This Rosh Hashanah, Bibi Wants the Power to Decide: "Who Shall Live, Who Shall Die."
This Rosh Hashanah, Bibi Wants the Power to Decide: "Who Shall Live, Who Shall Die."
Israel's Netanyahu is waging a Regional War in the Middle East to keep his grasp on power, and, potentially, stay out of prison.
(Photo from the New York Times)
Ever since I converted to Judaism 44 years ago, I’ve always loved Rosh Hashanah.
I am humbled by the Jewish New Year’s 10-day focus on introspection and contemplation, rather than the brainless and ritual inebriation of the other New Year’s celebration.
Sure, it’s a time to raise a glass of wine or two and be grateful for surviving another year of life, but Rosh Hashanah is more of a gentle invitation to a quiet retreat from that life. To me, the High Holy Days is a special, sacred time to reflect on where our lives, our humanity and our souls have been over the past year, and where we would like them to be.
This year, the sounding of the Shofar, a modern day trumpet, which Maimonides and other Jewish scholars have interpreted as a “wake-up-call” for personal introspection and self-improvement, or as “a means of asking God to remember man” (Pentateuch), appears on the brink of being thrust back centuries to an ancient role of heralding war, the way it was used when Joshua waged war against Jericho.
In Hayyim Schauss’ book, The Jewish Festivals: History & Observance, (1938; 12th Printing 1978, Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Schocken Books, NY), the author writes that:
“In the old days, the shofar was used as a musical instrument by Jews at various religious ceremonies, but its’ most important use was to intimidate the enemy, to declare war, and in general, to make proclamations of the people.”
Apparently, the Netanyahu government is choosing to use the shofar this Rosh Hashanah to sound a clarion call for widespread war, in the increasingly questionable claim of Israel’s self-defense.
Netanyahu and his extremist Ultra Nationalist government has chosen to respond to the October 7, 2023, massacre by Hamas of more than 1200 Israeli citizens and the forced kidnapping of hundreds of hostages, by grinding Gaza into the dust, and killing more than 40,000 Palestinian non-combatants, most of whom are women and children.
Gone is any semblance of the Israeli Defense Force’s (IDF), Code of Ethics for the IDF, which previously—before Netanyahu came to power-- commanded the IDF to adhere to specific rules of combat.
That Code of Ethics, required as part of basic training for IDF soldiers, consists of four essential principles:
· NECESSITY: “to apply force only for the sake of the mission;”
· DISTINCTION: “aim your fire at those who pose a threat, NOT at combatants indiscriminately;
· RESPONSIBILITY: “since you know there will be collateral harm of civilians, you have to do whatever you can to MINIMIZE the expected collateral harm.”
· PROPORTIONALITY: “Is the expected collateral harm proportionate to the military achievement?”
All of that moral and ethical guidance for Israel’s soldiers was tossed out when Netatanyu and his megalomaniacal cabinet seized power, declaring war on anyone not sufficiently Jewish, according to their own extremely narrow perspective. Unarmed Palestinian women and children—either in Gaza or the West Bank—were considered sub-human by the Ultra Nationalists controlling the Israeli government and its’ armed forces.
Instead of abiding by the IDF’s historic ethical code, Bibi and his unbridled band of extremists have justified dropping 2,000 pound bombs—provided by the United States—on civilian populations by claiming, often suspiciously, that Hamas or Hezbollah combatants had hidden themselves underneath non-combatant populations and structures, like hospitals, schools, day-care centers, or apartment buildings. By its’ own actions, the Netanyahu government has single-handedly undermined the credibility of any statements or videos coming from the IDF.
Under that spurious “self-defense” definition, any civilian population in any country in which anti-Israel terrorists may be hiding is fair game for any indiscriminate—and non-proportional— IDF attack. National borders, international law, or individual state sovereignty do not matter under this new formulation of “self-defense” by the Netanyahu government.
Netanyahu and the Ultra Nationalists ruling Israel, using the “self-defense” trap to ensnare the US and other allies in its military actions, have now expanded it’s unending crusade for revenge for the murders of October 7, 2023, well-beyond retribution against Hamas, or the boundaries of Gaza and the West Bank.
Bibi has launched a Regional “Ring of Fire” War not just against the terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, but has dangerously expanded the war, just this week, across the national borders of Lebanon, Yemen & Syria, and is poised to attack any number of sites in Iran, to retaliate for Iranian missiles being launched into Israel. Iran’s missile attack was done in response to Israel’s attack on Hezbollah strong holds in Southern Lebanon, the killing of Hezbollah and Iranian leaders, and the maiming of thousands of Hezbollah operatives and Lebanese citizens with exploding personal communications devices—an act on Israel’s part, considered by some, to constitute terrorism against the nation of Lebanon and its people.
On the eve of Rosh Hashanah, 5785 (2024), the Jewish publication The Forward outlined several military options Israel may take against Iran, which would shatter any hopes for a ceasefire, any chance of peace in the MidEast, and destabilize democratic nations and economies around the world:
· “A tactical strike on Iran: A more substantial response could involve direct military action against Iranian assets, such as oil facilities or military installations. This would aim to inflict real damage on Iran’s infrastructure, forcing it to reconsider further provocations.
An attack on an oil installation, for instance, could disrupt Iran’s economic lifelines and send the clear message that Israel will not tolerate continued missile strikes. The goal here would be to create enough pain for Iran to deter future actions, without pushing the region into a full-scale war.”
