Now I understand how vile the charges of war crimes, genocide and other charges of immorality are and how they affect the IDF, the country they defend, and why the charges are loudly repeated. These are intentionally aimed weapons to wound the Israeli soul. Makes me hurt.
The conflict of being commanded to be holy and also forced to fight reminds me of another relevant seemingly conflicting reality. Israel is commanded to be a separate, unique light unto the nations and yet Zionism strove justly for a normalisation of the Jewish People's status amongst the nations.
Normal includes all forms of human behaviour. In Israel there are rapists, pedophiles, human traffickers, murderers, traitors, and criminals of all sorts. Those crimes had not been normal for the people in the diaspora.
I remember a debate at Cambridge University in 2010 where the motion was " Israel is a rogue state". Gabriel Latner, 19, supporting the motion, explained that if normal was being like the Arab states and others, then Israel, being anomalous, was indeed " rogue " by comparison. But that, which won the debate, was a genius stunt asserting what we already know: that Israel is different. That's its blessing and its curse.
As for being a light unto the nations, reconciling that cherished and veritable notion with the pitfalls of Zionism's dreamed normalcy is still a challenge. Israel is indeed a light. In all that it undertakes, science, medicine, creativity, research, but all those successes and Nobel prizes elicit envy and hatred, the opposite reaction to their benefits to the public good.
At the end, when we hit our heads against the wall trying to understand any of this, asking why would destiny not allow Israel finally to live in peace, why the Muslims are still of such murderous intent and why the West, itself in danger of civilisational collapse, cooperates with that genocidal intent, we might abandon reason and logic and imagine that perhaps Israel is God's laboratory, put through such extremes, dangers and demands, of inner and outward refinement, by fire. A fantastic creature , still a work in progress.
"Normal includes all forms of human behavior. In Israel there are rapists, pedophiles, human traffickers, murderers, traitors, and criminals of all sorts. Those crimes had not been normal for the people in the diaspora."
That's a joke right?
Ever heard of Murder, Inc in the United States. It was a business run by Jews and Italians (The Mafia) in the US that was a murder for hire business and wow, was it successful. No other business like it in American history.
Pay a few $1,000 and we will murder anybody for you.
It was led by Bugsy Siegel, Meyer Lansky and Louie Buchalter. It's number one murderer: Louis Strauss who murdered 100 people in cold blood. It was run out of a business in the Lower East Side in NYC. I was born in NYC in the 1940's and my father, born in 1904, had a Jewish business associate in that neighborhood in a different business entirely. Totally legit. Neither was involved in Murder Inc but I grew up knowing all about it, so spare us the "those crimes had not been normal for the people of the diaspora.
Murder Inc existed before the modern state of Israel.
I went to school in Newport Ri where America's oldest synagogue is located - Touro. It was built by Sephardic Jews in the 18th century. Where did they get their money for it? They were the owner's of ships that brought slaves to America - the African Slave Trade.
Both Christianity and Judaism have strong moral codes, but we both have a lot of bad actors and they have been with us for a long time.
None of those manifestations were normal. They were exceptions, which some say prove the rule . One can see Jewish sociopathy much further back in history. All the condemnations of the various sins in the Bible are voiced because people committed them when they lived normally in the Land of Israel.
The return to Zion in the modern age , turning Israel into a nation like the others ( is that even possible?) posed a risk to serious multiplication and dissemination of many crimes not common when Jews lived in closer community. New immigrants brought their own issues and the very high crime in Arab sectors in Israel also counts , as they are Israeli citizens. Sum to this the security hair raising horror of hostile " Palestinians" , or genocidal Iran, Hamas, etc, which remind tragically of the " normal " persecution experienced at all times in exile.
Compared to other nations, Israel's crime rate
is relatively low, even as it conspicuously surfaces at the highest levels of office. Normal is as normal does, but the corruption seen as widespread and repeatedly in the highest places is an issue of concern.
