Judaism And Warfare

By: Steven Plaut

Published: January 21st, 2009

tell a friend

Dear Dr. H:

You write about how Judaism is devoted to the pursuit of peace. You bring assorted citations from the Bible and Psalms about how nice peace can be. You emphasize that Judaism grants peace priority over competing goals. You find biblical quote after biblical quote about how good peace is.

You then conclude that Israel is behaving in a manner that contradicts Jewish tradition when it wars against Hamas barbarism and Gaza terror. Israel must pursue “negotiations” with Hamas, you insist, citing the biblical desire for peace as the over-riding consideration.

That is all very nice. But you will no doubt be shocked to learn that Judaism cannot be reduced to the pursuit of peace. It certainly does not demand the pursuit of peace when that pursuit produces war.

You of course overlook the fact that one of the most common causes of war is the foolish pursuit of peace in circumstances that do not allow peace to prevail.

Anyone truly impressed by biblical calls for peace should be the first to reject the pursuit of peace through appeasement and capitulation – which actually produces war.

You prefer the posturing for peace that produces war to the actual pursuit of true peace.

Your little group of selected citations from the Bible about how nice peace is reminds me of the missionaries in my old childhood neighborhood who learned a dozen or so citations from the Tanach that they thought would prove persuasive to Jews, but were largely unaware of anything else in what they called the Old Testament.

Most important, you ignore altogether what Jewish sources really say about fighting anti-Semitism, terrorism, and aggression.

You ignore Abraham’s military response to the kidnapping of Lot. Abraham did not enter negotiations with the kidnappers.

You ignore the rejection of peace education as a way to reform Sodom and Gomorrah.

You ignore the anti-terror policy of Simon and Levi when Dina was kidnapped.

You ignore the refusal of the Torah to sanction negotiations and coexistence with Amalek.

You ignore the anti-terror policy of Pinchas.

You ignore the instructions to Joshua about how to handle those opposing Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel.

You ignore the anti-terror policy of the Prophet Samuel and the condemnation of compassion toward prisoners of King Saul.

You ignore the anti-terror policies of Yael and Deborah.

You ignore the fact that Elijah and the Bible even praise the evil King Ahab for warring against aggressors.

You ignore the refusal of Gideon, Ehud, and others to seek peaceful accommodation with aggressors and terrorists.

You ignore the fact that the Torah prohibits the granting of sovereignty to any non-Jewish power in the Land of Israel.

You ignore the anti-terror campaigns of Saul and David.

You ignore Samson’s indifference to collateral damage.

You ignore the call by the Prophet Joel (4:9-10): “… Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears. ”

You ignore the comments in Ecclesiastes about a time of war.

You ignore the way Mordechai dealt with anti-Semites at the end of the Book of Esther.

You ignore the way the Maccabees dealt with Jewish anti-Semites and collaborators with the enemy.

You ignore the fact that all real Jewish sources unambiguously favor capital punishment.

You ignore the admonition of what to do to those we know are about to attack us.

Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook said, “When they come to attack us, we have to persuade them with tanks.”

You ignore the fact that in Judaism annihilating evil is an integral part of creating peace and justice.

You ignore the fact that according to most rabbinic authorities, non-combatants who knowingly remain in a place where a battle is about to take place lose their right of protection.

You ignore the fact that pursuit of peace in the Bible has nothing to do with pacifism.

You ignore what Rabbi Meir of Rothenberg had to say about deals with the enemy to get hostages released.

You ignore that Torah proclamations about the value of human life are accompanied by demands that murderers be executed as a way to sanctify human life.

You ignore the fact that Jews not only pray for Jerusalem three times a day, they also pray for the destruction of Jewish anti-Semites three times a day.

You ignore the fact that most of the preaching about how nice peace is in the Bible actually refers to peace among Jews. As for Jews who pursue peace by collaborating with anti-Semites, study the policies of Pinchas and the Maccabees alluded to above.

Steven Plaut, a frequent contributor to The Jewish Press, is a professor at the University of Haifa. His book “The Scout” is available at Amazon.com. He can be contacted at steveneplaut@yahoo.com.