A moral imperative in the Middle East: We cannot ignore the humanity of our enemies
Every year on Passover, a story from the Talmud is read: The Israelites have reached the other side of the Sea of Reeds, and they are frightened as they watch the Egyptian forces pursuing them through the sea. They realize that despite the miracle of God splitting the water, they could still perish at the hands of the Egyptians.
As the Torah teaches, the waters converged upon them, and Pharaoh’s army drowned. Then the rabbis said, “The hosts of heaven broke out in jubilation” until God exclaimed, “You celebrate while my children die?”
That sacred text has always fascinated me because God knows that Pharaoh made a horrific choice to enter the sea with the intention of slaughtering the Israelites. Yet, this story shows that we are not to rejoice over the death of our enemies, either, even though they bore the consequences of their poor choices. Egyptian leaders led them to the fateful decision. Despite performing this miracle through moral intervention, God did not ignore the humanity of the Egyptians.
A few decades ago, Elie Wiesel, a writer, humanist and Holocaust survivor, traveled to Japan, where he visited the Peace Memorial Park and the Peace Museum to commemorate those who died in the American bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He reminded the people of Japan that their own militaristic past led to the tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He believed they needed to understand that even though more than 140,000 people died from the atomic bomb, they were also morally culpable.
Wiesel did not view these kinds of issues from a tactical perspective; rather, he always looked at the issue of humanity. That is the moral imperative.
Israel and Gaza
Now we have witnessed the ceasefire in Israel and Gaza. There are no long-term winners here. The children and other innocents are the losers. Gaza must bear responsibility for their actions: sending thousands of rockets into Israel and using their own people as shields for storing their munitions and offices of military operations in civilian sectors of the city. Hamas must explain to its citizens how it used its resources to build elaborate tunnels rather than improving the lives of its people, who are digging out once again from the damage inflicted by the Israeli Air Force.
Israel must address its moral challenges, too, for taking the lives of innocent children, women and the elderly during its bombing. Israel has to confront the implications of violence and protests it had inside its own borders. It had to fight not only Hamas this time but also its own Arab citizens in cities throughout the country as well as in East Jerusalem and in the territories under the control of the Palestine Authority.
Again, there are no winners in this recent outburst of violence.
Is this a time when the parties can find a way to achieve a more enduring peace than a cease fire? Can the United States exert its leadership to bring about at least a dialogue between the parties? Is is possible to find another way to deal with this conflict besides turning to war and destruction?
I have more questions than answers as to how to achieve peace between Israelis and Palestinians. The world witnesses this never-ending cycle of intermittent explosions of armed conflict like a chronic disease that flares up, damages everything it touches and then subsides until the next outbreak. Hamas will never achieve its justification for its existence, which is the destruction of Israel. It is simply immoral for Hamas to continue to delude its own people with that hateful rhetoric. Israel, on the other hand, will not see peace so long as there is not a two-state solution. Finally, the Palestinians are divided between the Palestine Authority and Hamas. How can Israel negotiate for a two-state solution as long as the bitter rivalry and hostile division exists between these two groups of Palestinians?
Despite Hamas’ claims of victory, I don’t think God is claiming victory for either side. I hope that God is shedding a tear for the children who perished and for the non-combatants who did nothing but appear in the wrong place at the wrong time. The only true victory is when Israelis and Palestinians can learn how to live in peace.