Long before the 20th century, ancient Jewish texts recognized what much of the modern West still refuses to accept: Not every enemy can be reasoned with.
It seems to me that Reform Judaism, at least the American, West Coast “progressive” Reform Judaism that I swam in as a younger person, and from a purely Halachic standpoint, still swim in, has done modern 20th and 21st century Jews a huge disservice. We are so bent on the “justice, justice, shall you pursue” part of that Deuteronomic call, that we don’t read the rest of the sentence, namely, “that you may live and inherit the land which the Lord your God gives you" (Deuteronomy 16:20). If, from a Torah perspective, justice involves stopping evil in its tracks so that as many people as possible may live and inherit the land which the Lord our G-d is giving us, then we cannot be wimps in the face of the Amaleks’ of our day, i.e., Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, and many Western countries that think they would be happier if Jews and Israel no longer existed. Maybe the world would be better if more countries reached out to us for help and support, rather than Jews, certainly Reform Jews, driving ourselves crazy trying to help every disempowered group out there, without making sure that we remain strong and secure ourselves. Like they say on every airline flight we’ll ever take: in the event of an emergency, put on our oxygen mask first, then help those next to us put on theirs. Not the other way around; we may well be dead by then.
It's Civilization versus Barbarism. Plain and simple. Unfortunately, too many people were brainwashed into the, "All cultures are equal, they each have their own 'truth'," baloney. As Gad Saad calls it: Suicidal Empathy.
A sharp analysis by Kaplan. The problem with the 'West'—minus the US under Trump—since the fall of the Wall is that it adopts its own consultative society as the norm for the entire world. Life in such a society is more pleasant, fairer, and more peaceful, as Norbert Elias described in his masterpiece *Über den Prozeß der Zivilisation*. Courtesies such as negotiation are effective for us. However, Europe is currently experiencing a rude awakening: an enemy is lurking in the East that disregards fussiness such as consideration and enlightened self-interest. Israel has been dealing with this for some time and acts according to circumstances: internally 'Western' and externally 'Eastern'. That will become the norm for the entire West—at least, if it is not forgotten that empathy and consideration can indeed yield benefits.
"The problem is not what Israel does. It is that Israel refuses to participate in a moral game whose rules are written by those who will never have to live with the consequences." 🎯
Excellent analysis of the West's mindless mind set regarding Israel's enemies. The last two verses of Psalm 120 add to what you have written and sum up Israel's never ending predicament: Long has my soul dwelt with those who hate peace. I am [for] peace (or I embody peace), but when I speak, they are for war.
I think this is an excellent article, but I would add one distinction. The Western instinct toward negotiation and compromise is not always wrong. In many conflicts, it works because both sides still want a livable future. But it collapses when it faces an ideology that glorifies martyrdom, rewards death, and teaches people that destruction is holy.
That is where multiculturalism has blinded the West. We keep pretending all cultures are basically the same, that everyone wants peace in the same way, and that every enemy can be talked into coexistence. But Hamas and the rulers of Iran are not misunderstood negotiating partners. They are driven by an ideology that honors martyrdom and treats Jewish survival as an obstacle. No amount of dialogue, aid, conferences, or moral pleading will change that. That is the distinction the West refuses to make — and Israel cannot afford to ignore.
The most penetrating and important statement in this article, in my view, is that Israel confronts "organizations for whom civilian death (on both sides) is not a tragedy but a tactic." The rise of western antisemitism is due in no small measure to the fact that civilized people cannot comprehend that this callous cruelty drives the political strategy of Hamas and Hezbollah.
Islamists see the fomenting of western antisemitism as a key goal, including through the skewed reporting of the wars in Gaza, Iran and Lebanon. In starting the Gaza war Hamas had as a primary objective the fostering of antisemitism in the West in order to delegitimize Israel. The scale of atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7 was designed to cause a maximal Israeli reaction. Then the use of human shields and the taunting of Israel through the hostages were planned to enable biased reporting that framed Israel as guilty.
This skewed reporting has successfully fostered the widespread ignorant attitude that all Jews who support Israel are thereby guilty. This continues today with reporting about the Lebanon conflict that ignores how Hezbollah follows the same strategy by firing rockets into Israel. The aim of these unprovoked attacks is to prompt a maximal reaction from Israel that can then be used to foment antisemitism in the West. The callous indifference of Hamas and Hezbollah to the human rights of suffering civilian populations cannot easily be imagined by many people, making it far easier just to blame Israel, and by extension all Jews.
