Cautious Optimism: The Peace Initiative
Shemini Atzeret 5786
I don’t invoke the phrase “Baruch Hashem” as frequently as many because I am afraid that if I do, it will lose its significance for me. However, on Monday morning, upon hearing of the release of the hostages, the words “Baruch Hashem,” automatically passed through my lips.
The release of the 20 living hostages comes at high price. Israel is in the process of releasing approximately 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, many of whom have blood on their hands. Concerns that these freed terrorists will again kill are well founded. Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7 massacre was among the 1,027 prisoners Israel released to gain the freedom of Gilad Shalit. Nevertheless, from a Halachic point of view, Israel’s actions are justifiable. First of all, there is a mitzvah to redeem hostages. Furthermore, Sanhedrin 6b speaks to the dilemma.
Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korḥa says: It is a mitzvah to mediate a dispute, as it is stated: “Execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates” (Zechariah 8:16). Is it not that in the place where there is strict judgment there is no true peace, and in a place where there is true peace, there is no strict judgment? Rather, which is the judgment that has peace within it? You must say: This is mediation, as both sides are satisfied with the result.
In other words, in order to achieve a peaceful resolution, both sides have to be willing to compromise. If Israel had insisted on strict judgment i.e. justice, Israel would have refused to have exchanged terrorists for hostages, for justice requires that the hostages would have been released without compromise. In a better world, this would have been the case, but in the deeply flawed world in which we live, Israel did the best it could under the circumstances and we are elated the hostages are home.
Despite the fact that the release of terrorists is a hard pill to swallow, the phased agreement is highly favorable to Israel, as Michael Oren, Israel’s highly respected former ambassador to the United States, explained last week. Oren pushed back last week against the narrative that this deal was only agreed upon because the U.S. administration put tremendous pressure on Netanyahu. While it is true that the White House did pressure Netanyahu, the willingness of the administration to abandon the failed strategy of pressuring Israel to take reckless risks for peace (which Netanyahu resisted) and instead allow Israel to apply relentless military pressure to Hamas, forced Hamas to agree to lay down their arms and relinquish power. Furthermore, though Trump was clearly angered by Israel’s strike in Doha, it likely served as a reminder to Qatar leadership that though they are at a distance from the epicenter of the conflict, Israel has the ability to hold them accountable. That is to say, that Israel’s strike in Doha provided the impetus for Qatar to apply the necessary pressure to Hamas to get the terrorist group to accept the deal.
Though Hamas has already released the remaining hostages, there are already reports that they are attempting to reassert control of the strip by executing those who are believed to have collaborated with Israel. Ultimately, the success of this phased peace initiative rests on the U.S. administration’s willingness to see it through. After the Civil War, Reconstruction gave way to the horrors of Jim Crow because the victorious North failed to realize that after winning the war, it must win the peace. Just a few years after decisively winning the war, the exhausted victories allowed the Klan to assert control.
Yet, this is a rare moment for cautious optimism in the Middle East. However, if Hamas continues to attempt to reassert control, as it certainly will, Washington must allow Israel to deal the terrorist group crushing blow after crushing blow. The failure of Oslo and Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, which created a Palestinian state in everything but name, made it crystal clear that the conflict was never about boundaries, but rather about the Jewish state’s right to exist in its ancient homeland. Prussian general and military historian Carl von Clausewitz observed that conflicts over boundaries can be ended through mediation. Conflicts over competing ideologies only ended with a decisive victory of one side over the other such as the Allied defeat over Axis Powers in the second World War. Hopefully, Israel’s victory has been decisive enough to bring the Palestinians to the realization Israel is an “Iron Wall”, as Zeb Jabotinsky, the founder of the revisionist Zionist movement put it, which cannot be destroyed and there is more to be gained by following in the footsteps of those who have entered the Abraham Accord. If not, Israel must be allowed to finish the job.
On this day of remembrance, we remember the slain hostages and our heroes who fell defending the Jewish state. We also pray that our leaders remember the mistakes of the past, and never again expect those who fight against evil to do so with one hand tied behind their backs.