The point was the confrontation of two ideas, seemingly in conflict, one an obligatory enlightened model and a treasure in its uniqueness, which always became a point of envy and resentment, the complaints against the " choseness" found in jew-haters and detractors, that idea presented in conflict with another major endeavor, a normal country, a construct necessary for survival, which in contrast with the odds of a " special nation", seems an abject human déjà vu.
Eventually, even if we could resolve the paradoxes and contradictions, the " separate" and " different" nature of Israel, the Jew amongst the Nations, remains, still exposed beyond reason and confronting its dilemmas, ever augmented by international decay and turmoil.
All the old Empires had bloody records too. Check King Henry VIII here in the UK. From him, Military Empires as Businesses. And the conquest of South Eastern Europe and the slave armies by the Muslim Turks before even then.
Meyer Lansky was later forbidden immigration status to Israel for violating legal and moral codes of Israelite conduct. Siegel was mentally ill. Self-defense has always understood black markets on foods and medicines but rules for private and/or familial defense still had-have moral codes.
You have vastly misunderstood. A leap of mystical faith for the heck of it , a most Jewish tradition, is as far from your extreme and political scenarios as reason is from conspiracy theories. Beware of generalities and confusion of categories.
“The secular West has no answer. It no longer believes in holiness, only in legality (and it cannot define that meaningfully). It has turned international law into a weapon to wield against Israel. Legality without sanctity produces cynicism and Israel, like Judaism itself, was not built to be cynical, but life-affirming.
For Jews, power is not a license; it is part of the covenant. It is permission bound by purpose and sovereignty tethered to self-restraint. It is the paradox of a people commanded to be both a light unto nations and a shield unto itself.”
"Disagreement among Jews about when the war against Hamas in Gaza should have ended has been a fascinating study in Jewish ethics and conscience. Some felt it should have ended a year ago, especially given the international pressure Israel was under, while others (like me) thought it should continue until Hamas has been destroyed."
It is quite clear today that international pressure on Israel to stop the war a year ago actually came from within. The aim was political not ethical, to prove that Netanyahu was unable to defeat Hamas ISIS.
You then wrote:
"The first Jewish king was also the first Jewish warrior. David united the Hebrew tribes."
David was the second King of Israel. The first King was Saul from the tribe of Benjamin.
You wrote: "Power is necessary for survival, yet somehow morally disqualifying."
Really? In our neighborhood without power, you're a dead duck. That has been true since the days of Abraham, Moses and Joshua.
The consequences:
"For two millennia, Jewish life survived in submission."
Never again is never again!
"Jewish ethics turned inward with survival through faith and endurance through restraint."
The price: expulsion, slaughter, rape, pogroms, slavery, inquisition and the Holocaust.
"People in Israel allergic to domination, including from their own, which helps explain why the debate in Israel about judicial reform has become so heated."
There was no debate. The Left refused debate, even though they knew and know that Judicial-reform is essential.
They created total anarchy, refusal to serve, incitement, chaos and lawlessness which brought on our country the 7th of October 2023.
"The political feeling and backlash against Netanyahu."
If that's the case, how do you explain that Netanyahu is the longest elected PM of Israel?
The political backlash by the Left is their will to cling to power which they have lost in Democratic elections so they are clawing with their remaining powers to the judicial system and key figures in control. They are losing it. Their shame was exposed with the fall of several leading positions.
I won't get into the issue of the IDF not to expose here, online, its follies.
"No army fighting for its survival should have to apologize for existing, yet Israel’s army does so daily."
Big strategic mistake, especially with the global anti-Zionist atmosphere.
I won't go i to further debate but I would recommend all readers to read the following book:
Following Heraclitus ("War is the father of everything"), Milstein developed a philosophical theory according to which the "principle of survival" is a cornerstone in the operation of all beings that exist in the world.
