[Captain's Note: No pirate lingo today. No fancy pictures. This is too serious a matter.]
On October 7th, the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel. With coordinated rockets and ground and air assaults, Hamas initially killed 859 Israeli civilians and at least 345 Israeli soldiers and police. More than 200 Israeli civilians were taken as hostages.
Israel’s response was initially slow, but overwhelming. Since the Hamas attack, more than 14,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, entire blocks have been leveled, schools and hospitals have been destroyed. Basic necessities have been cut off, international aid has been restricted, and safe passage out of Gaza for Palestinians has been thwarted.
Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu shrugs off civilian casualties among the Palestinians as “collateral damage”, a phrase he learned from the U.S. during the Iraq wars.
UPDATE: Since this writing, a temporary cease-fire has been put in place to allow for international aid to enter Gaza and for the exchange of Israeli-held prisoners for Hamas-held hostages.
Julianna Margulies, a Jewish-American actress who came to fame in the mid-90’s on the television drama “ER” but is now a self-proclaimed political activist, wrote a letter on November 20th to USAToday decrying the silence from her non-Jewish friends.
Apparently none of her non-Jewish friends reached out after the attack to check on her, give her a hug, or whatever, which may be an extreme expectation since she lives in Manhattan, not in Israel.
Nonetheless, she wrote that their silence in the aftermath of the Hamas attack was “shocking”: “Your silence on antisemitism is loud!”
Ouch!
For what it’s worth, “antisemitism” is a big word that means “hostility toward or prejudice against Jewish people”, which can be widely interpreted. As so many are wont to do today, anything that is said or done in opposition to a person of Jewish heritage or against the nation-state of Israel is labeled “antisemitic”.
And while some were quick to label the Hamas attack “terrorism”, in reality it was an act of war.
A war that has been raging for thousands of years.
Captain’s Note: Let the reader understand that I am not at all defending Hamas, neo-Nazis, or a whole host of other right-wing organizations that are openly hostile toward Jews today. I do believe, however, that Jews and the nation-state of Israel are fair game for criticism and correction when needed, and I am constantly befuddled to understand why everyone gives Israel a free pass.
In her letter to the editor Margulies included a major mea culpa:
“I don’t pretend to be an expert on the Middle East conflict – I am not, it’s complicated and has been going on for years…”
Indeed, Ms. Margulies, you are not an expert on the Middle East conflict, as evidenced by your letter. In fact, your understanding of the history of the Jewish people seems to only go back as far as the Holocaust.
In fact, the Middle East conflict has been raging for centuries!
So allow me to fill in some gaps.
In the Book of Genesis, the first book in Jewish and Christian scriptures, we are told that the God Yahweh initiated a covenant with a man named Abram. The deal was that Abram’s people would worship only Yahweh in exchange for a number of blessings, not the least of which was the gift of a land of their own.
Let the reader note that this is only nine chapters after the creation of the world, so one might argue that the land Israel and Hamas is fighting over has belonged to Israel since almost the beginning of the world.
But as they say in the commercials, “But wait, there’s more!”
In chapter 15 of Genesis Abram was reminded of the promise: “To your descendants I give this land...”
And here God is more specific:
“…from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
Curious, right? The land that Yahweh is giving to Abram is already occupied!
There are people living in that land!
It already belongs to someone else!
In fact, in the preceding chapter we are told about the warring factions in the region, about how Abram’s nephew Lot is captured in battle, and how Abram launches a hostage rescue.
Captain’s Note: We’re just two chapters away from the Covenant and we learn Abram already has an army of 318 trained men!
The story of the Promised Land anticipates violence from the very beginning.
They never told us any of this in Sunday School!
But let’s move ahead. The descendants of Abram (now called Abraham) have conquered and settled in the Promised Land.
Genocide? Well, they didn’t call it that back then.
Generations pass.
During the generation of Jacob (later called Israel, from whom the nation takes its name) a famine arises in the Promised Land and the children of Israel pack up and move to Egypt, where they are forced into slavery for some 300 years.
Yahweh sends Moses to secure their release and to lead them home.
But as they approach “home” they discover that people again occupy the promised land.
God reassures them that he will “drive out the nations before you…” (Exodus 33:1-2).
Again, they didn’t call it genocide back then because, ya know, “History is written by the victors.” –(source ambiguous)
But because Israel did not march boldly into the land of promise, Yahweh forced them to wander in the wilderness for 40 years, recounted for us in the Book of Deuteronomy.
In the Book of Numbers, chapter 33, we read about their plans to again conquer the promised land. The warning from God is as follows:
“If you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those who remain shall be as barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides; they shall trouble you in the land where you are settling.”
Prescient.
Again, the biblical account says there are other people – non-Jews – living in the land now claimed by the children of Israel.
