By Marek Zabriskie
One of my dearest friends is a retired rabbi, who ran the largest synagogue in the Philadelphia area. He is full of grace and kindness and is a fabulous teacher, speaker, and preacher.
When I started a ministry called “The Bible Challenge” to help people to read either the Bible in a year, I mentioned an idea to him. “You should create a ministry to help people read the Tanakh (the Jewish scriptures) in a year,” I said. He replied, “I don’t think that would be a good idea.”
“Why?” I inquired. “Because there are parts of the Jewish scriptures that I don’t think would be good for them to read.” Indeed, many Christians who have tried to read the entire Bible have told me that they found many portions of the Old Testament very difficult to read and accept.
“There’s so much violence,” they said, and they are correct. Reading through the books of Joshua and Judges is like reading through chronicles of genocide. Again and again, God told Joshua or Gideon to destroy entire populations. And they did, killing every human being.
The challenge with the Bible is that it is read by every generation to guide us on how to live good, faithful, moral lives. We read the Bible looking for life lessons and how to find God, love others, and live a good life. Exterminating our enemies and colonizing their lands is wrong.
All of this is relevant today, as the same lands that Joshua and Gideon fought to obtain are being fought over again. This time it is part of a war against terror.
The war comes in response to the heinous crimes committed by the Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023. What Hamas did was inhumane. It cannot be justified.
Certainly, Palestinians have been oppressed in their own lands for decades, but the appropriate response will never be murder, rape, kidnapping, and torture. No matter how much Palestinians have been oppressed by Israelis, committing heinous crimes will never be a justifiable response.
It is the response by certain Palestinians who see Israelis and Jews as inferior or oppressors. Whatever Hamas hoped to gain, they have lost as they have hurt their cause in countless ways.
After 1,200 Israelis were murdered, savaged, and raped, and 250 were kidnapped, Israel was justified in trying to destroy Hamas. But questions must be asked in countering terrorism.
How do you attack terrorist organization that doesn’t wear uniforms or insignia and embeds itself in a civilian population? How do you kill terrorists without creating huge collateral damage to innocent civilians? How do you avoid creating more terrorists for every innocent person you kill or maim?
What kind of military ordinances can be used? Can bombs meant to destroy entire buildings be justified? How many people must die until a nation feels that justice has been achieved or security is possible? These are important questions.
The problem is that in the aftermath of an attack like October 7th, a fever arises that is so strong that these questions are not asked by the government or civilian population. Significant moral questions are not asked, and therein lies the problem.
Last spring, I met with an Israeli friend in Greenwich. He told me that he had recently returned to visit his family near Tel Aviv. He told me, “If you did not read the newspapers or listen to the news, you would never know that there was a war going on.”
I was dumbfounded as there was no one in Gaza who could say the same. He told me about a close friend who is a moderate and strongly supported a two-state solution. “Now my friend says, ‘Kill every single one of them. They’re all terrorists’,” recalled my Israeli friend.
The shock of terrorism is so grave that we lose all perspective. We vilify an entire population and see justification for wiping them out, men, women, adolescents, and children.
When the fever of anguish overcomes a nation, our moral understanding vanishes. We become consumed with revenge. Our thinking becomes binary. We are innocent. They are guilty. We are good. They are evil. We must kill them all.
Israel is the home of three religions – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Christians call Israel the Holy Land. It is the land where Jesus lived, taught, performed miracles, died and was resurrected following his crucifixion by Roman occupying forces and prompted by religious leaders.
For centuries, Christians have shared the Holy Land with Muslims and Jews. In 1900, Christians accounted for 15% of the population in Palestine. Life has been made to be so hard for them in their own land that today less than 2% of Israel’s population are Christians.
Palestinians feel like foreigners in their own land. Their animosity has built up for decades. Archbishop Desmond Tutu described Israel as an apartheid system that was worse than what he found in his native South Africa. President Jimmy Carter spoke out powerfully as well.
What can be done? Everyone understands Israeli’s right to live in safety, and the same right must be granted to Muslim and Christian Palestinians.
Unfortunately, when an extreme fever of anger takes over there is no talk of moderate solutions. The Netanyahu government has its own reasons for staying in power and carrying on the war.
Today, following Hamas’ horrific killing of 1,200 Israelis and kidnapping of 250 more, Israel has killed 51,000 Palestinians, tens of thousands of which are women and children. More than 70,000 Palestinians have lost a limb. Gaza now has more people missing a limb than any other country in the world.
How much is enough? When does it end? What is the end goal? What is the equivalence that will make Israelis feel that justice has been done and that they are safe? Is it 30, 50, or 100 dead Palestinians for every Israeli killed. It is currently about 100 killed or maimed. Is that enough?
To many, the situation appears to be genocide and ethnic cleansing. Eighty-five percent of the buildings in Gaza have been destroyed. Fresh water is hard to find. Every hospital in Gaza has been attacked. Most are completely destroyed.
Israel refuses to allow food and medicine to enter. Schools are wiped out. Over 10,000 Palestinians have been jailed without due process. Two million people risk being starved to death and to suffer lifelong injuries from malnourishment.
The world stood by when Germany killed millions of Jews during World War II. The details of what was occurring then were not as well-known as what is occurring now. Still, world leaders should have done much more to help. Have we not learned important lessons?
The fever of anguish following October 7th is like the fever that overtook the United States after 9/11. It will eventually dissipate. Then Israel, like America, must ask, “Did we overreact? Can we justify our response? Did it make a difference? How will history remember us?”
The Rev. Marek Zabriskie has a deep love for the Bible and understanding its relevance for our lives today, from how individuals treat individuals to how nations treat nations.