In the book "General Security Theory - The Survival Principle" Milstein states that according to the human survival principle all human bodies strive to survive, and that it is a drive that is greater than all other drives, and is present in all other drives as a basic component. It is a desperate attempt to overcome the certain end or at least postpone it, which stems from the primal fear of death. Therefore, security is the ontological foundation of existence wherever it is. Every human body invests survival energy to perpetuate its existence, neutralizing the natural tendency towards entropy. The main task of human beings is the accumulation of survival energy, and every human body strives to accumulate as much of it as possible for the lean days. Survival energy includes means that humans use to survive, such as intelligence, territory, property, motivation, and physical efforts. So humans are mainly busy accumulating residual energy, which is also, among other things, the main motive behind all economic activity and capitalist capital accumulation. Sometimes an excessive attempt to accumulate survival energy may endanger the existence of the accumulated body or reduce its survivability, such as the strengthening of the Soviet army after World War II, or the strengthening of the IDF after the Six Day War, or the strengthening of the Iraqi army and its invasion of Kuwait.
Every human body is made up of many parts. Each part has its own existence, and each part has entropy processes. The interest of the survival of each part is stronger than the interest of the part in the existence of the whole body. The strongest and most serious threat to anybody is not the external threat but rather the internal one, the contradictions between the different parts of the whole, between themselves, and between them and the whole. Every body in the universe contradicts and threatens another body because it occupies a chunk of matter or energy that might be available to another body. The myth of security greatly empowers external enemies and ignores internal enemies that are more common and more dangerous to the survival of any system.
The intelligence, which is the unique ability of Homo sapiens to learn how to improve its survival abilities, developed in an evolutionary process due to its high survival value. The more a person invests in intelligence, the greater his chance of survival.
A necessary condition for the empowerment of intelligence is communication at a high level. And regular and egalitarian social life is a necessary condition for the existence of intelligent verbal communication, therefore a political entity that maintains a continuity of social life and acts by force against its enemies, is a necessary condition for the existence of intelligent beings. And democratic government is the optimal form of government from an intelligent point of view, because it has intelligent verbal communication between the decision-makers, the implementers and those affected by them, and there are no people immune to criticism. Milstein concludes that the fundamental anthropological model for understanding human behavior is the battle, in which each side strives to neutralize the other side to the point of destruction. This is the case in the financial field, in relation to spouses, in the jealousy of writers, and more.
The actions of the state are determined by the leaders who strive to survive happily and feel threatened when their political survival is threatened. Because they worry about their survival, sometimes a contradiction arises between the concern for themselves and the stratum they came from and the survival of all citizens. The state has a survival interest in fostering in its residents a sense of mutual dependence, and therefore, it fosters the institutions of family, religion, and national sentiment. The concept of political sovereignty includes the unlimited legitimate ability of the state to impose its will on all citizens, therefore the decision-makers direct the laws, culture, social values and ideologies to suit their desire to preserve their legitimate and unlimited ability to coerce. But for the most part, they do not exercise the power of coercion because they fear the loss of national approval. For the leaders, the survival of the country is a supreme value, which will justify the use of any means. Placing the survival of the state at the top of all interests is affected and will affect the human race more than any other factor.
In order to maintain their survival, the countries established security systems whose main components are police, army, and secret agencies. The security system is the main survival energy of political systems. The security systems have a dual character, they are designed to ensure the existence of the state, but they have an interest in ensuring their own existence, which can sometimes pose a threat to the survival of the state as in the case of the Soviet Army. All war is organized human violence designed to threaten or protect a political system. Every war, internal and external, is for or against a new order. Military systems because they are closed and undemocratic hierarchical systems, the level of intelligent communication in them is low, and it is difficult to reach the truth in them, therefore in these systems there is no process of intelligent learning of lessons, but rather a process of "Darwinian learning of lessons" of natural selection.
If there is one thing we have learned as a result of Israel defending itself from a genocide - we have certainly found out what the rest of the world feels about Jews.
The reason why Jewish powerlessness is attractive to the secular (and liberal Jewish ) world is because it echoes Christianity. We are not going to die for their sins any more.
Yet infuriatingly, Israel gets accused of "war crimes" and "genocide" anyway even though its civilian to combatant fatality ratio is so much lower than western nations who sit on the sidelines in judgement of Israel as its dealing with existential threats no western nation is dealing with. It's infuriating that young Israelis die and get severely wounded because the IDF prioritizes the enemy population over its own soldiers and the world accuses these heroes of "war crimes" and "genocide" and scumbag pop singers call for their deaths.
