Israel is now battle-ready. So said the spokesman for the IDF in response to a question from a correspondent. Is this war inevitable? Is it reckless? Will the losses be tolerable? Are any losses tolerable? The left has already started to answer these questions. A human catastrophe is occurring in Gaza. People are starving. Families are displaced. Buildings are being leveled. Israel is the culprit. Many American rabbis are equally outraged by the carnage of the Hamas savages, by the burned bodies, by bullet-riddled babies, by beheaded men and woman in the communities surrounding the Gaza Strip, and by the destruction caused by Israeli aircraft responding to the murder of 1,300 of its citizens. They counsel Israel not to “overreact,” not to be “disproportionate.” The situation, they say, can be solved by diplomacy.
The intellectual Left, the progressive Left, and sadly the Jewish Left, having lost their moral compass, cannot grasp the depravity of their positions. Prominent left-wing pundits immediately blamed the savage attack of Hamas terrorists on the Apartheid Israeli state. Evidently, the rape of woman, shooting of the elderly, and disfigurement of the bodies of those killed by the rampaging hordes is acceptable to the liberal Left. These individuals have squandered any moral capital they once claimed; they have abdicated their leadership role and have become culpable for the actions of murderers of the innocent. Rather than admitting their errors and shouting mea culpa, these so-called progressives appear to be unable to fathom the moral abyss into which they have sunk.
In one of the renowned wisdom literature books, Ecclesiastes, Koheles teaches us: “Everything has its season and there is a time for everything under the sun.” To those who argue for peace, Koheles teaches that there is a time for peace and there is a time for war. As much as I fear for our soldiers, now is the time for war. To those who criticize the failures of the Israel Defense Forces leading to the success of the Hamas barbarians, Koheles teaches that there is a time to speak and there is a time to remain silent. Now is the time for silence. Analysis of the failures and remedies can be conducted after we are victorious. To those who support Hamas as a rightful resistance group, Koheles instructs that there is a time to wreck and a time to build. Now is the time to destroy Hamas forever, so that the State of Israel can be safe and so that if they demonstrate a will to live in peace, the Palestinian people can be rebuilt.
Post Script
The spirit in the Israeli street is unprecedented. While mourning our losses – hundreds of funerals are taking place daily – our communities have come together to support the soldiers. Teenagers collect money to buy equipment for soldiers. Women stay up all night baking cookies and cakes for the 360,000+ reservists called from their family to the front.
Chareidim donate money and food to be brought to our brothers (acheinu), the soldiers fighting for the survival of our society. My eyes watered as I saw several of these chareidi men drive from Bnei Brak to the South with a car loaded with food, clothing, and needed supplies for chiloni (non-religious) soldiers. These two groups of disparate young men, who normally never interact or even speak, learned that each one of them is an integral part of acheinu beis Yisrael (our brothers in the house of Israel). As they departed, they hugged intensely, shared blessings and thanks, and went on their way, each to do his/her part for the State of Israel.
Koheles teaches that there is a time to cry and a time to laugh; there is a time to eulogize and a time to dance. With G-d’s help, there will again be laughter and dancing in the streets of Israel.
By Fred Naider
