Reaping what you sow

BS”D

Good days for humanity and the Jewish people

The momentous nature of last week’s events

During the past week we saw justice finally being served. These were days when the wicked perish before our very eyes, as the prayer av harachamim states: tinkom et nikmat dam avadecha leneged einenu-May He exact retribution for the spilled blood of his servants before our very eyes. Too often throughout history, we have not seen justice served directly, only indirectly and after a long period of time. Were Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Franco, King Leopold ꞁꞁ, and many other of history’s great villains, ever held accountable for their actions? This past week when arch-terrorists Ismail Haniyeh (Hamas), Muhammed Deif (Hamas) and Fuad Shukr (Hezbollah) were taken out felt like the modern-day equivalent of Haman being killed in Persia (incidentally, or not incidentally, Haniyeh was also killed in Persia). Just like Purim, the evil Haman and his followers reaped the whirlwinds of their evil plot to eradicate the Jewish people.

These targeted killings deal a huge blow to the enemy and constitute a small victory. The ultimate victory of course would be for peace and quiet to return to Israel’s borders.
But these were days when the account of October 7th was partially closed. It was a great day for all the innocent victims of Islamist and Anti-Semitic evil.

On escalating the conflict

As always, we see claims to the effect that Israel is now strengthening the motivation of terrorists to carry out attacks, and that it is Israel that is escalating the conflict by targeting terrorists. But these claims are easily dispelled.

The above-mentioned arch-terrorists’ “only claim to fame” was that they had already organized and carried out mass slaughter of innocent Jews and were planning to continue doing so. To think that eradicating these menaces to humanity will cause more bloodshed is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of what the goals of these organizations are and how they operate.

Iran is already waging war against Israel, through its proxies, but even directly when it sent hundreds of missiles towards Israel in April. Iran and its proxies are determined to wipe out the Jewish state and cause another Holocaust of Jews by doing so. They started this war because they were not interested in the peaceful status quo and saw weakness in the American administration and in Israel’s military preparedness.

The quasi-military proxies of Iran are essentially military organizations, without a formal state. Hamas was running a mini state of sorts in Gaza. Hezbollah’s military might goes unchecked and unchallenged in Lebanon. The Houthis operate from a certain area of Yemen which they control. All these terrorist groups possess advanced weaponry, a plethora of arms and are funded by other nation-states like Iran and Qatar (and possibly even Turkey).

On the futility vs the efficacy of killing terrorists

These quasi-military organizations are of course managed by a mixture of meritocracy and political maneuvering, just like any big organization is. The terrorists are always replaceable but not necessarily indispensable. To replace the leading figures of such organizations is to remove all the know-how and the capabilities that these individuals possess.

Many people counter and say that the war against terrorism is still futile since you cannot eradicate an ideology. This is of course true, but you can indeed fight an ideology’s ability to do harm. Just like you cannot, at this moment in time, find a cure for cancer you are obliged to fight it’s spread, by chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy or other treatments.

You harm an organization’s capabilities by killing their senior commanders, as well as killing their foot soldiers, which Israel is very much doing. Israel is killing these terrorist foot soldiers by the thousands since the beginning of the war and is making great headway in winning the war in Gaza. If the US would allow Israel to finish the job, we can look forward to a more peaceful future for Israel and Gaza going forward. The Houthis and Hezbollah will remain a menace, but their threat will have to be checked and deterred going forward, as full-scale invasions of their areas of control remain unlikely and unfeasible right now.

The necessity of the fight

I don’t think we should gloat in the fact that anyone is killed. Even evil people are G-d’s creations. It’s a shame that we must wage war to begin with. It’s a great shame that humanity cannot live in peace and that human beings cannot accept each other’s differences. It’s a shame it had to come to this.

Hashem did however create a reality of good and evil and the Jewish people have as a nation been especially confronted with this reality. The Jewish people contribute greatly towards the betterment of humanity in all possible fields: culture, science, business, charity, philosophy and psychology. We will continue to do so, because we are a people who yearn for life, not for death, we are in our essence rachmanim vebaishanim, a modest and merciful people. But for far too many years, during the long exile, we carried the yoke of Christian morals, whereby you as a victim must turn the other cheek. That never worked well for us (and not for anyone else ultimately). Sadly, we are still awaiting the Messiah and before he comes and brings with him the advent of peace for humanity and Israel’s independence from the Nations, we will have to wage war against our enemies like we are doing now.