A fantastic article by the criminally underrated Nacham Kaplan! Israel’s worldview is NOT informed by the Holocaust but rather by Ancient Jewish texts. The texts were realistic and understood how and how NOT to confront evil. Westerners have zero understanding of these texts or how the psychology of the Middle East works. Israel faces total annihilation every single day at that hands of the neighbors or various terrorist groups. Americans, Canadians, Brits, Frenchmen, Germans, Italians, Australians, New Zealanders, Irishmen, Dutchmen, Belgians, Austrians, Spaniards, and Greeks have no idea what that’s like. So they have no right to tell Israelis what to do when fighting a war. Do NOT lecture Israel about restrain when fighting a genocidal terrorist group like Hamas! Hamas didn’t commit mass murder, burn down Kibbutzims, mass rape young women, molest children, kidnap hundreds of people, beheaded foreign workers, and burned babies alive in Israel NOT in New York City, London, Paris, Dublin, Berlin, Rome, Vienna, or Madrid! Hamas would’ve gotten to them though if not for the Jewish state fighting Hamas for them!
If not for the brave men and women of the IDF, Security Services, Border Patrol, Mossad, and Shin Bet, Hamas would be doing October 7th again and again in Chicago, St. Louis, New Orleans, Houston, Baltimore, Cleveland, San Diego, Seattle, Newark, Las Vegas, and San Francisco. Hamas hate the Jews but not just the Jews. They hate anyone at all that disagrees with them. Israel is the only reason Hamas hasn’t hasn’t murdered millions all over the world and spread their Caliphate around the globe. This is something the West fails to understand and needs to appreciate more. The West doesn’t understand that some enemies you can’t negotiate with. Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis are not rational human beings. They are monsters with no conscience, no heart, no soul, no inner moral compass to guide them. They see peaceful negotiations and humanitarian aid as weakness. Only when Israel responds forcefully do they stand up and take notice.
You confront evil and you go all in on defeating it! You can’t make deals or do ceasefires with evil! You must defeat it and destroy it. In the Middle East, you either achieve total victory or you get wiped out. That has always been Israel’s situation. Moral clarity is what Israel seeks, not comfort. Israel will go after the enemy whoever it may be, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, the PLO, Hamas, Iran, you name it to keep their citizens and their children safe and protect the Jewish people from another Holocaust. They recognize from the beginning the true nature and danger posed by the enemy. You don’t pause wars or “show restraint” in conflicts. No half measures! You decisively and with overwhelming force defeat the enemy! You can’t afford to do otherwise! You don’t have the luxury of morally pondering whether this war is right or not.
I think you are forgetting the Oslo debacle. Israel clearly forgot who it was dealing with and made the catastrophic error of trusting Yassir Arafat and the PLO. And many other errors of judgment that came from misjudging the enemy. Israelis themselves were not immune to the siren song of reaching "a deal". They seem to have learned now but the rest of the world is no longer interested in peace but in Israel's demise.
I heard someone on the radio asked is that such a thing as too much peace? And he said yes.
That answer is stayed with me a long time, and I think yes, in the West there is too much peace, that is, we have taken it for granted since World War Two and even forgotten the wars we have ever fought in. And for that, you've got a load of spoil brats around here.
The Bible is a wonderful expression of Justice, Morality, the Sanctity of human life, etc, But it is a very recent description of biological/evolutionary process in organism's progression over 2 billion years. Darwin described it as the Survival of the Fittest. The emotional motivation of being Superior got Food, the Loser was Food.
Abraham, ~3700 years ago, came up with the idea of One Creative God, and no longer was ordered to Sacrifice his Son. The Sanctity of Human Life is the moral foundation of Judaism.
The striving to be Superior, Conquer, Dominate, etc, is still very strong in many cultures, individuals, ideologies, religions, etc. Social Equality is in comparison a very recent concept, promoted by Dr. Alfred Adler and his associate Dr. Rudolf Dreikurs.
Those who strive to be Superior do not see themselves as Evil or Immoral. They pursue glory, honor, thrill, self-esteem and ecstasy. They will even sacrifice their life in this pursuit, "To Die with Honor is far better than Living in Shame and Humiliation.
Toleration of the intolerant is not merely foolish, it is suicidal.
