Are We Completely Crazy? The Life of a Terrorist is Not Sacred

This article, written by Tal Gilad, first appeared in Hebrew on February 2, 2017, at the end of the trial of Elor Azaria. It was published in “Makor Rishon.” It was translated into English by Bat-Zion Susskind-Sacks.

It is difficult to write about Elor Azaria. The entire affair is an absurd dance, so hallucinatory, frustrating, and depressing, in a way that one does not know where to commence. The point that continues to echo in my head, though, is one that seems to be taken out of a horror show in hell, was to hear the judges say that Elor attacked the “Sanctity of Life” principle. Throttled Mother Theresa during helping the poor. The Sanctity of the Life of a terrorist?

As far as we, Yisraelis, are concerned - and no, we do not have the privilege of seeing it from a different point of view -  it is  irrational and unethical for us to practice any sensitivity to the “sanctity” of life of people for whom we are the object of desire for obliteration, who hold a declared ideology on the subject and even arrived with the goal of  putting that ideology to practice.

Perhaps, it is necessary to explain that which is self-explanatory. A terrorist is not a criminal, not even a POW or a bomber of the common kind. Even a law offender acts within the boundaries of the society of which he is a part. He committed a crime and for that specific issue, he must be punished within his community, when the goal of the punishment is, mostly, to correct or deter. It is meant to bring matters back to the course of law and order.

In the more sever circle, one can find treason, espionage etc., despite the fact that they do not always involve death directly, these are acts which are aimed, intentionally and maliciously, against an  entire entity, an attack on security interests and endangering an entire state and its citizens. The punishments, in such cases, are severe in most countries, generally a long sentence or even the death penalty. Still, vaguely, there is a framework of abiding by the rules of the game, a dirty crime, where there is, nonetheless, room for a legal debate and both sides are equal in the eyes of the law.

A bit further in the vague realms, dwell the “classic” terrorists, such as the Irish underground, or the anarchists who used to blow up coffee shops. If we analyze their horrific deeds, we would still discover  that they stem from some kind of a twisted ideology of “destroying in order to build a new society” or in order to banish the British, where the civilians that were hurt were not the target itself, or as means of spreading fear. The Irish underground did not have a set doctrine according to which one has to kill all of England and annihilate its citizens.

A terrorist who attacks Yisrael does not belong to any of these circles. He is from a different world. His sole goal is to destroy the whole organism, anyone and anything that is in it, including the lawmakers, the laws and the entire body of voters, for or against, including those who are fighting for his rights and his sanctity of life or defend him in court, including his children and their babies. He is coming to murder us all because in his eyes, it is the right and educational step to take. There are no rules and no fair play, one should only kill, and we are not the means, we are the target. Morally, as far as we are concerned, he is not supposed to have any rights, there is nothing to fix, deter or understand.

Intra-galactic values

This is analogous to extra-terrestrials that come to annihilate humanity to make frozen food out of it or just because they dislike Earth. They do not try to scare; they are not trying to harm the national interests or to free anyone from “the Occupation.” They come to kill, and for the purpose of killing, the more, the better and we do not interest them beyond that. We are not obliged by any intra-galactic values. There is not much that we can do other than defend ourselves and kill them in return. There is no Geneva Convention for devouring extra-terrestrials, they will gobble and package for takeaway including Geneva.

Clearly the Palestinians see it differently. We have no problem with the Palestinians admiring the terrorist and naming city squares after him, in the same manner that the extra-terrestrials will gurgle songs of praise for the one brave member who traveled lightyears  merely to bring them back fresh humans from earth. It is not my business, nor my role to educate either the Palestinians or the extra-terrestrials. It is a situation of a total clash of interests and irrelevant on who is right. It does not belong here. In such a situation, I am entirely duty bound to my interest. As a Jew in Yisrael, I have no right to view it from any other angle, it would be irresponsible of me towards my children. And, please, be wise enough to distinguish between the readiness of a large portion of the public to principally understand that which they see as national aspirations of the Palestinians and the  twisted recognition of the willingness of terror organizations to murder us all and the sense of their ”Sanctity of Life” concept. The first is a legitimate discussion, the second, never.
 

