search
Ron Kronish

Is Arrogance and Irresponsibility leading us to disaster again?

Crime Minister sign at protest against PM Netanyahu, May 15, 2024, wikicommons images
Crime Minister sign at protest against PM Netanyahu, May 15, 2024, wikicommons images

 

We have sinned against You through arrogance.

We have sinned against You by throwing off all restraint

From the Yom Kippur liturgy, (Translation: Mahzor Lev Shalem)

On this past shabbat, Jews in Israel and around the world recited the verses above during our prayers on Yom Kippur. The reminders that these sentences afforded us  have stayed with me until  today.

Many people in Israel are asking these days: Have our leaders become too arrogant once again? Will their hubris lead them to more irresponsible actions?

This leads us to more interrelated questions: is it really necessary to respond to Iran’s missile attack from the night before Rosh Hashanah, almost two weeks ago? Wouldn’t restraint be a better option? Does anyone remember when we used restraint once before (during the Gulf War) and it actually was more beneficial than war?

I believe that an attack on Iran would be sheer insanity (by an already insane government!). The devastation and death that could result from this in Israel is very great.  We have been warned about it many times. An attack on Iran at this point is very risky, extremely dangerous, and totally irresponsible, from just about every possible angle—militarily, diplomatically, socially and psychologically.

But Prime Minister Netanyahu and his extreme right-wing hawkish government and the IDF are drunk with power right now, due to their short-term tactical “successes” in Lebanon. However, with all these “achievements”,  the expanded war in Lebanon is NOT leading to the return of the citizens of Israel to their homes in the north, at least not in the near future. On the contrary, we are repeatedly told that the war in Lebanon could take a long time, like the one in Gaza.

Moreover, despite the empty slogans,  there is no “total victory” in sight. According to many military experts, it is not at all clear that we can actually “win” this war. By the way, people around here seem to have short memories– we have not really “won” previous wars in Lebanon.  At best, we broke even. For 18 years, we were stuck in the mud in Lebanon, from 1982-2000, and it was a disaster all around, for Lebanon and for Israel.  And the Second Lebanon War in 2006 was no picnic either.

Since the IDF began the ground incursion in Lebanon a few weeks ago, the situation in the north has become considerably worse, with many more rockets fired  from Lebanon into Israel every day, and with Hezbollah aiming at civilian targets in the entire north, in Haifa and south of Haifa every day, including yesterday, on Yom Kippur (they weren’t fasting or repenting). In fact, their attacks are moving further south every day. The successful attack by a drone from Hezbollah yesterday at an army base south of Haifa –which killed 4 soldiers and wounded many more–is fresh evidence of how difficult this war is becoming for Israeli society.

The big lie put forth by the government that this expansion of the war is being done so as to allow our citizens back to their homes in the Upper Galilee quickly is already turning out to be nothing more than another hollow slogan. More soldiers and civilians are dying every day. More destruction of property is taking place on both sides all the time. More citizens of Israel are running to their safe rooms and shelters two-three times a day. More parents and children are suffering from extreme anxiety, and this is only the beginning.

Imagine what would happen if Israel begins a war of attrition with Iran also! The number of missiles that could fall (from Iran and Hezbollah and from some of their allies)  on Israel could be in the hundreds or even thousands per day!! And this apparently could go on for a while. It could be a long war of attrition and NEITHER SIDE WILL WIN. BOTH SIDES WILL LOSE.

Can the Israeli home front abide by this? For how long?  Will this be like the war in the Ukraine, which has already gone on for a few years? Is this really what Israeli “leaders” want?  Who do they think they are?   They are certainly not Churchill or Roosevelt. On the contrary, they are non-leaders who are very dangerous for Israel, for the region and for the world.

I remember the days of the 1991 Gulf War, when Israeli leaders—led by Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir–  were responsible people and used RESTRAINT by not retaliating against Iraq, which actually prevented massive destruction and death within Israel. Those were the days when we had rational leaders, even if they were right-wing. Our “leaders” are no longer rational. Since the massacres of October 7th, they have become crazy people, with far-right ideas of war and conquest dominating their thinking and actions, and absolutely no ideas for diplomacy, stability or peace (yes, I said the “p” word, which you can hardly hear in Israel any more.)

The wars that we are currently fighting could have ended months ago. A deal could have been made –  there were many opportunities — to end the war in Gaza which would have brought the hostages home (in exchange for many Palestinian prisoners). Most of the citizens of Israel wanted this for a long time. The end of the war in the south would have led to the end of the war in the north, and then Israeli citizens could have returned to their homes.

President Biden and the leaders of the Western world, as well as the leaders of Qatar and Egypt tried countless times to bring about a deal and end the war, but they failed because Bibi and his buddies were intransigent and torpedoed every chance to even reach a temporary cease-fire to get at least some more hostages home, not to mention that they totally refused to even think about ending the war even though the IDF has decimated Hamas and destroyed most of the infrastructure in Gaza (and killed thousands of innocent civilians as well).  They could have declared “victory” and brought our troops home!

Presidents Biden and Macron tried to arrange a cease-fire in Lebanon before Israel launched its ground invasion but of course Bibi and his fanatic populist partners would not accept this proposition.  Now the new head of Hezbollah is open to talking about a cease-fire but the non-leaders of Israel won’t even consider such an idea. Why not? It could actually save lives and bring some stability to Israel and the region!

This is taking a heavy toll on the people of Israel. Thousands of families are now long-term single-parent families since so many more thousands of reservists have been called up to fight this unwinnable war in Lebanon. Anxiety, despair and depression have become our daily norm. Many thousands of people in the country are running to their shelters and safe rooms a few times a day. And  millions more are shaking in their souls, awaiting the arrogant retaliation against Iran, and then the next round of missiles from Iran, like the one we had 12 days again on the night before Rosh Hashanah, with the fear that the next round from Iran will be bigger, stronger, more effective and more terrifying.

There is too much hubris around here lately. This is what led us to the disaster of October 7th and the debacle of the Yom Kippur 51 years ago!

Is it really necessary to respond militarily to Iran? Do our non-leaders really want a war with Iran? Or a regional war? Or World War III? Or Armageddon?

Wouldn’t restraint be a better option? It has worked at least once in the past, to our benefit.

About the Author
Rabbi Dr Ron Kronish is the Founding Director the Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel (ICCI), which he directed for 25 years. Now retired, he is an independent educator, author, lecturer, writer, speaker, blogger and consultant. He is the editor of 5 books, including Coexistence and Reconciliation in Israel--Voices for Interreligious Dialogue (Paulist Press, 2015). His new book, The Other Peace Process: Interreligious Dialogue, a View from Jerusalem, was published by Hamilton Books, an imprint of Rowman and LIttelfield, in September 2017. He recently (September 2022) published a new book about peacebuilders in Israel and Palestine entitled Profiles in Peace: Voices of Peacebuilders in the midst of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, which is available on Amazon Books, Barnes and Noble and the Book Depository websites,
Related Topics
Related Posts