Friday August 2, 2024 – כ״ז תַּמּוּז תשפ”ד 

 בִּנְפֹל אוֹיִבְךָ אַל־תִּשְׂמָח וּבִכָּשְׁלוֹ אַל־יָגֵל לִבֶּךָ׃
(משלי כד:יז)

If your enemy falls, do not exult;
If he trips, let your heart not rejoice, (Proverbs 24:17) 

כִּי  לֹא־תִהְיֶה אַחֲרִית לָרָע נֵר רְשָׁעִים יִדְעָךְ׃ 
(משלי כד:כ)

For there is no future for the evil person;
The lamp of the wicked goes out. (Proverbs 24:20) 

 

This week, was one of the more difficult and agonizing weeks in recent history. 12 Israel-Druze children were killed this past Saturday while playing soccer by an Iranian-produced Hezbollah missile that struck the Golan Heights village of Majdal Shams.  There names were: Fajr Laith Abu Saleh (16), Ameer Rabeea Abu Saleh (16), Hazem Akram Abu Saleh (15), John Wadeea Ibrahim (13), Iseel Nasha’at Ayoub (12), Finis Adham Safadi (11), Yazan Nayeif Abu Saleh (12), Alma Ayman Fakhr al-Din (11), Naji Taher al-Halabi (11), Milad Muadad al-Sha’ar (10) Nathem Fakher Saeb. They were killed in the deadliest strike by the Iranian-backed Shi’ite organization which was the most severe incident in the north since Hezbollah began its attacks on Israel on October 8, in what it describes as a campaign supporting Palestinians in Gaza.

On Tuesday, Israel killed Fuad Shukr, a top Hezbollah commander accused of masterminding the strike on Majdal Shams. According to Israeli military officials, Shukr was a close adviser of Hezbollah’s secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah, and was responsible for obtaining the bulk of the group’s more advanced weaponry “including precise-guided missiles, cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, long-range rockets, and UAVs.”

Less than 24 hours later, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated while visiting Tehran.  Haniyeh was the political leader of a terrorist organization bent on the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people. For years, he has been based in Qatar, and had come to Tehran to celebrate the inauguration of the Iranian premier.  

There is no question that the world will be a better place without the likes of Shukr and Haniyeh, however, this raises significant moral questions for Israel in attempt to eliminate its enemies and ensure the safety and security of its citizens.

Was the decision to assassinate Haniyeh the right one? Will his elimination make Israel more or less safe? As one of the main interlocutors negotiating around the release of the hostages, will Haniyeh’s death interfere with achieving a deal? Will his killing in Tehran cause Iran to unleash renewed direct attacks on Israel? If Israel was able to carry out such a complex intelligence operation, one might ask, could Israel’s intelligence not also work to release the hostages remaining? 

Time will tell.  

I shed no tears over Haniyeh’s death. But in the spirit of Proverbs 24:172 which teaches “If your enemy falls, do not exult; If he trips, let your heart not rejoice,” I’m also not in the streets celebrating.  

Israel is surrounded by enemies who swear its destruction, yet this week proved that Israel’s enemies are both external and internal, as this week Israel also faced an unprecedented domestic moral challenge.  

“We have met the enemy… and they are ours.”  

Earlier this week the military police arrested nine reservists on suspicion of abusing (sodomizing) a Palestinian prisoner who is a leader of the Hamas Nukhba terrorist organization responsible for the October 7 massacre and reportedly staged an uprising in the prison. After the soldiers were brought to military court for a bail hearing, an extremist Israeli mob of protesters – including Knesset members Limor Son Har-Melech, Tzvi Sukkot, and Minister Amichai Eliyahu of the extremist Otzma Yehudit Party that is part of the ruling government coalition (MK Tali Gottliv of Likud stood on the back of a truck surrounded by masked protesters shouting about the purported injustice) – stormed the Beit Lid and Sde Teiman army bases in protest. They accused the military advocate general who ordered the arrests of being a “criminal.”  

The crux of the matter is the following, as stated by Israel Democracy Institute’s Drs. Eran Shamir-Borer and Amichai Cohen: 

“The alleged act of the suspect soldiers is morally repugnant and the IDF is right to conduct a full and thorough investigation. Whenever reliable allegations arise of abuse of a detainee under IDF custody, they must be investigated — first and foremost, for moral and ethical reasons. Regardless of the anger against the terrorists held at the Sde Teiman detention facility, these detainees are still subject to the laws of the State of Israel and are entitled to certain rights and protections under international law. Respecting these rights and protections is part of the bedrock of the system of values of a modern democratic state. Sentencing and punishment must be decided only by a court of law, and there can be no place for administering any sort of private retribution. This is a core element of the foundation of a functioning democracy and is also an important moral quality that differentiates Israel from the enemies who attack us.” 

These actions by protesters demonstrated an unprecedented and brazen contempt for the rule of law and the military itself. They communicated to the world that we shouldn’t be concerned with how Israel treats its prisoners because they are terrorists, and how dare the authorities attempt to reprimand them for their “bravery and heroism”.  

To accept the protestors’ view is to cross a moral red line. If IDF soldiers refuse to abide by the rules and if military authorities fail to prosecute and hold accountable those who break the rules (heinously, I might add), then the IDF cannot claim the moral high ground. If mobs take vigilante action and commit an insurrection, the police need to squash it immediately; failure to do so represents a weakening of the entire system. The Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir should be held accountable, prosecuted, and removed from his position if the police under his authority did not prevent civilians from breaking into an army base, ostensibly because he agreed with their cause. The rejection of laws and accountability from certain Israeli politicians paint disturbing pictures comparable to what happened in Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021. This should frighten all of us. Israel has always allowed its judiciary to act independently, a hallmark of the Jewish State’s democratic system of government. The ease with which a mob of protesters broke in and freely entered a closed military base is a dangerous precedent to set and should be met with swift action and reprimand. 

This failure of democratic norms and morality, more than Israel’s actions against Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas, bears the gravest and most dire threat to the State of Israel. While we as North American Jews must do all we can to support Israel, we must also do all that we can to support Israel’s institutions of democracy, of a free and independent judiciary, and its ability to weed out and prosecute those who take the law into their own hands.  

While we wait with bated breath and great trepidation as to what the Iranian response will be, Israel has enough work to do internally to confront those who are eroding Israeli society from within, let us wish Israel the strength and will to “not let our enemies rejoice over us,” (Psalm 30:2) prevail over its enemies both foreign and domestic.

 

Shabbat Shalom.