But the mighty army of Israel re-conquers the land and the people settle in.
Let’s move ahead a little more, hitting just a few of the highlights: to the time of King David, presumed by scholars to be around the 10th and 9th centuries B.C. Under David’s military prowess and leadership, the nations of Israel (to the north) and Judah (to the south) are united into a powerful theocratic monarchy centered at Jerusalem.
During the reign of David’s son, Solomon, the first Temple is built, but the unity that his father had created soon dissolves, which enables neighboring Assyria and later the Babylonians to sweep down and conquer them. During this period, select Jews are sent into exile with the hope of polluting the pure Jewish bloodlines, thus eradicating the nation of Israel.
Yes, that would be genocide.
But when Cyrus of Persia comes to the rescue (538 B.C.), the Jews are allowed to return home and build the second Temple.
Let’s fast-forward a little more, to 64 B.C. when Rome conquers Judea. The people of the land live in an uneasy tension under the harsh rule of the Romans, until 66 A.D. when a Jewish rebellion breaks out, resulting in the destruction of the second Temple in 70 A.D. The war rages on through 136 A.D. and fleeing Jews are dispersed across the landscape.
The Roman Empire eventually gives way to the Byzantine State, which is defeated in 638 A.D. by the Arab Islamic Empire.
During the Crusades (1089-1291), as Christians battle Muslims for control of the “Holy Land”, the area is divided up into four feudal polities under Roman Catholic rule.
In 1517, the Ottoman Empire conquers the region, ruling it until the British conquer it in 1917. That year the British Government drafts the Balfour Declaration, announcing support for the unprecedented establishment of “a national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine, then a largely-Ottoman region with a small minority Jewish population.
In 1947, following the Holocaust of World War II, the League of Nations follows through with the intent of the Balfour Declaration, partitioning Palestine to create a homeland for Jews. At the time there are 630,000 Jews living in the land, compared to 1.2 million Arabs. Yet the partition plan calls for more than 50% of the land to be designated for Israel.
Captain’s Note: This would be roughly akin to the government moving a homeless family into your home without your consent – limiting you to the guest bedroom, the ½ bath under the stairs, and access to only the microwave in the kitchen. How would that make you feel?
Due to the Holocaust, pro-Jewish sympathies are running high. The United Nations approves the partitioning plan, the Jewish leadership approves the plan, but the Arab people are naturally outraged.
The first of many wars to come breaks out.
Nonetheless, in 1948 David Ben-Gurion, the future prime minister, unilaterally declares the establishment of the State of Israel. The U.S. and several other nations immediately give their approval. The U.S. has continued support of Israel as a key ally in that region of the world.
But Israel has not abided by the original partition plan. It has continued to encroach upon Palestinian territory, building Jewish settlements for the growing Jewish population.
Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel has occupied Palestinian territories, and with border walls and military might and economic control has reduced the ever-shrinking Palestinian Gaza to what has been aptly described as “an open-air prison”.
While the rest of the world looks away.
And now, because Hamas has given them cause, Israel is reducing Palestinian Gaza to a dust pile.
Ms. Margulies, you and many others have claimed the goal of Hamas is to “cleanse the world of Jews”. Truth be told, both sides have at one time or another threatened “rivers of blood”.
But looking back throughout history – your own history even – which side has a reason to be angry?
Captain’s Note: For what it’s worth, the official position of Hamas is to return the Palestinian borders to the pre-1967 agreement under a two-state plan, which seems generous, all things considered.
Yes, Ms. Margulies, there is a complicated history here, one that pre-dates the Holocaust by centuries. You should perhaps read up on that.
Harkening back to the Ann Frank story, you chastise you non-Jewish friends,
“So perhaps you can understand our fear when we hear nothing. We think to ourselves: Who will hide us when they come for us? We ask ourselves: If we have to flee, where could we go?”
At the risk of offending and being called “anti-Semitic”, I would dare say you don’t have to worry about that.
Living in Manhattan, no one is coming for you.
In fact, until you wrote the letter to the editor I didn’t even know you were a Jew.
Perhaps something for you to consider.
Captain's Note: For what it's worth, when the fighting began I did reach out to a Jewish friend to ask what we (non-Jews) could do. He rightly pointed out that the little congregation of believers in our town are not under attack. He suggested donations to the Israel version of the Red Cross.
Here's something to consider as we go forward: All Palestinians are not Hamas. They should not be treated as such.
Likewise, Israel does not represent all of Judaism. It should not be treated as such.
What Israel has been doing to Palestinians is unconscionable.
Hamas’ attack on Israel – especially its civilian population – is unconscionable.
And Israel’s extreme military response not only defies International Law but violates the Jewish scriptural command of “An eye for an eye”.
All parties should be held accountable.
There. I said it.
