Israel’s war through the lens of dharma

On the 7th of October last year, I landed up at the Jewish quarter (called the ghetto) in Rome, quiet coincidentally, in a coffee shop for breakfast at around 1030 am. I had just finished an important event at Rome’s city council offices (on a Saturday no less) and that was the closest coffee shop open. I switched on my phone to check whatsapp messages and my twitter alerts were going haywire. There was news of a terrible large scale attack on Israel from Gaza. I followed the horrors as they were discovered, often consoling Israeli and Jewish friends, reaching out, with the majority helpless waiting for news.

Since, much has been said of Israel’s reaction, with the words “disproportionate response” used repeatedly. I wont go into the logic of what would be a moderate response in a situation like this. It’s useless to try and explain to most people that when you feel violated, when your most innocent citizens suffer the most brutal personal one on one aggression, it is the most hateful of violence. Mumbai suffered it on 26/11, India did nothing. 07/10 was much larger, on a much bigger scale. A large number of Indians still congratulate themselves on “restraint” while  murdered men, women and children rest unavenged.

What Hamas did was personal violence. Hamas’s terrorists and Gaza’s bazaar thrash, looked each child, teenager, senior citizen in the eye, before they shot them. They made family members watch while they tortured their loved ones. There was hate, not hatred that derives from politics of “an open air prison” or colonisation but something so evil that humanity shudders when a grown man looks a child in its eyes and shoots it point blank just because its jewish and Israeli.

Israel’s bombing campaigns, seemingly vengeful,  target terrorist infrastructure and terrorists. It isn’t personal violence, even though it causes suffering and death of innocents. Is it less evil?  According to dharma (righteousness, duty), it definitely is.

Hindus have a book of 18 chapters called the Bhagavad Gita, which talks about this in great detail, explaining the difference between justified killing and evil, even if it means innocents suffer for the protection of dharma.

There is a simple solution to make Israel give up its campaign of destruction— bring its hostages back. Not one international institution, not one country which preaches from the altar of moral righteousness, has been able to achieve this.

Is Bibi Netanyahu out of control, exploiting a weakness in global leadership, clinging to power with the excuse of war? Maybe.

Is Israel justified in using every means to eradicate evil, evil that was perpetrated on its innocents on the 7th of October 2023? definitely.

Let’s come to the Iranian regime, Hezbollah and the Houthis. Each of these groups have vowed the destruction of Israel. The international community has stood by and let their power increase, let them arm. The Iranian government, the Velayat-e-Faqih, eats its own young, murders its own women and keeps them-along with minorities like the Kurds, Bahais and Zoroastrians, as second class citizens. A just, free government by any dharmic standards? Absolutely not.

The Hezbollah are a narco terrorist group which over time has Islamised Lebanon and is responsible for the genocide of Syrians.

The Houthis are yet another example of the failed “Arab spring”. They seized power in Yemen, have caused a humanitarian disaster, and keep attacking ships in the Bab al Mandab causing oil spills and poisoning our oceans and fish. They make trade impossible and increase the cost of goods for everyone. They have exiled or killed ethnic minorities, including the ancient Yemeni Jewish community. Definitely evil.

It’s not Israel or the west that is their only target, it’s everyone who is essentially not orthodox Muslim (preferably Shia). These are the allies and supporters of Hamas. All of them have sworn to destroy Israel, wipe it off the map. While the world and Israel have tolerated their rhetoric for decades, for the first time a year ago one of them actually executed what for long was almost just violence of words.

They showed Israel and the world that it was not just talk, they were willing and prepared to actually kill every Jew they could, looking them in the eye in the most evil and heinous way possible.

It is the Hindu upanishads that define how hinsa(violence) develops, first a violent thought, then violent words and finally violent action. Once hinsa has passed from thought to words to deed, there is no going back.

In the light of this existential threat, Israel needed to respond, it is its duty, dharma, “never again”.  Bibi’s government failed the basic tenet of Israel’s existence. Every jewish life is to be protected. It is Israel’s raison d’être to protect Jewish life, its “dharma”. That is what it is doing before the other “Kauravas”, Hezbollah, Houthis and the list, drive this world to another endless war, another Mahabharata.

How would have the Mahabharata ended if Bhima had ripped Dushasana’s arms that day in the sabha when he tried to disrobe Draupadi? (read: Draupadi’s  humiliation)

Israel’s actions are exactly that, annihilate the enemy before others try and repeat what Hamas did a year ago. It is a war of protection because this alliance of “evil” will not stop at Israel, it will come for every one of us.

These are the faces of evil, and if we can’t join Israel we should not stop its war. A year later, there are hostages still in Hamas custody, Sinwar is still alive and Israel is still at war. If we can’t support Israel we should not stand in its way. While statecraft may dictate prudence and moderation, dharma doesn’t.

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Note: I have written this primarily for readers familiar with Hindu philosophy and culture.