"The IDF operates under a doctrine known as Tohar HaNeshek (“the purity of arms”). It insists that force be used proportionately, defensively, and morally restrained. Soldiers are taught that power’s moral burden is as real as its necessity. In practice, this means self-limitation that borders on madness: phone calls and text messages to people inside a building before airstrikes on it, leaflets to warn civilians, restraint under fire. It means Israeli soldiers risking their lives to spare enemy noncombatants".
Israel is not primarily a state, a religion, or an ideology. It is a covenant people whose existence is based on a covenant—not on international acceptance. Therefore, Israel’s right to exist and the moral assessment of its actions are not opposites from the perspective of the Torah, but belong together.
The prophets rebuked Israel precisely when it was at its strongest. Defending its existence never eliminates responsibility, and responsibility never negates the right to defend itself. This tension is intentionally permanent.
When Israel demanded a king for itself, it was not just about governance, but about transferring trust from God to human authority. The same danger applies to all times: authority is permissible only as long as it remains a servant of the covenant, not its substitute.
According to the Torah, the opposition of Abraham’s descendants does not always arise from actions, but from existence. Israel is a moral mirror among nations, and mirrors often arouse hatred. In the book of Esther, hatred is directed at “a certain people” not for actions, but for identity.
Israel is not a religion that can be replaced by another ideology. It is a people, a land, a Torah, and a covenant all at once. That is why it will not disappear, even if it becomes internally contradictory or secularized.
Israel is not allowed to cease to exist – but it is not allowed to stop listening to the voice of its conscience either.
I think that is a really special and first class article - it's both thoughtful and thought-provoking.
I fear I would fail the moral test - I too believe the war should have continued until Hamas, like the Tamil Tigers, were utterly destroyed.
For my sins, I follow the Roosevelt doctrine:
'Speak softly, but carry a big stick'
Of course the issue then is that one must be prepared to use that big stick, or it becomes worse than useless. In Western Europe, we really have no stick at all, but still speak softly, pretending that 'soft power' and 'diplomacy' are enough to change the mind and behaviour of evil people who hate us.
And even in America, having wielded (welt?) a pretty big stick against Iran, deluded and virtue signalling 'diplomats' begin conversations once again with the Mullahs in the plain knowledge that the evil theocracy lies, prevaricates, delays, obfuscates without diverging one iota from its repeatedly stated aim - the elimination of Israel and the introduction of a world-wide caliphate.
One can only admire every single element of the IDF and their leaders - it's not just about battlefield skills, it's about the genuine, total commitment of the serving personnel.
The nearest thing to this I have seen in the West are the brief interviews with the surviving members of Easy Company in 'Band of Brothers'. Their simple and moving statements such as - "We were attacked (Pearl Harbour) - so of course we joined up".
I hold very little confidence that such an attitude would prevail anywhere in Western Europe today, whereas the Israeli sense of pride, morale, patriotism and faith is an example to us all.
Also, the contributors with their comments .. the shorter ones usually have more impact, or maybe that’s my mind failing to grasp the depth and variety of views.
Which ever way one looks at things it is fair to say morality has become inverted with so much hypocrisy and hate against Israel and the Jewish people. That trajectory does not change, but the world needs to be wary of the greater curve ball .. the lazy left wing luvvies whose blindness to the destruction caused my Muslim migration which is ruining western civilisation.
Now I understand how vile the charges of war crimes, genocide and other charges of immorality are and how they affect the IDF, the country they defend, and why the charges are loudly repeated. These are intentionally aimed weapons to wound the Israeli soul. Makes me hurt.
Then we must gird ourselves and not allow it to hurt. Stare it down. Laugh at it.
Such an Israeli reply!
Awesome.
I'm from NY!!! But thanks for the compliment.
With apologies to Dara Horn, if there’s anything people love more than dead Jews, it is defenseless ones.
Beautiful. Just beautiful. Thanks, Nachum.
