In Response to a Recent Call To Action

To the Following:

Rabbi Leonard Beerman, Sarah Benor, Ra'anan Boustan, Gerald Bubis, Aryeh Cohen, Bernard Friedman, Sharon Gillerman, Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater, Rabbi Steven Jacobs, Baruch Link, Douglas Mirell, David N. Myers, Stephen Rohde, Adam Rubin, Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller, Arthur P. Stern, Nomi Stolzenberg, Roger Waldinger.

First of all I'm not a right-wing crackpot. I'm a strict centrist - I've voted for both republican and democratic presidents. I'm not a militant zionist. So it may come as a shock to you that I'm enraged and embarrassed that you would send out such reckless call to action. I'll explain myself in clear and short terms.

Firstly, if you are preaching pacifism, you can make your point more simply and honestly, while saving everyone a ton of time, by saying "We think ALL war is wrong. Everyone stop." or something to that end. If you are not pacifists, I cannot for the life of me understand why this is not seen as a clear case of a country defending herself from continued assault on its innocent civilian population. This friendly rebuke is for you. You ready?

1 -- We call on the State of Israel to cease its ground offensive and air attacks in Gaza, which have led to the loss of lives of innocent civilians without offering any prospect of political resolution to either Israelis or Palestinians.

Two points on this.

i. Do you realize what you're asking for here? Let me restate it. You are calling on Israel, a sovereign nation, which has a responsibility to protect its citizens, to stop a much delayed military DEFENSIVE it launched on UN recognized TERRORIST organization Hamas after more than 400 rockets were fired upon its innocent citizens following a ceasefire agreement (7500 rockets between 2001 and 2009). If a military defensive is ever justified, this certainly qualifies.

ii. While civilian lives are a cost in any war, offensive or defensive, Israel extends itself (likely more than other army in the world) to minimize civilian casualties; Leaflets are dropped to alert civilians of eminent attacks, text messages are sent out, targets are specific to the enemy. Please, if you will, find me evidence of another army taking these measures now or at any other time in history.

2 -- We call on Hamas to cease its rocket attacks on Israeli cities, which have no aim other than to inflict damage on innocent civilians and thus defy all norms of decency.

I'm absolutely dumbfounded.

Fact: The terrorist organization Hamas, has in its charter that "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it." (Imam Hassan al-Banna).

Are you honestly calling on Hamas to cease its attacks on Israeli cities, "which have no aim other than to inflict damage on innocent civilians..." OF COURSE they have no other aim!!! They do not care about being DECENT. They care about 2 things: Israel being obliterated, and Islam ruling the world. In summation, your second call to action calls Hamas to stop the very thing Hamas was created to do: obliterate Israel by damaging innocent civilians, and defying all norms of decency.

This is not an opinion. Ask them. They will tell you themselves.

3 -- We call on the leaders of the State of Israel and Hamas alike to pursue peace...

You make a mockery of any peace process, when you call on a terrorist organization to "pursue peace and recognize that violence, provoked or not will only beget more violence." Where does this empty rhetoric come from, and how could you think it could have ANY effect on Hamas and its actions?

3 - (cont.) and to recognize that violence -- provoked or not -- will only beget more violence in the long run.

This would be foolish to recognize. The Middle East is not in a cycle of violence. Simply put: Israel's enemies continuously try to destroy her, and when they do, Israel defends herself using its army. This is not a cycle of violence. There is an aggressor and a victim, much as you'd HATE to admit that. Still, consider the following written by Jeff McMahan (http://philosophy.rutgers.edu/FACSTAFF/BIOS/mcmahan.html) in his article "The Laws of War" (2007)

In cases of conflict, the moral positions of the protagonists are usually asymmetrical. Both domestic law and morality, for example, recognize that in most cases of justified self-defense, the initial defender is justified in acting in self-defense while the aggressor or wrongdoer is not justified in defending himself against the victim's defensive action. This moral asymmetry between wrongdoer and victim, or potential victim, is often a matter of justice. The morality of self-defense is a matter of preventive justice.