Somehow, the feeling that whoever is sensitive to the sanctity of life of the one who comes to slaughter him and his family, is a super moral kind, has taken roots. A heavenly creature with a halo of light and a soprano church choir accompany his appearance at our gate. He is not, he is an irresponsible idiot and the last thing one can say about him is that he is righteous because his fake morality endangers others. It is not morality, it is an infantile narcissism of the kind of “wow, I am so good.” These are two entirely different creatures. One has practical and educational values, the other is a monster in a sheep’s skin.

Elor killed a terrorist. He merely helped a dying terrorist reach the seventy-two virgins, fifteen minutes earlier. He broke the law, true, and if someone breaks the law, he should be punished. So keep him confined to his base over the weekend and warn him that next time he should conduct and legal verification of death procedure and not wait eleven minutes. But stop pumping yourselves with the “sanctity of life,” of a terrorist. You have entirely gone mad; you lost your compass.

Jewish Folklore and One of Its Lessons

Disclaimer: the opinion expressed in this article are those of its writer ONLY. It is written from the Jewish point of view and its belief system. One of the courses I attend at Bar-Ilan University is Yiddish language and Literature.  A few lessons ago, we read a story by Y.L. Peretz. It is entitled “Three presents.” The story tells the adventures of a departed soul that goes up in front of the Heavenly Court. Since according to Jewish belief, it is only one’s behaviour on earth which determines whether their soul will enter Paradise or Ghenna, its good deeds are weighed against the bad ones.

Unfortunately for the soul in question, its transgressions slightly outweighed its acts of kindness. One of the angels had mercy on it and decided to give the soul another opportunity. It was sent back to earth and told to return with three presents which would please the Court.

The soul roamed the earth for many generations. One night, it noticed, through an open window, a Jewish man being robbed. The man pleaded with the burglars to take all his silver, gold and precious stones while clinging to a little box, refusing to part with it. The robbers were intrigued. Thinking that the box contained some treasure, they killed the man. As he fell down weltering in his blood, the content of the box spilled out. It was holy dirt from Eretz Yisrael. The soul took a morsel of the soil soaked with the Jew’s blood and brought it up.

The first present was accepted. On its second trip to earth, the soul found itself at the center of an ancient European town. There, a beautiful Jewish woman who was accused of tainting and desecrating Easter holy day by her mere presence on the street at that time, was put on trial. Next to her, a wild horse was being held by ten men. Her sentence was to be tied by her hair to the horse’s tail and dragged through the streets of the town. She had one request only. Much to the surprise and amazement of all present, she asked for a few pins. Her wish was granted. As the horse galloped through the streets, the soul noticed how the young woman was struggling to fasten the rim of her dress to her flesh in order to keep her modesty and prevent her nakedness from being exposed. Surreptitiously, the soul went down and detached a red bloody pin from her dying body. The second present was graciously accepted. “One more present,” thought the soul, as it made its way down to earth for the third time. “If all souls were to be weighed as I was,” she thought in anguish, “the world would be full of lost souls trying to make amends to their wickedness. And what would G-d do then?” she wondered. “Will He bring the world back to chaos?”

Steeped in her thoughts, she suddenly noticed a fortified prison in an isolated area. It was surrounded by black walls. Next to it, she noticed two rows of soldiers, each holding a whip.

Between them was doomed to walk the convicted, a pious Jewish man, wearing a shabby shirt and on his half shaved head, an old yarmulke.

And his crime?

No one was certain. Was it murder, theft or perhaps a blood libel?

As he was pushed between the two rows of soldiers, they were each lashing him incessantly, smiling and wondering how long the victim would hold on. Yet, he remained defiant. The whips whistled in the air wrapping the Jew’s torn body like snakes as the blood gushed out. But he kept on walking.

One of the whips, suddenly, hit the yarmulke which dropped to the ground.

When the victim noticed that, he stood still contemplating his next move. “I cannot walk bare headed, no matter what” he decided. He turned back, picked the yarmulke, put it on his head and resumed his harsh sentence until he fell and expired.