The conflict of being commanded to be holy and also forced to fight reminds me of another relevant seemingly conflicting reality. Israel is commanded to be a separate, unique light unto the nations and yet Zionism strove justly for a normalisation of the Jewish People's status amongst the nations.
Normal includes all forms of human behaviour. In Israel there are rapists, pedophiles, human traffickers, murderers, traitors, and criminals of all sorts. Those crimes had not been normal for the people in the diaspora.
I remember a debate at Cambridge University in 2010 where the motion was " Israel is a rogue state". Gabriel Latner, 19, supporting the motion, explained that if normal was being like the Arab states and others, then Israel, being anomalous, was indeed " rogue " by comparison. But that, which won the debate, was a genius stunt asserting what we already know: that Israel is different. That's its blessing and its curse.
As for being a light unto the nations, reconciling that cherished and veritable notion with the pitfalls of Zionism's dreamed normalcy is still a challenge. Israel is indeed a light. In all that it undertakes, science, medicine, creativity, research, but all those successes and Nobel prizes elicit envy and hatred, the opposite reaction to their benefits to the public good.
At the end, when we hit our heads against the wall trying to understand any of this, asking why would destiny not allow Israel finally to live in peace, why the Muslims are still of such murderous intent and why the West, itself in danger of civilisational collapse, cooperates with that genocidal intent, we might abandon reason and logic and imagine that perhaps Israel is God's laboratory, put through such extremes, dangers and demands, of inner and outward refinement, by fire. A fantastic creature , still a work in progress.
"Normal includes all forms of human behavior. In Israel there are rapists, pedophiles, human traffickers, murderers, traitors, and criminals of all sorts. Those crimes had not been normal for the people in the diaspora."
That's a joke right?
Ever heard of Murder, Inc in the United States. It was a business run by Jews and Italians (The Mafia) in the US that was a murder for hire business and wow, was it successful. No other business like it in American history.
Pay a few $1,000 and we will murder anybody for you.
It was led by Bugsy Siegel, Meyer Lansky and Louie Buchalter. It's number one murderer: Louis Strauss who murdered 100 people in cold blood. It was run out of a business in the Lower East Side in NYC. I was born in NYC in the 1940's and my father, born in 1904, had a Jewish business associate in that neighborhood in a different business entirely. Totally legit. Neither was involved in Murder Inc but I grew up knowing all about it, so spare us the "those crimes had not been normal for the people of the diaspora.
Murder Inc existed before the modern state of Israel.
I went to school in Newport Ri where America's oldest synagogue is located - Touro. It was built by Sephardic Jews in the 18th century. Where did they get their money for it? They were the owner's of ships that brought slaves to America - the African Slave Trade.
Both Christianity and Judaism have strong moral codes, but we both have a lot of bad actors and they have been with us for a long time.
Great article by the way.
Replying to John Gault III:
None of those manifestations were normal. They were exceptions, which some say prove the rule . One can see Jewish sociopathy much further back in history. All the condemnations of the various sins in the Bible are voiced because people committed them when they lived normally in the Land of Israel.
The return to Zion in the modern age , turning Israel into a nation like the others ( is that even possible?) posed a risk to serious multiplication and dissemination of many crimes not common when Jews lived in closer community. New immigrants brought their own issues and the very high crime in Arab sectors in Israel also counts , as they are Israeli citizens. Sum to this the security hair raising horror of hostile " Palestinians" , or genocidal Iran, Hamas, etc, which remind tragically of the " normal " persecution experienced at all times in exile.
Compared to other nations, Israel's crime rate
is relatively low, even as it conspicuously surfaces at the highest levels of office. Normal is as normal does, but the corruption seen as widespread and repeatedly in the highest places is an issue of concern.
The point was the confrontation of two ideas, seemingly in conflict, one an obligatory enlightened model and a treasure in its uniqueness, which always became a point of envy and resentment, the complaints against the " choseness" found in jew-haters and detractors, that idea presented in conflict with another major endeavor, a normal country, a construct necessary for survival, which in contrast with the odds of a " special nation", seems an abject human déjà vu.
