5+ Killed in Gaza
May 2, 2004 - Tali Hatuel, 34, and her daughters - Hila, 11, Hadar, 9, Roni, 7, and Merav, 2 - of Katif in the Gaza Strip were killed when two Palestinian terrorists fired on an Israeli car at the entrance to the Gaza Strip settlement bloc of Gush Katif.
Tali was 8 months pregnant as well.
Sigh. This is a very difficult moral question. Tali, you see, was on her way to a protest of Sharon's 'disengagement plan.' Murder of innocents is never justifiable and it is wrong, and dangerous, to allow the outrage of this horrific tragedy to turn into a diatribe against the victims. The world now treats Jewish life far too cheaply; Jewish blood is a dollar a gallon and trading badly against oil and other commodities. The terrorists who killed this mother and 5 children are explained away and the victim - Tali, Israel, all Jews - are blamed for being who were are.
So, we can't forget that she was killed for being Jewish and for no other reason. "Yesha Zeh Kan" - The Terrorities Are Here, the slogan that states that we cannot separate what happens in Gaza, Yehuda, Shomron, from what terrorists will do to Jews in Tel Aviv, Haifa, New York, London.
That said... how do I deal with a woman, a family, that brings children into a war zone? She didn't strap a bomb to their backs and ask them to kill others; but she did put a target on their foreheads!
I am an ideologue; but as I get older I realize more and more that the Jewish doctrine of "Choose Life" is the best solution in a confusing moral maze. Yeah, you can say that if we pull out of Gaza we'll lose more lives because it will embolden terrorists. I have nothing yet to say about that. I *do* say that for the Gazidiots to claim that Gaza is necessary for Israel's security, then they are stating clearly it is a dangerous place. AND HOW DARE YOU, HOW DAAARE YOU, HAVE CHILDREN THERE!
Is that a Jewish ethic? Putting children in the line of fire for a goal and ideology that they have no right being part of? The father of this destroyed family, said:
"On Friday the girls drew me a picture and wrote 'Daddy, we are proud of what you are doing for the home where we were born',"
All that means is that they were able to brainwash these children into being ambulatory body bags for a cause they believed in. This sickens me.
One thing we learn from Eglah Arufah (Deut. 21:1-9) is that when a person is murdered, the surrounding society needs to ask whether they were responsible. They know they didn't 'pull the trigger' - but they may have made it easy for murder to be done. These abusive parents in Gaza... is the blood on their hands? Isn't there a way of being Jewish, proud and free, without also running in front of a shooting gun? How can I avoid the logic of "Yesha Zeh Kan" - that maybe we should run away from Israel, go to Uganda or Madagascar, not wear a Kippah in public or to have open kosher restaurants, because those actions also spur on people to kill us, and if not now, then only after we leave Gaza.
My answer to that reductio ad absurdum is democratic government. First of all, we can and should draw the line between living in a normal location and living in a disputed, highly dangerous war-zone. What would you do when people shoot at your children in the streets of Normaltown? You appeal to the authorities. If the authorities say they won't protect you, do you still let your children run around as targets? No! The government may be wrong to leave you unprotected, but your responsibility is to preserve the lives of the fragile and innocent. You don't match wrong with wrong.
If America decided that it was OK for Jews to be shot up in the streets of New York, I'd protest, scream and yell, but I wouldn’t let my children (b'shaa tova) be living targets!! I'd keep them at home, petition the government all the while, but I'd keep them safe... and I'd keep alive too because someone needs to make them their PB&Js.
This is a very difficult moral situation and it can lead to extreme ideas on all sides. The only way to navigate these bloody waters is to keep the right ethics in our heads at all times.
May 2, 2004 - Tali Hatuel, 34, and her daughters - Hila, 11, Hadar, 9, Roni, 7, and Merav, 2 - of Katif in the Gaza Strip were killed when two Palestinian terrorists fired on an Israeli car at the entrance to the Gaza Strip settlement bloc of Gush Katif.
Tali was 8 months pregnant as well.
Sigh. This is a very difficult moral question. Tali, you see, was on her way to a protest of Sharon's 'disengagement plan.' Murder of innocents is never justifiable and it is wrong, and dangerous, to allow the outrage of this horrific tragedy to turn into a diatribe against the victims. The world now treats Jewish life far too cheaply; Jewish blood is a dollar a gallon and trading badly against oil and other commodities. The terrorists who killed this mother and 5 children are explained away and the victim - Tali, Israel, all Jews - are blamed for being who were are.
So, we can't forget that she was killed for being Jewish and for no other reason. "Yesha Zeh Kan" - The Terrorities Are Here, the slogan that states that we cannot separate what happens in Gaza, Yehuda, Shomron, from what terrorists will do to Jews in Tel Aviv, Haifa, New York, London.
That said... how do I deal with a woman, a family, that brings children into a war zone? She didn't strap a bomb to their backs and ask them to kill others; but she did put a target on their foreheads!
I am an ideologue; but as I get older I realize more and more that the Jewish doctrine of "Choose Life" is the best solution in a confusing moral maze. Yeah, you can say that if we pull out of Gaza we'll lose more lives because it will embolden terrorists. I have nothing yet to say about that. I *do* say that for the Gazidiots to claim that Gaza is necessary for Israel's security, then they are stating clearly it is a dangerous place. AND HOW DARE YOU, HOW DAAARE YOU, HAVE CHILDREN THERE!
Is that a Jewish ethic? Putting children in the line of fire for a goal and ideology that they have no right being part of? The father of this destroyed family, said:
"On Friday the girls drew me a picture and wrote 'Daddy, we are proud of what you are doing for the home where we were born',"
All that means is that they were able to brainwash these children into being ambulatory body bags for a cause they believed in. This sickens me.
One thing we learn from Eglah Arufah (Deut. 21:1-9) is that when a person is murdered, the surrounding society needs to ask whether they were responsible. They know they didn't 'pull the trigger' - but they may have made it easy for murder to be done. These abusive parents in Gaza... is the blood on their hands? Isn't there a way of being Jewish, proud and free, without also running in front of a shooting gun? How can I avoid the logic of "Yesha Zeh Kan" - that maybe we should run away from Israel, go to Uganda or Madagascar, not wear a Kippah in public or to have open kosher restaurants, because those actions also spur on people to kill us, and if not now, then only after we leave Gaza.
My answer to that reductio ad absurdum is democratic government. First of all, we can and should draw the line between living in a normal location and living in a disputed, highly dangerous war-zone. What would you do when people shoot at your children in the streets of Normaltown? You appeal to the authorities. If the authorities say they won't protect you, do you still let your children run around as targets? No! The government may be wrong to leave you unprotected, but your responsibility is to preserve the lives of the fragile and innocent. You don't match wrong with wrong.
If America decided that it was OK for Jews to be shot up in the streets of New York, I'd protest, scream and yell, but I wouldn’t let my children (b'shaa tova) be living targets!! I'd keep them at home, petition the government all the while, but I'd keep them safe... and I'd keep alive too because someone needs to make them their PB&Js.
This is a very difficult moral situation and it can lead to extreme ideas on all sides. The only way to navigate these bloody waters is to keep the right ethics in our heads at all times.
This entry was posted
on Monday, May 03, 2004 at 5/03/2004 08:37:00 AM.
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