It seems to me that Reform Judaism, at least the American, West Coast “progressive” Reform Judaism that I swam in as a younger person, and from a purely Halachic standpoint, still swim in, has done modern 20th and 21st century Jews a huge disservice. We are so bent on the “justice, justice, shall you pursue” part of that Deuteronomic call, that we don’t read the rest of the sentence, namely, “that you may live and inherit the land which the Lord your God gives you" (Deuteronomy 16:20). If, from a Torah perspective, justice involves stopping evil in its tracks so that as many people as possible may live and inherit the land which the Lord our G-d is giving us, then we cannot be wimps in the face of the Amaleks’ of our day, i.e., Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, and many Western countries that think they would be happier if Jews and Israel no longer existed. Maybe the world would be better if more countries reached out to us for help and support, rather than Jews, certainly Reform Jews, driving ourselves crazy trying to help every disempowered group out there, without making sure that we remain strong and secure ourselves. Like they say on every airline flight we’ll ever take: in the event of an emergency, put on our oxygen mask first, then help those next to us put on theirs. Not the other way around; we may well be dead by then.
Look in the mirror..Amalek is Israelis
It's Civilization versus Barbarism. Plain and simple. Unfortunately, too many people were brainwashed into the, "All cultures are equal, they each have their own 'truth'," baloney. As Gad Saad calls it: Suicidal Empathy.
A sharp analysis by Kaplan. The problem with the 'West'—minus the US under Trump—since the fall of the Wall is that it adopts its own consultative society as the norm for the entire world. Life in such a society is more pleasant, fairer, and more peaceful, as Norbert Elias described in his masterpiece *Über den Prozeß der Zivilisation*. Courtesies such as negotiation are effective for us. However, Europe is currently experiencing a rude awakening: an enemy is lurking in the East that disregards fussiness such as consideration and enlightened self-interest. Israel has been dealing with this for some time and acts according to circumstances: internally 'Western' and externally 'Eastern'. That will become the norm for the entire West—at least, if it is not forgotten that empathy and consideration can indeed yield benefits.
"The problem is not what Israel does. It is that Israel refuses to participate in a moral game whose rules are written by those who will never have to live with the consequences." 🎯
Excellent analysis of the West's mindless mind set regarding Israel's enemies. The last two verses of Psalm 120 add to what you have written and sum up Israel's never ending predicament: Long has my soul dwelt with those who hate peace. I am [for] peace (or I embody peace), but when I speak, they are for war.
I think this is an excellent article, but I would add one distinction. The Western instinct toward negotiation and compromise is not always wrong. In many conflicts, it works because both sides still want a livable future. But it collapses when it faces an ideology that glorifies martyrdom, rewards death, and teaches people that destruction is holy.
That is where multiculturalism has blinded the West. We keep pretending all cultures are basically the same, that everyone wants peace in the same way, and that every enemy can be talked into coexistence. But Hamas and the rulers of Iran are not misunderstood negotiating partners. They are driven by an ideology that honors martyrdom and treats Jewish survival as an obstacle. No amount of dialogue, aid, conferences, or moral pleading will change that. That is the distinction the West refuses to make — and Israel cannot afford to ignore.
The most penetrating and important statement in this article, in my view, is that Israel confronts "organizations for whom civilian death (on both sides) is not a tragedy but a tactic." The rise of western antisemitism is due in no small measure to the fact that civilized people cannot comprehend that this callous cruelty drives the political strategy of Hamas and Hezbollah.
Islamists see the fomenting of western antisemitism as a key goal, including through the skewed reporting of the wars in Gaza, Iran and Lebanon. In starting the Gaza war Hamas had as a primary objective the fostering of antisemitism in the West in order to delegitimize Israel. The scale of atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7 was designed to cause a maximal Israeli reaction. Then the use of human shields and the taunting of Israel through the hostages were planned to enable biased reporting that framed Israel as guilty.
This skewed reporting has successfully fostered the widespread ignorant attitude that all Jews who support Israel are thereby guilty. This continues today with reporting about the Lebanon conflict that ignores how Hezbollah follows the same strategy by firing rockets into Israel. The aim of these unprovoked attacks is to prompt a maximal reaction from Israel that can then be used to foment antisemitism in the West. The callous indifference of Hamas and Hezbollah to the human rights of suffering civilian populations cannot easily be imagined by many people, making it far easier just to blame Israel, and by extension all Jews.