· “A strategic overhaul of the region’s balance of power: This option is far more ambitious, and fraught with risk, but could reshape the Middle East. It would involve Israel somehow pushing the West to lay down the law with Iran, demanding not just an end to its missile strikes, but a full dismantling of its nuclear program and an end to its sponsorship of proxy forces across the region”.
The Forward goes on to point out that the most extreme option poses a serious, not hypothetical, risk of starting World War III:
“If Iran responds forcefully, the U.S. would almost certainly be drawn into the conflict to protect Israel. This could trigger a chain reaction, with Russia and China, both of whom have strategic relationships with Iran, seeing an opportunity to exploit the chaos. China could use the distraction to finally make a long-threatened move on Taiwan, while Russian President Vladimir Putin might take the opportunity to expand his war in Ukraine, or press into neighboring countries.
The global balance of power would be thrown into disarray, with potentially catastrophic consequences.”
At the end of our High Holy Days, our Days of Awe, we Jews say a profound prayer during Yom Kippur:
“On Rosh Hashanah it is written,
On Yom Kippur it is sealed:
How many shall pass on, how many shall come to be;
Who shall live and who shall die;
Who shall see ripe age, and who shall not;
Who shall perish by fire, and who by water;
Who by sword and who by beast;
Who by hunger and who by thirst;
Who by earthquake and who by plague;
Who by strangling and who by stoning;
Who shall be secure and who shall be driven;
Who shall be tranquil and who shall be troubled;
Who shall be poor and who shall be rich;
Who shall be humbled and who exalted;
But REPENTANCE, PRAYER, and CHARITY
Temper judgement’s severe decree.”
It’s in the spirit of that prayer, of this somber and reflective period, and of this immensely important moment in each of our lives that I question the tragic circle of firing squads that Netanyahu and the Ultra-nationalist Israeli government have built encircling Israel and threatening to plunge the world into full-scale war.
During this time of questioning, we need answers to a few critical questions.
1. What about the 100+ hostages in Gaza? Has BiBi given up on them?
2. Did the Netanyahu government turn its attention to Hezbollah because it was losing the public opinion and political war in Gaza, and saw no hope of getting the hostages out alive?
3. Does the IDF already know the hostages are dead, and is using a wider war as a distraction from that horror?
4. Did Bibi carefully calculate that with only a month out from the US Presidential Election few, if any, American politicians would oppose any military action taken by Israel, as long as it was shrouded in the words, “self-defense?”
5. Was the booby trapping of personal electronic devices—and interdicting the supply chain to do it—an act of international terrorism? Does it open up a new and dangerous vein of “permissible” terrorist activities, now that Israel has done it? Has it raised the possibility of terrorists interdicting and arming I-Phones headed for the consumer market in the US or Western Europe?
6. Were those hand-held explosives an act of war vs. Hezbollah, or against Lebanon? Iran?
7. Can Israel do anything in the region—or in pursuing terrorists around the world—as long as it declares it: an act of Israel’s self-defense? And, has the claim of Israel’s “self-defense, become interchangeable with Netanyahu’s never-ending political self-preservation?
8. Has Bibi and Israel’s Nationalist government intentionally ratcheted up his “Circle of Fire” strategy and shooting war across several sovereign state borders to justify bombing Iran’s oil and Nuclear production facilities?
9. Is this Netanyahu’s “October Surprise” for Donald Trump in the 2024 US Presidential Election to continue the US’ unquestioning support for any Bibism?
10. Was this Netanyahu’s long-term plan since sabotaging Barack Obama’s Nuclear agreement with Iran in 2014? Did he always want to take out Iran’s capacity to make nuclear weapons himself, militarily, and not allow it to happen under a global peace agreement?
The stakes here, at this very instant in human history, are extraordinary, and not just for the future existence of Israel, but for all of us.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak told Katy Tur of NBC News that, while he wanted to “guarantee security for Israel,” he believed that Netanyahu was “creating the danger because he doesn’t want a two-State solution.”
Jordan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, an US educated member of the Jordanian Druse community—Israel’s long-time allies—urgently pleaded that “The Arab states around Israel can guarantee its’ security.”
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin, in his final speech delivered at the Peace Rally where he was assassinated by an Ultra Nationalist Jewish extremist on November 4, 1995, stated clearly one of the fundamental principles upon which the State of Israel was built:
“The path of peace is preferable to the path of war. I say this as a military man…and see the pain of the families of the IDF soldiers. For them, for our children, in my case for our grandchildren, I want this Government to exhaust every opening, every possibility to promote and achieve a comprehensive peace.”
Just as Bibi campaigned against every peace initiative put forth by Rabin going back 30 years--especially regarding a Two-State solution—he has repeatedly scuttled American cease-fire efforts in Gaza over the past several months to free any remaining hostages, or entertain any exit plan from Gaza and the West Bank that involves Palestinian self-determination, or contradicts the fever dreams of the Ultra Nationalist coalition keeping Netanyahu in power, and out of prison.
That terrible and troubling track record compounds an already towering tragedy, and this Rosh Hashanah, it appears the Netanyahu wants to use the Shofar as an instrument of war and revenge, and acquire for himself the awful power to determine “who shall live, and who shall die.”