"Peace, Peace, and There is no Peace"

In The Light of the Jewish Idea of Rabbi Kahane

by Nachum Shifren

 

There are storm clouds gathering in Israel. An air of uncertainty and apprehension has gripped its people, more than at any time since the founding of the state. Cries of "Vaadat Hakira" (committees of investigation) to be formed regarding the blunders and corruption of the Lebanese war are persistent as the nation comes to terms with the fact that the leadership has been criminally negligent in sacrificing its young on the alter of expediency and "what will the Goy think." Reports have surfaced about Air Force pilots refusing direct orders to bomb Hizbollah targets, rationalizing that the targets were in civilian areas (it was later determined that from these katyusha launching sites, rockets were fired that hit and killed IDF troops).

 

Stories of hungry IDF infantry ransacking Lebanese homes in order to cook food (no food for fighting soldiers?!) came to light. Subsequently, these very same soldiers, it turned out, were rebuked by their commanding officers for "savage conduct" toward innocent civilians (shockingly, these same soldiers were SENT BACK to the home in question and as punishment, coerced to clean up the kitchen where they had cooked rice to stave off their hunger!!)

 

Question: how could this occur in the Jewish state, a country that has prided itself on extra concern for every individual soldier, a country that treated as a hold mission the release of prisoners of war (by the way, just where are they?) How could it be that the chief of staff was heard making phone calls to his stock broker about acquiring or trading shares during the heat of battle?

 

There is a premise upon which this week's Torah portion is based: "When you go to war upon your enemy..", we are admonished to treat them as enemies. The whole country of Lebanon was used as a staging area from which to rain terror against Jews. Not one person stood up to protest or express concern about the consequences of such a reckless policy.

 

For its part, Israel should have said: "Let the chips fall where they may." They didn't. Instead, there was concern, fears, speculation about "collateral damage" to civilians. When Jews are murdered, there's no talk about concerns over bombing populated areas. No cease fire talks. No "human rights" groups, frantically pushing their agendas to the fore.

 

Rabbi Kahane once said: "The entire population of Lebanon is not worth the life of one of our soldiers." That's Judaism. That's Jewish normalcy. This is the only language that our enemies understand. May Hashem mete out the most stringent acts of retribution to those "Jewish leaders" who betrayed our soldiers, and worse, emboldened the enemy to strike us again, Hashem Yishmor.