muslim, Christian or Druze. We should condemn evil, whomever it is perpetrated by. We should continue to express our support for a lasting peace, an equitable resolution to the Israel-Palestine dispute, and an end to this awful war.
In Yahveh’s Holy Name, the God of all Nations, let there be peace.