Eventually, even if we could resolve the paradoxes and contradictions, the " separate" and " different" nature of Israel, the Jew amongst the Nations, remains, still exposed beyond reason and confronting its dilemmas, ever augmented by international decay and turmoil.
All the old Empires had bloody records too. Check King Henry VIII here in the UK. From him, Military Empires as Businesses. And the conquest of South Eastern Europe and the slave armies by the Muslim Turks before even then.
Meyer Lansky was later forbidden immigration status to Israel for violating legal and moral codes of Israelite conduct. Siegel was mentally ill. Self-defense has always understood black markets on foods and medicines but rules for private and/or familial defense still had-have moral codes.
NEVER ABANDON REASON. (G-d’s laboratory or not!) Both Religious and Nazi Extremism abandoned reason. This is why they have lost.
You have vastly misunderstood. A leap of mystical faith for the heck of it , a most Jewish tradition, is as far from your extreme and political scenarios as reason is from conspiracy theories. Beware of generalities and confusion of categories.
“The secular West has no answer. It no longer believes in holiness, only in legality (and it cannot define that meaningfully). It has turned international law into a weapon to wield against Israel. Legality without sanctity produces cynicism and Israel, like Judaism itself, was not built to be cynical, but life-affirming.
For Jews, power is not a license; it is part of the covenant. It is permission bound by purpose and sovereignty tethered to self-restraint. It is the paradox of a people commanded to be both a light unto nations and a shield unto itself.”
Paradox is at the root of human existence, is it not?
Hello Mr. Kaplan
You write:
"Disagreement among Jews about when the war against Hamas in Gaza should have ended has been a fascinating study in Jewish ethics and conscience. Some felt it should have ended a year ago, especially given the international pressure Israel was under, while others (like me) thought it should continue until Hamas has been destroyed."
It is quite clear today that international pressure on Israel to stop the war a year ago actually came from within. The aim was political not ethical, to prove that Netanyahu was unable to defeat Hamas ISIS.
You then wrote:
"The first Jewish king was also the first Jewish warrior. David united the Hebrew tribes."
David was the second King of Israel. The first King was Saul from the tribe of Benjamin.
You wrote: "Power is necessary for survival, yet somehow morally disqualifying."
Really? In our neighborhood without power, you're a dead duck. That has been true since the days of Abraham, Moses and Joshua.
The consequences:
"For two millennia, Jewish life survived in submission."
Never again is never again!
"Jewish ethics turned inward with survival through faith and endurance through restraint."
The price: expulsion, slaughter, rape, pogroms, slavery, inquisition and the Holocaust.
"People in Israel allergic to domination, including from their own, which helps explain why the debate in Israel about judicial reform has become so heated."
There was no debate. The Left refused debate, even though they knew and know that Judicial-reform is essential.
They created total anarchy, refusal to serve, incitement, chaos and lawlessness which brought on our country the 7th of October 2023.
"The political feeling and backlash against Netanyahu."
If that's the case, how do you explain that Netanyahu is the longest elected PM of Israel?
The political backlash by the Left is their will to cling to power which they have lost in Democratic elections so they are clawing with their remaining powers to the judicial system and key figures in control. They are losing it. Their shame was exposed with the fall of several leading positions.
I won't get into the issue of the IDF not to expose here, online, its follies.
"No army fighting for its survival should have to apologize for existing, yet Israel’s army does so daily."
Big strategic mistake, especially with the global anti-Zionist atmosphere.
I won't go i to further debate but I would recommend all readers to read the following book:
The principle of survival by Dr. Uri Milstein
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uri_Milstein
Following Heraclitus ("War is the father of everything"), Milstein developed a philosophical theory according to which the "principle of survival" is a cornerstone in the operation of all beings that exist in the world.
