Something about the details. The more gruesome, the more attention.
Something about the evil actors, the more they do, the more the focus on others.
Something about the unanswered prayers, the failed efforts, the unending anguish, the funeral after funeral, the dubious distinctions — hostage families, bereaved families — that the solutions burgeon and contradict each other. Go on strike. Call off strike. Negotiate, don’t negotiate. Embargo, don’t embargo. Withdraw from Philadelphi Corridor. Don’t withdraw.
This too is endless.
Bottom line: the twisted genius of evil that ties up the good people in knots, when it should be the other way around.
If one wanted to see one’s own feelings and ideas spoken out and given prominence, this was the week for it. After the murder by Hamas of six hostages at close range:
If one was heartbroken and outraged, President Biden spoke to those feelings by saying just that, he was devastated and outraged.
If it was Israel’s fault, at least in part, Biden said that, too, answering “No” to a question as to whether Netanyahu is doing enough on the hostage issue.
If one wanted to blame the Biden administration, Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.) — the only US Congressman to don both US and Israeli military uniforms — stepped up: It is “puzzling that from the moment Americans were taken hostage in Gaza, neither Joe Biden nor Kamala Harris made the commitment that there will be Americans coming to get them.”
If one wanted to blame Israel, the AP reported that six “bodies” were “found,” and they might have been killed by Israeli forces.
If one wanted to anticipate further human rights violations, Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy obliged, suspending some arms sales to the IDF (on Sept. 1) on the grounds that there is a “clear risk” that the weapons could be used to “commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law.”
If one wanted to shut down Israel with a countrywide strike to send a message of anguish and anger to the Netanyahu government, the Histadrut could do it and salute it:
“Despite the attempts to paint solidarity as political, hundreds of thousands of citizens voted with their feet. I thank every one of you‚ you proved that the fate of the hostages is not right wing or left wing, there is only life or death, and we won’t allow life to be abandoned,” said Histadrut head Bar-David.
If one wanted to shut down the strike, the Histadrut’s Labor Court could do it: “We understand the pain, we understand the families, but we still appeal to the government to keep the war on until they end Hamas’ terror reign because we need to protect the whole nation here. The strike is political, there is no connection between the killing of abductees and the economy.”
If one wanted no part in these debates, but felt only the need to mourn, one could do that, attending one of six funerals, of innocent people, of hopeful and embracing people (see their pictures above), of the latest victims of anti-Jewish hatred, one could do that — and go to their shiva homes, too.
If one wanted to note the discontinuity of Jewish history, the mourning of victims of anti-Semitism amidst the new reality of an independent Jewish state with its own army to fight back, one could do that.
If one wanted to note the continuity of Jewish history, mourning the victims amidst the 80th anniversary of the Nazi liquidation of the second largest Jewish ghetto in Europe — Lodz (Aug. 29, 1944) — one could do that.
If one wanted to advocate for additional pressure on Israel to reach a ceasefire deal that would free the remaining hostages, one could discern validation in the Sept. 2 meeting in the White House Situation Room of President Biden, VP Harris, Secretary of State Blinken and others.
If one wanted to advocate for a suspension of hostage negotiations with Hamas, one could discern validation in the statement of Yehoshua Shani, whose son, an IDF captain, was killed in action on Oct. 7, who said: “We call on the prime minister not to give up to [Hamas chief] Sinwar and instead to keep up military pressure to achieve total victory.”
If one wanted to discern in PM Netanyahu the absence of an “empathy gene,” one could note that it took him some 10 months to apologize for the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre, which was planned and carried out on his watch, it was not difficult to spot.
If one wanted to see Netanyahu differently, one could note his apology on Sept. 1 for not freeing the six murdered hostages, “I would like to tell you how much I regret and request forgiveness for not succeeding in bring Sasha back alive,” the PM’s office quoted him telling the parents of one of the victims, promising to reach out to the other five sets of parents.
If one wanted to see the failure to rescue the hostages as the government’s refusal to agree to a ceasefire out of “delays, sabotage and excuses,” one would have the Hostage Families Forum to rely on.
If one wanted to see the failure to rescue the hostages as the government’s refusal to abandon control over the Philadelphi weapons smuggling corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border, on the grounds that if Israel ceded it, international pressure would prevent Israel from getting it back, one would have Netanyahu to rely on.
If one wanted to see the failure to rescue the hostages as the government’s refusal to accept Defense Minister Galant’s view that the IDF could reenter the corridor if it again were used by Hamas for weapons smuggling, one would have Galant to rely on.
If one wanted to see Israel as bitterly anguished, divided and hamstrung, one could see that.
If one wanted to see Israel as bitterly anguished and preoccupied with winning a bitter war, one could see that.
If one wanted to be thankful to the Biden administration for supplying most of Israel’s weapons requests, for allotting major military funding to Israel along with Ukraine, and for forthrightly calling Hamas the evil that it is is, one could be thankful.
If one wanted to be critical of the Biden administration for extending the war in Gaza by restraining Israel for three months from entering Rafah — where these six hostages were held and murdered — one could be critical.
What would I say in the aftermath of this horrible savagery of Hamas?
I would say this:
Israel was seen as a good actor for rescuing a Bedouin hostage from Hamas two weeks ago. Israel was seen as a bad actor for not rescuing six hostages two weeks later.
I would say: Reality is complicated and moral judgments are tricky. I would I say: Be careful to define and see clearly who the real enemy is. In the concentration camps, the real enemy was the Nazis, even though some of the Jewish kapos were cruel and evil. In the war against Hamas, the real enemy is Hamas, incompetent though some of Israel’s leaders may be.
Keep your eye on the real enemy.
Defeat him.
Don’t rip apart our own.
That is what I would say.
© IJN 2024
