Revenge vs retribution: The case of the Bibas family

Revenge vs retribution: The case of the Bibas family.

‘Sorry, Shiri, Ariel and Kfir that no one was to protect you’, this was the sense of sorrow among the ten of thousands of Israelis, who were lining the roads, highways and overpasses of the sixty kilometers trip of the abducted and brutally murdered by Hamas members of Bibas family, from the funeral home in Rishon Letzion to the Tsoher Cemetary. The mother Shiri and her children, Ariel and Kfir were buried in one casket unseparated for eternity. We can see in a photo how Shiri was embracing her boys, Ariel and Kfir, in a protective hug, which only can be done by the carrying and worried parent. Shiri, certainly, was in distress and afraid. She and her children were dragged and abducted to Gaza by marauding crowd of Hamas terrorists. The family was kidnapped from the home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2923. The father of the children, Yarden Bibas, was fighting to prevent the Hamas terrorists to take his family to Gaza but they overpower him there were too many of them. The children, Ariel a four years toddler, and Kfir, a baby of nine months at the time of the capture, were clutching to Shiri’s chest.

The phrase ‘Sorry, Shiri, Ariel and Kfir that no one was there to protect you’ applies not only to Israelis but to the Jews all over the world. The October 7, 2023, the brutal invasion by Hamas shattered the sense of security of Israelis and, at the same time, it has caused a tsunami of hatred toward Jewish people everywhere. The pro-Hamas demonstrations on university campuses and other locations took away the feeling of safety from thousands upon thousands of Jews in United States and other countries. These young people and their families realized they can be intimidated and harassed and the authorities are indifferent to the incitement of hate toward them. The mass media and corrupt United Nations were reporting the antisemitic events with pro-Hamas bias and nobody stood up to protect the Jewish people.

In the picture of the Babis family before the October 7 attack we see happy parents holding two angels, redhead four years old Ariel and nine months old Kfir. To receive hostages back from captivity Israel is releasing thousands of murderous terrorists from prisons. The rationale behind the exchange of one Israeli for hundred or thousand terrorists is the notion that the value of one Jewish life is overweighting many physical and psychological considerations.

The released from prisons terrorists are enemies and haters of Jewish people who will immediately go back to harming innocent Israelis. The freed murderers can kill people in other countries as well by planning and executing operations against Jewish population and gentiles.

There are Jews who see the need to change the Israeli approach to the negotiations with the enemies such as Hamas or with other psychotic killers in order to release the hostages. The usual modus operandi (MO) of Israeli government is to release hundreds or thousands of terrorists sitting in Israeli prisons for one captive. This is the rejection of the simple principle ‘an eye for an eye’. The concept of ‘an eye for an eye’ is part of Mosaic Law utilized by the Israelites justice system. The Exodus (21: 23-25) says:” If there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.”

The State of Israel is a democratic and humanistic society which follows the laws and values the human’s life. By exchanging hundreds or thousands of terrorists released from prisons for one Israeli, it confirms to its citizens and to the world that it follows the humanist concept of putting the human values and dignity above all. But does the world care? The reaction of the foreign media and governments to the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack clearly demonstrates complete indifference to the suffering of the Israelis. Why Israelis should care of the opinions of antisemitic, biased EU governments or openly hostile Islamic world?

The case of the unhuman brutality of the Hamas towards the Bibas family invokes in the minds of many people calls for actions to punish the perpetrators of the crime. Some people demand revenge. But the Torah makes a distinction between the revenge and retribution. “Yet the Torah inserts one vital element between the killer and the victim’s family: the principle of justice. There must be no direct act of revenge”. If by the law the killer found guilty he or she should pay the price. The lawful process of justice turns revenge into retribution. The revenge is intrinsically personal: “you killed a member of my family so I will kill you”. Retribution is impersonal. Vengeance is inferior to the retributive justice delivered by law. The forensic investigation reveal as Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the UN tells to the reporters “These monsters looked into the eyes of a 9-month-old baby and his 4-years brother, and strangled, beat, twisted, and shattered them with their hands.”  The killing of Bibas children and their mother is legitimately proven crime which calls for retribution. Is the exchange of the slaughtered kids and their mother for murderous terrorists an appropriate retribution? I am not sure.

In the Israeli prisons there are thousands of criminals who are proven killers of Jews and who went thru a lawful process of justice in the Israeli courts. They should pay the ultimate punishment for the crimes: for the three killed members of Bibas family there should be three terrorists sentenced to death. This will send a message to the potential murderers of Jews that terrorism does not pay. If it is proven in Israeli courts that you are a murderer of Jews, ultimate retribution should apply.

This, certainly, will cause an outcry from the hypocritical and biased ‘progressive’ western elite but as it was mentioned in this article before, we should care less of their opinion.