by Emmanuel Shiloh, editor of B'sheva magazine, translated by Hillel Fendel. (written just days before the IDF renewed its all-out war against Hamas this week)
We have a mandate to obliterate Amalek – and certainly not to leave the job in the middle and thus forget what he did to us. We're holding a good set of cards; let's be strong and do it!
1. We met up with Purim 5785
at a crossroads period, as we paused to see what awaited us on the horizon: War,
the release of our hostages, or neither. It was clear that the longer this
period lasted, the more we were in danger of violating the Torah command
"never to forget" – in this case, never to forget what the Amalekite
Hamas did to us. The memories of the slaughter and worse were already beginning
to blur a bit…
2. Stage One of the hostage release deal ended in early March. We received with great happiness 30 live hostages, as well as the bodies of eight who were cruelly murdered on or since Simchat Torah 2023. In exchange, Israel released 1,904 terrorist prisoners, mostly to Gaza. Sixty-one of them were released to eastern Jerusalem and another 352 to Judea and Samaria; no fewer than 547 of them had been involved in the murder of Israelis. Another 225 were banished abroad, after having murdered Jews, dispatched murderers, or manufactured weapons for the murder of Jews.
During this period, we saw, aside from the
joyous Arab receptions accorded the worst of our enemies upon their release,
also hundreds of thousands of Gazans returning to what was left of their homes
in northern Gaza, without any effective security checks. [They are now being
redirected southward again, to western Gaza City. – HF] Similarly we know that
the Hamas used this two-month ceasefire period to reorganize and rearm, to
plant bombs, and to recruit hundreds more terrorists to join the estimated
30,000 already waiting to attack Israel.
3.
A list of nearly 700
Israelis who were murdered by terrorists included in the current round's mass
release from jail was publicized last week in Maariv by radio and print commentator Kalman Liebskind. This unusual
item only illustrated the extent to which the Israeli media, most of which is
completely mobilized in favor of the deal, tries to make us forget its heavy
costs, both defense-wise and morally. For let us not forget: The families of
the future victims of these murderers, Heaven forbid, will surely grieve as
painfully as those of past victims; the only difference is that we don't yet
know who they are.
4. A shallow and superficial debate has been going on here for a while regarding the pros and cons of giving in to Hamas demands in order to secure the release of the hostages. During the course of what might also be called a propaganda campaign, we have seen ignoramuses who may never have opened a book of Halakhah [Jewish Law] in their lives rush to quote Maimonides on the overriding importance of "redeeming captives." Unfortunately, they forget to note the Rambam's qualification that captives are not to be redeemed for more than "they are worth," in order not to encourage future hostage-grabbings. Those who quote him also overlook the simple fact that we are not currently dealing with the redemption of captives, but with the laws of war.
In addition, the Israeli law code stipulates clearly what we may offer in terms of imprisoned terrorists in a hostage-release deal – and the current agreement stands in gross violation of the specified terms. Is there no limit to our willingness to be blackmailed? If one day someone kidnaps innocent citizens and threatens to kill them if Yigal Amir is not freed from prison, would he be released? And if the terrorists demanded that we give them all the territory west of the now-infamous Route 232, including Kibbutzim Kfar Aza, Be'eri, Nir Oz, and more – would we agree? How is it that not all of us see that whenever we cave in to them, they are encouraged to kidnap more and more Israelis?
And if the next time, they demand that we uproot a few Yesha communities, or give up the Temple Mount, or demolish our nuclear plant in Dimona – would we agree, in keeping with the approach that "saving the hostages" takes priority over everything else? Is there any limit at all?!
And from another angle: Do we have the moral
right to eschew our responsibility to bring the murderers of hundreds of
Israelis to justice?
5.
For those who truly wish to
analyze this issue with Halakhic eyes, let us note that there is also a Torah
commandment not to "take ransom for the life of a murderer subject to
the death penalty, as he must be put to death" (Numbers 35,31). And if
we currently lack the moral clarity to execute those who murder us, as the
Torah mandates, and imprison them for life instead – then at least let us not
take ransom to release them from prison. For the Torah continues there (verse
33): "When blood is shed in the land, it cannot be atoned for except
through the blood of he who shed it." The murder of innocents that
goes unpunished is, very simply, a contamination and pollution of the land.
6. It is likely that we will have no choice but to set out for war once again against Hamas/Amalek. It cannot be denied that this will not be easy after this long hiatus. We have all benefited from a routine of relative serenity, without sirens, reserves call-ups, and military funerals. Many reservists have shed their uniforms and returned to their families and jobs. But this quiet is simply misleading. If we don't finish the job against Hamas once and for all, we will be like King Saul who started to fulfill the command to wipe out Amalek but then allowed King Agag to live. Saul did not finish the job – and thus his kingship was seized from him and "given to his colleague who was better than him," David.
Israel's unsteady security situation is the result of decades of addiction to "quiet," and refusing to pay the price of warring against evil. At least now, we dare not allow ourselves to pass these dangers down to our children and grandchildren – not the dangers of Iran, not those of Gaza, and not those of Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen – and certainly not those emanating from Judea and Samaria. For even if we would wish to avoid the big battles, we simply won't be able to. If we do not obliterate Hamas now, then within just a few years, the story of Simchat Torah '23 will repeat itself. We will not have quiet if we don't finish the job.
As of now, we are holding a good hand of
cards: There is no additional front in the north, Hamas has been weakened
greatly, the United States is not only not hindering but is actually helpful,
and our military leadership has been refreshed. All that's left for us is to
strengthen our spirit for another round, with the faith and knowledge and
strategy that this time we will absolutely win. Let us, as the Torah commands,
annihilate the memory of Amalek from beneath the heavens.