A fantastic article by the criminally underrated Nacham Kaplan! Israel’s worldview is NOT informed by the Holocaust but rather by Ancient Jewish texts. The texts were realistic and understood how and how NOT to confront evil. Westerners have zero understanding of these texts or how the psychology of the Middle East works. Israel faces total annihilation every single day at that hands of the neighbors or various terrorist groups. Americans, Canadians, Brits, Frenchmen, Germans, Italians, Australians, New Zealanders, Irishmen, Dutchmen, Belgians, Austrians, Spaniards, and Greeks have no idea what that’s like. So they have no right to tell Israelis what to do when fighting a war. Do NOT lecture Israel about restrain when fighting a genocidal terrorist group like Hamas! Hamas didn’t commit mass murder, burn down Kibbutzims, mass rape young women, molest children, kidnap hundreds of people, beheaded foreign workers, and burned babies alive in Israel NOT in New York City, London, Paris, Dublin, Berlin, Rome, Vienna, or Madrid! Hamas would’ve gotten to them though if not for the Jewish state fighting Hamas for them!
If not for the brave men and women of the IDF, Security Services, Border Patrol, Mossad, and Shin Bet, Hamas would be doing October 7th again and again in Chicago, St. Louis, New Orleans, Houston, Baltimore, Cleveland, San Diego, Seattle, Newark, Las Vegas, and San Francisco. Hamas hate the Jews but not just the Jews. They hate anyone at all that disagrees with them. Israel is the only reason Hamas hasn’t hasn’t murdered millions all over the world and spread their Caliphate around the globe. This is something the West fails to understand and needs to appreciate more. The West doesn’t understand that some enemies you can’t negotiate with. Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis are not rational human beings. They are monsters with no conscience, no heart, no soul, no inner moral compass to guide them. They see peaceful negotiations and humanitarian aid as weakness. Only when Israel responds forcefully do they stand up and take notice.
You confront evil and you go all in on defeating it! You can’t make deals or do ceasefires with evil! You must defeat it and destroy it. In the Middle East, you either achieve total victory or you get wiped out. That has always been Israel’s situation. Moral clarity is what Israel seeks, not comfort. Israel will go after the enemy whoever it may be, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, the PLO, Hamas, Iran, you name it to keep their citizens and their children safe and protect the Jewish people from another Holocaust. They recognize from the beginning the true nature and danger posed by the enemy. You don’t pause wars or “show restraint” in conflicts. No half measures! You decisively and with overwhelming force defeat the enemy! You can’t afford to do otherwise! You don’t have the luxury of morally pondering whether this war is right or not.
Excellent essay.
I think you are forgetting the Oslo debacle. Israel clearly forgot who it was dealing with and made the catastrophic error of trusting Yassir Arafat and the PLO. And many other errors of judgment that came from misjudging the enemy. Israelis themselves were not immune to the siren song of reaching "a deal". They seem to have learned now but the rest of the world is no longer interested in peace but in Israel's demise.
The problem is that Jews from Eastern Europe survived the Holocaust, but liked the idea of it for everyone else.
No. It's who Israelis are - despicable murderers and violent psychopaths
https://substack.com/@mosababutoha/note/c-259714507?r=5fp6dy
Brilliant piece.
I heard someone on the radio asked is that such a thing as too much peace? And he said yes.
That answer is stayed with me a long time, and I think yes, in the West there is too much peace, that is, we have taken it for granted since World War Two and even forgotten the wars we have ever fought in. And for that, you've got a load of spoil brats around here.
If "all conflicts are solvable through dialogue and diplomacy", why are there so many ongoing wars around the globe?
From past historical wars, and present ongoing wars, that assumption is ridiculous.
These are our next door neighbors, read what they teach their children:
https://israelbehindthenews.com/2021/05/27/textbooks-used-in-unrwa-schools/
The Bible is a wonderful expression of Justice, Morality, the Sanctity of human life, etc, But it is a very recent description of biological/evolutionary process in organism's progression over 2 billion years. Darwin described it as the Survival of the Fittest. The emotional motivation of being Superior got Food, the Loser was Food.
Abraham, ~3700 years ago, came up with the idea of One Creative God, and no longer was ordered to Sacrifice his Son. The Sanctity of Human Life is the moral foundation of Judaism.
The striving to be Superior, Conquer, Dominate, etc, is still very strong in many cultures, individuals, ideologies, religions, etc. Social Equality is in comparison a very recent concept, promoted by Dr. Alfred Adler and his associate Dr. Rudolf Dreikurs.
Those who strive to be Superior do not see themselves as Evil or Immoral. They pursue glory, honor, thrill, self-esteem and ecstasy. They will even sacrifice their life in this pursuit, "To Die with Honor is far better than Living in Shame and Humiliation.
Martin Nash, M.D.