The Hamas deal: Self-sacrifice as a prayer

The terrible kidnapped-for-terrorists deal is a self-sacrifice which is a powerful prayer: God, see what dangers we are willing to incur in order to heal rifts within us, to promote peace between brothers, and please protect us from the likely terrible consequences of these actions.

We ended up as slaves in Egypt because we sold our brother as a slave to Egypt, and it ended only when there arose two brothers, Moses and Aaron, who wanted greater honor for the other. In our day Israel suffers terrible division, and in order to overcome it during this terrible war, Israelis who totally oppose the deal due to its almost-guaranteed disastrous results are nevertheless willing to pursue it.

For the majority of Israelis, who recognize the future-horrors which await, when the freed terrorists – and others who were inspired by their release – commit new outrages against Israelis, the reason to pursue the deal is not to free the kidnapped, it is to achieve some measure of unity with those who feel strongly the opposite, that the kidnapped should be freed at all cost

The majority agrees that the kidnapped should be freed at all costs, but at all cost to the Gazans, not to Israel. And they feel that only extreme military pressure on Gazans can lead to the destruction of Hamas,& thus help prevent future major disasters, which is the most important goal, and perhaps very extreme pressure can even cause the release of the kidnapped by Gazans who are desperate to save what little is left from utter destruction.

Nevertheless the Israelis who are the majority are willing to bend to the wishes of the minority in such a fateful decision, to succumb to Hamas’s demands and release mass murderers who will only end up killing far more Israelis than released kidnapped, and to agree to the deal – only in order to heal the rift between brothers and sisters – making these dangerous actions worthy indeed of divine protection.

And so, considering the intent behind taking this decision, I propose we consider it self-sacrifice that is a form of prayer – since all is in God’s hands and the dangers are incurred for a holy purpose, that the murderous designs of the released terrorists and their ilk will be thwarted, for example in the ‘natural’ ways that God acts, as has already occurred in this war.