In the book "General Security Theory - The Survival Principle" Milstein states that according to the human survival principle all human bodies strive to survive, and that it is a drive that is greater than all other drives, and is present in all other drives as a basic component. It is a desperate attempt to overcome the certain end or at least postpone it, which stems from the primal fear of death. Therefore, security is the ontological foundation of existence wherever it is. Every human body invests survival energy to perpetuate its existence, neutralizing the natural tendency towards entropy. The main task of human beings is the accumulation of survival energy, and every human body strives to accumulate as much of it as possible for the lean days. Survival energy includes means that humans use to survive, such as intelligence, territory, property, motivation, and physical efforts. So humans are mainly busy accumulating residual energy, which is also, among other things, the main motive behind all economic activity and capitalist capital accumulation. Sometimes an excessive attempt to accumulate survival energy may endanger the existence of the accumulated body or reduce its survivability, such as the strengthening of the Soviet army after World War II, or the strengthening of the IDF after the Six Day War, or the strengthening of the Iraqi army and its invasion of Kuwait.
Every human body is made up of many parts. Each part has its own existence, and each part has entropy processes. The interest of the survival of each part is stronger than the interest of the part in the existence of the whole body. The strongest and most serious threat to anybody is not the external threat but rather the internal one, the contradictions between the different parts of the whole, between themselves, and between them and the whole. Every body in the universe contradicts and threatens another body because it occupies a chunk of matter or energy that might be available to another body. The myth of security greatly empowers external enemies and ignores internal enemies that are more common and more dangerous to the survival of any system.
The intelligence, which is the unique ability of Homo sapiens to learn how to improve its survival abilities, developed in an evolutionary process due to its high survival value. The more a person invests in intelligence, the greater his chance of survival.
A necessary condition for the empowerment of intelligence is communication at a high level. And regular and egalitarian social life is a necessary condition for the existence of intelligent verbal communication, therefore a political entity that maintains a continuity of social life and acts by force against its enemies, is a necessary condition for the existence of intelligent beings. And democratic government is the optimal form of government from an intelligent point of view, because it has intelligent verbal communication between the decision-makers, the implementers and those affected by them, and there are no people immune to criticism. Milstein concludes that the fundamental anthropological model for understanding human behavior is the battle, in which each side strives to neutralize the other side to the point of destruction. This is the case in the financial field, in relation to spouses, in the jealousy of writers, and more.
The actions of the state are determined by the leaders who strive to survive happily and feel threatened when their political survival is threatened. Because they worry about their survival, sometimes a contradiction arises between the concern for themselves and the stratum they came from and the survival of all citizens. The state has a survival interest in fostering in its residents a sense of mutual dependence, and therefore, it fosters the institutions of family, religion, and national sentiment. The concept of political sovereignty includes the unlimited legitimate ability of the state to impose its will on all citizens, therefore the decision-makers direct the laws, culture, social values and ideologies to suit their desire to preserve their legitimate and unlimited ability to coerce. But for the most part, they do not exercise the power of coercion because they fear the loss of national approval. For the leaders, the survival of the country is a supreme value, which will justify the use of any means. Placing the survival of the state at the top of all interests is affected and will affect the human race more than any other factor.
In order to maintain their survival, the countries established security systems whose main components are police, army, and secret agencies. The security system is the main survival energy of political systems. The security systems have a dual character, they are designed to ensure the existence of the state, but they have an interest in ensuring their own existence, which can sometimes pose a threat to the survival of the state as in the case of the Soviet Army. All war is organized human violence designed to threaten or protect a political system. Every war, internal and external, is for or against a new order. Military systems because they are closed and undemocratic hierarchical systems, the level of intelligent communication in them is low, and it is difficult to reach the truth in them, therefore in these systems there is no process of intelligent learning of lessons, but rather a process of "Darwinian learning of lessons" of natural selection.
The political Left in America is sooooo similar to the Left in Israel.
Not unlike the UK either; they mouth pieties about "diversity" but promote dogged conformity.
Fascinating!
Excellent essay!
Excellent essay.
If there is one thing we have learned as a result of Israel defending itself from a genocide - we have certainly found out what the rest of the world feels about Jews.
The reason why Jewish powerlessness is attractive to the secular (and liberal Jewish ) world is because it echoes Christianity. We are not going to die for their sins any more.