The soul approached the fallen man and took a blood soaked thread from the yarmulke. The third present was welcome…… the soul was redeemed. We can each draw our own lesson from this sad and heart wrenching tale. My lesson is that in our Jewish tradition, as our folklore well reflects it, redemption and the world to come are not handed nor guaranteed. They must be earned. It is only up to us, how we carry ourselves and what we do in this world. We, and no one else, are the only ones who are held responsible for the outcome of our deeds. Not only does our mature and enlightening Jewish tradition command us to choose life, we have to do justice, perform acts of kindness and hope that they would please G-d, and grant us a place among the righteous of the world.

Defaming the Land of Milk and Honey

The Cambridge Dictionary defines “Defamation” as “the act of harming someone’s reputation by saying or writing bad things about them.”

Already in our Torah, we encounter such an act. One example that comes to mind is when Miriam and Aaron speak ill of Moshe after he marries a Cushite woman (Numbers 12:1) for which Miriam was severely punished.

This week’s Parasha, B’Shalach, is another example. This time, the subject of defamation is not another human being but Eretz Yisrael.

In it, Moshe names twelve men, each from one of the twelve tribes to go and tour the Land of Cana’an prior to conquering it. He gives them specific issues to investigate. He charges them with the duty to survey the Land, examine it and see whether it is good or bad. He also instructs them to study the size and the strength of the People inhabiting it.

After forty days, the twelve emissaries or spies as the Tanach refers to them, return and report their observations. They bring along with them samples of beautiful fruit from Eretz Yisrael which prove the quality of the Land. They also describe it as a “Land flowing with milk and honey.” At the same time, however, they speak harshly about it when describing the might of its dwellers and as “a Land that eats up its inhabitants.” The scouts all, except for Yehoshua and Calev, conclude that Am Yisrael could not go into the Land as the People that dwells there is mightier than it.

The question that is begging to be asked is why do Yehoshua and Calev see Eretz Yisrael through different eyes? After all, all twelve emissaries observe and experience the same things?

 They all start their description of the Land in a positive way. However, unlike Yehoshua and Calev, the other ten switch to a negative portrayal of the powerful People and the fortified cities.

According to the Babylonian Talmud Sotah 35a, this is the way slanderers speak. “They begin with flattering and end with evil.”

Slander, defamation and badmouthing aim at separating people, drawing a rift, and deepening the divide among them. The slanderer observes a situation generalizes and embellishes its bad aspects while sharing their interpretations of it as a permanent and constant element. That is the nature of slander.

In this Parasha, defamation is aimed at separating between Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael.

Upon hearing the emissaries’ words, Am Yisrael bursts out in anger, complaints, and rebellion. They refuse to listen to Moshe, Aaron, Yehoshua and Calev who try to convince them that the Land is good and that one should trust G-d. Alas, the people are angry, assail them and prepares to hurl stones at them.

Unfortunately, slander of the “Land Flowing with Milk and Honey” did not stop with the ten of the twelve scouts that Moshe sent. They were, then, what organizations such as BDS, B’Tselem or Breaking the Silence are today. These are bonded by a desire to separate between the modern-day state of Yisrael and the rest of the world.

Like Moshe’s emissaries, members of these organizations see a relatively young state that has turned the desert into fertile land. They are witnessing its great contributions to world civilization. Not even they can ignore Yisrael as a world power in technology, medicine and other fields.

True, Yisrael, like any other normal state, especially one that is surrounded by those who wish to annihilate it and needs to fight for survival on a daily basis, is not perfect. Yet, these organizations choose to overlook its great aspects and elect to pick a handful of its bad ones, put them under the microscope, embellish and amplify them, sometimes beyond proportion, and use them to project it in a bad light. They use any means and any tactics to falsify and distort facts, misrepresent it and dis-inform a naïve world of the true and great facets of the Jewish state. Defamation is their middle name.

Finally, it is important to mention that in the Tanach account of the episode of the spies, all but Yehoshua and Calev are punished later. These ten become the victims of a plague and die nameless and in eternal disgrace in the wilderness.

Shabbat Shalom and every blessing