I do not know what those accused of killing, and more recently, of severely abusing captured terrorists, did or did not do. Neither do I know the circumstances under which they acted. No matter how brutal the deeds of the accused, I have neither sympathy nor empathy for the suffering of terrorists of Oct. 7th. Certainly, these Israelis should be given due process and if convicted punished to the full extent of the law. But I do not see them, in and of themselves, as representing a true threat to the State of Israel and its survival as Jewish and democratic state.
The real threat lies in the response of some public figures, including members of the government and some of its ministers, to the arrest of these alleged war criminals. These individuals are not simply making potentially legitimate claims that those arrested are innocent or protesting alleged irregularities in the processes of their investigation and arrest. They are protesting the very idea that our soldiers and our citizens should be subject to any legal or moral standards in their fight against our enemies.
The real threat lies in the response of some public figures, including members of the government and some of its ministers, to the arrest of these alleged war criminals. Leadership of this sort threatens our very survival in this land.
Similarly, Yariv Levin and Bezalel Smotrich have declared that these arrests prove the necessity of judicial reform bills for which they advocated last year. In doing so, they have made it clear that the only judges they want in Jerusalem are those who can be controlled by what, in the best of circumstances, will be a tyranny of the majority.
All of this amounts to a rejection of the very notion of Israel as either a Jewish or a democratic state. Leadership of this sort threatens our very survival in this land.
The Jewish and democratic natures of our state generate many conflicts that defy simple resolution. But on a few critical issues the two traditions that underlie Israeli society fully agree. No one can ever be above the law. It is the obligation of every society to establish laws and legal systems that hold the individual and the collective to basic moral standards in their interactions with all human beings. The Talmud goes so far as to teach that we owe a degree of compassion even towards the most brutal murder. The court is enjoined when executing him to “select for him a good death,” (Sanhedrin 45a) which minimizes the degree of pain and degradation he experiences. This is surely not because the murderer necessarily deserves this compassion. I believe it is because no individual or society can engage in or sanction extreme cruelty without becoming morally corrupt.
The Jewish and democratic natures of our state generate many conflicts that defy simple resolution. But on a few critical issues the two traditions that underlie Israeli society fully agree: No one can ever be above the law. It is the obligation of every society to establish laws and legal systems that hold the individual and the collective to basic moral standards in their interactions with all human beings.
Our fight against Hamas and its allies is truly a war of good against evil. But if we allow ourselves to become evil in the course of this conflict, evil will triumph, regardless of the fate of our enemies. In this terrible war, we face a depraved enemy intent on making us kill as many of their own women and children as possible. It is precisely because this war has forced our soldiers to engage in such terrible acts which blur the lines of right and wrong that there must be standards, and police and courts to enforce them.
This coming Shabbat, in preparation for Tisha Be’av, we will read the Haftara from the first chapter of Isaiah. The prophet surveys the destruction wrought by the recent Assyrian invasion. The scene recalls our own experiences this past fall: “our land has been laid waste, our cities destroyed in fire,” had it not been for a small measure of divine mercy “we should become like Sodom, another Gomorrah!” Isaiah then turns to excoriate the leadership and people of Jerusalem:
“Listen to the word of God Oh Chieftains of Sodom,
harken to our Lord's law you folk of Gomorrah…
I cannot tolerate iniquity coupled with pious assemblies…
When you lift up your hands in prayer,
I will turn My eyes away from you…
Your hands are covered with blood.”
We dare not forget that the most severe crime that our soldiers are accused of is Sodomy, the very deeds of the men of Sodom as described in the Bible. Our miraculous return to sovereignty in the Land, is not as many see it, a sign of a new era of irreversible divine grace inevitably leading to the messianic age. To the contrary, we now find ourselves restored to the full responsibility of our Biblical covenant with God.
Our fight against Hamas and its allies is truly a war of good against evil. But if we allow ourselves to become evil in the course of this conflict, evil will triumph, regardless of the fate of our enemies.
Our continued residence and rule in this Land is dependent on our not imitating the decadence and depravity of the Sodomites and the Canaanites. As we read at the end of the haftarah, there is only one path to our survival and flourishing in this Land:
“Zion will be redeemed with Justice, and those who return to her through Righteousness.”
Prof. Moshe Shoshan teaches in the Department of the Literature of the Jewish People at Bar-Ilan University where he specializes in Midrash and Aggadah.
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