A beautiful, powerful article! Thank you Nahum! 💪🏻
GOD BLESSISRAEL AND ITS PEOPLE
Yet infuriatingly, Israel gets accused of "war crimes" and "genocide" anyway even though its civilian to combatant fatality ratio is so much lower than western nations who sit on the sidelines in judgement of Israel as its dealing with existential threats no western nation is dealing with. It's infuriating that young Israelis die and get severely wounded because the IDF prioritizes the enemy population over its own soldiers and the world accuses these heroes of "war crimes" and "genocide" and scumbag pop singers call for their deaths.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
"The IDF operates under a doctrine known as Tohar HaNeshek (“the purity of arms”). It insists that force be used proportionately, defensively, and morally restrained. Soldiers are taught that power’s moral burden is as real as its necessity. In practice, this means self-limitation that borders on madness: phone calls and text messages to people inside a building before airstrikes on it, leaflets to warn civilians, restraint under fire. It means Israeli soldiers risking their lives to spare enemy noncombatants".
Excellent!
Israel is not primarily a state, a religion, or an ideology. It is a covenant people whose existence is based on a covenant—not on international acceptance. Therefore, Israel’s right to exist and the moral assessment of its actions are not opposites from the perspective of the Torah, but belong together.
The prophets rebuked Israel precisely when it was at its strongest. Defending its existence never eliminates responsibility, and responsibility never negates the right to defend itself. This tension is intentionally permanent.
When Israel demanded a king for itself, it was not just about governance, but about transferring trust from God to human authority. The same danger applies to all times: authority is permissible only as long as it remains a servant of the covenant, not its substitute.
According to the Torah, the opposition of Abraham’s descendants does not always arise from actions, but from existence. Israel is a moral mirror among nations, and mirrors often arouse hatred. In the book of Esther, hatred is directed at “a certain people” not for actions, but for identity.
Israel is not a religion that can be replaced by another ideology. It is a people, a land, a Torah, and a covenant all at once. That is why it will not disappear, even if it becomes internally contradictory or secularized.
Israel is not allowed to cease to exist – but it is not allowed to stop listening to the voice of its conscience either.
Or have I misunderstood?
I think that is a really special and first class article - it's both thoughtful and thought-provoking.
I fear I would fail the moral test - I too believe the war should have continued until Hamas, like the Tamil Tigers, were utterly destroyed.
For my sins, I follow the Roosevelt doctrine:
'Speak softly, but carry a big stick'
Of course the issue then is that one must be prepared to use that big stick, or it becomes worse than useless. In Western Europe, we really have no stick at all, but still speak softly, pretending that 'soft power' and 'diplomacy' are enough to change the mind and behaviour of evil people who hate us.
And even in America, having wielded (welt?) a pretty big stick against Iran, deluded and virtue signalling 'diplomats' begin conversations once again with the Mullahs in the plain knowledge that the evil theocracy lies, prevaricates, delays, obfuscates without diverging one iota from its repeatedly stated aim - the elimination of Israel and the introduction of a world-wide caliphate.
One can only admire every single element of the IDF and their leaders - it's not just about battlefield skills, it's about the genuine, total commitment of the serving personnel.
The nearest thing to this I have seen in the West are the brief interviews with the surviving members of Easy Company in 'Band of Brothers'. Their simple and moving statements such as - "We were attacked (Pearl Harbour) - so of course we joined up".
I hold very little confidence that such an attitude would prevail anywhere in Western Europe today, whereas the Israeli sense of pride, morale, patriotism and faith is an example to us all.
Nachum, thank you for such an insightful piece.
Also, the contributors with their comments .. the shorter ones usually have more impact, or maybe that’s my mind failing to grasp the depth and variety of views.
Which ever way one looks at things it is fair to say morality has become inverted with so much hypocrisy and hate against Israel and the Jewish people. That trajectory does not change, but the world needs to be wary of the greater curve ball .. the lazy left wing luvvies whose blindness to the destruction caused my Muslim migration which is ruining western civilisation.