Emotions in conflict

I have never cheered the deaths of our enemies. It’s antithetical to who we are as Jews. But suppressing these emotions is getting progressively more challenging. And the recent news of Hassan Nasrallah’s death has been the most difficult yet. 

Jewish history is replete with the downfall of those who sought our destruction. Most holidays can be boiled down to, “They tried to kill us. We prevailed. Let’s eat.” The quintessential example being Passover. The story concludes with Pharaoh and his army drowning in the Reed Sea after the Children of Israel are safe on the opposite side. The Talmud recounts that the angels wanted to sing praises in response to the Egyptians’ death, only to be rebuked by God. “My handiwork is drowning in the sea and you wish to sing before Me?” 

This balance of justice and mercy is ingrained in the Jewish psyche. It serves as a guide and a constant reminder of how to emulate The Creator. But the question remains: is it ever acceptable to rejoice in the demise of our oppressors? It would seem that time has come.

For those of us paying attention, world media coverage of this region has been taxing. As of late, there have been incessant segments demonizing the Jewish State; from those denouncing the beeper attacks as terrorism, to those insisting Israel is the primary aggressor. “Israel has every right to defend itself, but how it does so is the problem,” has been a constant refrain. It seems that we Jews are only meant to protect ourselves in theory.

These same antagonists see each attack on us as a response to some previous aggression by the Israel Defense Forces. To the degree that Oct. 7 was just retaliation for something done mere weeks prior. In their eyes, Black Sabbath was an expected result of the “years-long occupation”. 

Watching this reporting with no context would leave the uneducated believing that the region suffers from a “cycle of violence.” The tit-for-tat portrayal of the Middle East struggle could seem a reasonable depiction. But this is just not true.

There is a major difference between Israel and those with whom we are at war. Even if we grant the reciprocal nature of the ongoing struggle, the pretenses are diametric opposites. There is one thing that Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas all have in common and that’s an insatiable desire to kill Jews. In every one of their charters, these terror organizations seek the total annihilation of the Jewish State; from the river to the sea. 

Israel has no such charter, no territorial aspirations beyond its own borders. Since its birth, Israel has only sought to live in peace with its neighbors. 

But even if we grant the premise that any people who’ve been “occupied for 70 years would resist,” the question still remains, much like the critiques of Israel, what forms of resistance are acceptable? The regional struggle will never cease until the world can answer this question. 

Until we all unite behind the notion that some actions are unacceptable, we will never defeat the evil in our midst. Acts of terror are not resistance. The rape of women is not resistance. The targeting of innocents is never acceptable. These actions are unconscionable regardless of their justification.

This knowledge is why we celebrate. It is clear to us who the protagonist is in this story. Staring down the barrel of a gun can have that effect. However, Israel does not desire war and never has. We are not happy killing even our worst enemies. But our elation, which should be the emotional response of all decent people, is that the heroic actions of the Israel Defense Forces has once again made the world a safer place.