Days Between the Straits

Thursday, July 27, 2006

The news wasn’t good today. This has been (by Israel’s standards) are very difficult and protracted war. Hezbollah has proven to be a disciplined, well-equipped and tenacious foe. Losing scores of fighters (who become instant martyrs) doesn’t seem to faze them and merely standing up to Israel’s vastly superior military might is seen throughout the Arab world as a major victory.

This is no conventional war. We are not fighting a regular army on the battlefield. Hezbollah fights a guerilla war and has tactically strikes from within civilian population centers. The result is that any Israeli operation against Hezbollah strongholds results in more civilian than terrorist casualties. This is precisely Hezbollah’s modus operandi…the more fighters they lose, the more civilians die, giving them a propaganda edge. And this tactic works. The world continues to decry Israel’s disproportional response when, in fact, Israel more than any military force in history has gone out of its way to minimize non-combatant casualties. So, who is to blame for the disproportional number of civilian dead and wounded, Israel or Hezbollah?

Unfortunately, logic does not make headlines. Thus Israel continues to be vilified for finally standing up to Hezbollah and unilaterally assuming responsibility for implementing Security Council Resolution 1559. Adding insult to injury the United Nations Secretary General himself spreads the calumny that Israel knowingly targeted UNIFIL troops and, while accepting Prime Minister Olmert’s apology for the deaths and promise to launch a full-scale investigation there has been no reciprocal apology from Kofi Anan for his libelous remarks.

The main headlines in the papers today are about the continued fighting in Bint Jbail. Yesterday’s banner read: “IDF takes Bint Jbail, kills top Hizbollah leader.” Today’s headline gives a very different story: “8 soldiers killed in Battle of Bint Jbail.” The IDF action against Hezbollah’s terrorist stronghold has not provided the symbolic victory that would crush Hezbollah’s spirit as promised. On the contrary, Hezbollah resistance in Bint Jbail is proving to be another propaganda coup for the terrorists and their Iranian sponsors.

No, the news has not been good today but that is the nature of war. This country is on a roller coaster of emotions rising with confidence in victory one moment only to plunge into concern and despair the next as we learn of the deaths of our soldiers, our sons. I say “our sons” because that is what it feels like here; the men and women of the IDF are our children and we cherish them. That is why Israel responds to casualties in ways that are unique to the Israeli ethos.

Just today, reading about the battles in Bint Jbail, I came across an article on the evacuation of the wounded to Israeli base hospitals. Arriving at the hospitals many of the soldiers were met by their mothers who rushed to the side of their wounded sons. I wonder in what other country in the world would you find that happening? And as for our fallen, they are not our martyrs and we do not rejoice in their elevation to Paradise—they are heroes, but they are our sons and our future who have sacrificed themselves for our survival; not our aggrandizement but our survival.

Jerusalem Post journalist Matthew Wagner wrote in today’s edition that the fighting in the North has taken place during the three-week period between the 17th of Tammuz and the 9th of Av. In ancient times this was the period between the time that the Babylonians first breached the walls of the Holy City and the Destruction of Jerusalem’s holy Temple in 586 B.C.E. In Jewish history, the 9th of Av is a vortex of woe commemorating countless tragedies that have befallen the Jewish people throughout history specifically during this time. This period—called by the rabbis Bein Hameitzarim (between the straits)—witnessed the destruction of both the First and Second Temples (the latter at the hands of the Romans in the year 70 C.E.), the Edict of Expulsion from Spain, the elimination of the Warsaw Ghetto and many more events that have tried and tested our people throughout history. As Wagner notes that, “Many Jews cannot help noticing the timing of the warfare in the North, which has fallen smack in the middle of Bein Hameitzarim.” That is true, but next week is Tisha B’Av, the 9th of Av, which ends this period and begins the Seven Weeks of Comfort in which we read portions from the Prophets expressing hope and our closeness to God.

We did not ask for this war. We did not start it. Contrary to the rantings of Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah we did not chose the timing. But, neither do we shrink from the task or cower in the face of our enemy. The news may not be good today, but our resolve is as strong as ever. Our forces demonstrate incredible courage on the battlefield and the home front remains united and resolute.

Though you may hear negativity and harsh criticism of Israel today and tomorrow, please do not lose faith. I firmly believe that what we are doing is right— all the while cognizant of the many innocents on both sides who are victims of this war—but right. We are fighting to bring peace while Hezbollah, by its own admission seeks our destruction. Maybe this period Bein Hameitzarim is auspicious, not because it chronicles our frailty, on the contrary, because it reminds us that time and again we Jews have faced those who have sought to destroy us and we have survived and more, we have thrived. So too, at this moment, we are about survival and a vision of a thriving Middle East nourished by peace and prosperity victorious over forces of death and destruction.

In the celebratory Psalms of the Hallel, we read:

In my straits (Meitzar) I called upon the Eternal One;
God answered me and set me free.
Adonai is with me;
I shall not be afraid.

I repeat those words not out of jingoistic hubris suggesting that God is only on Israel’s side. On the contrary, keeping God in these events brings responsibility to make sure that we prosecute this war as morally as the immorality of war allows. But, I quote the Hallel because I believe that the psalmist brings us this message: with faith we can be set free from the straits of this war and turn the lamentations of the mothers of the fallen soldiers into joyous psalms of thanksgiving for our survival and victory.

Shalom from Jerusalem.