Violence actually does not beget more violence. Warring countries and individuals are not bound in an eternal "cycle of violence". Every violent exchange starts with a single act of violence - that is, someone always throws the first punch - and any violence that follows is directly as a result of the aggressor. MOST IMPORTANTLY - the aggressor, if left alone will very often choose to strike again and again and again. (400 rockets since the most recent mutually agreed upon ceasefire). What then is perpetuating THIS kind of "cycle of violence"? The answer is Evildoers. Bad guys. That dodgey lot who is responsible for the worlds woes. Hamas. Hezbolla. And the rest of them. They are not kept in business by the forceful DEFENSIVE action of their victims. They're kept in business by their own bad-guy ways.

Most importantly - violence almost always is that force that ends conflicts. Wars come to an end. No war in history was ended by a group of 18 Jews (or 18 million people) calling for the pursuit of peace. They were ended as a result of military force. The Holocaust ONLY came to an end because of military force against the Nazis. Can you say "violence begets violence" to a survivor of the holocaust, and then back it up with ideas of what we all SHOULD have done in WW2 instead of waging war on the Nazis? You should all be ashamed of yourselves.

3 - (cont.) reflexes grounded in a politics of honor, vengeance and reprisal

Check out this headline: "South under heavy fire: Mother of four killed on way back from gym as Gaza terrorists fire long-range rockets at city of Ashdod"

Would you tell those orphaned children that the IDF's action in Gaza was because of politics, vengeance and reprisal? Have you not the capacity to imagine another way of looking at it!? How about "Israel went into Gaza because every country has a duty to protect its citizens. They were sending rockets at us - we had to stop it. Ceasefire didn't work."

Here is a list of all the rockets that were aimed at Israeli citizens: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Qassam_rocket_attacks#Timeline_of_attacks

4 -- We call on all sides in the conflict to abide by international law and to protect the human rights of all persons involved -- civilian and military.

You just called on the terrorist organization Hamas to abide by international law. This is as audacious and ineffective as releasing a statement in 1969: "We the leaders of the Jewish community call upon Charlie Manson, his potential victims and arresting police, to stop the violence and abide by the laws of the United States." (I feel the need to explain the parallels. Hamas = Manson - both wish to inflict harm on the innocent. Agreed? Potential victims = Israeli civilians; arresting police = the IDF.)

5 -- Finally, we call on the United States, and especially President-elect Barack Obama, to assume a leading role in pushing the warring parties beyond the cycle of violence and bloodletting. All concerned Americans, Jewish and non-Jewish, should urge the current and new administrations to discard the past eight years of neglect and mobilize American policy toward a diplomatic resolution of the Gaza -- and larger Israeli-Palestinian -- conflicts. The time for action is now.

Any bright ideas? I mean really. "Assume a leading role in pushing the warring parties beyond the cycle of violence?"

If you really want to do this, you can start by understanding what makes that cycle of violence. Is it, as you have suggested, violence itself? Or could it be that this is a case of two Israel - which wants peace and is even willing to make concessions (like, say for instance, the withdrawal its peaceful citizens from Gaza) in order to live in peace; and Hamas - which publicly states that it wants Israel obliterated and will stop at nothing until it is wiped off the map. Clarity is the starting point of any real, lasting resolution to a problem, and it can't get any more clear than that.

How do you expect the US to encourage peace in the Middle East if not to support Israel in its efforts to fight against those bad guys who want to annihilate it!?

Have you any ideas other than a totally limp and meaningless call to just "get along"?

* * *

In closure - I just want to say that it's so painful to me that leaders of our Jewish communities are so terribly blind to what the reality of the situation is in Israel.

In the future, please think more carefully, and do more research, before issuing such a shallow and fruitless call to action. Save your peace sign for those who do not wish to cut off your fingers.