More on the Lebanese Prisoner Exchange

Please read my previous entry first. It includes important background on this subject.

I ended my previous post by asking whether Rabbi Daniel Gordis was being unduly pessimistic when he wrote, recently, that peace between Israel and its enemies won't be possible in the forseeable future. That was somewhat a rhetorical question. Here is my partial answer:

When Bill Clinton and Ehud Barak offered Yassir Arafat a Palestinian state on a silver platter, I was amazed that he turned it down. When Arafat died, I hoped that whoever succeeded him would be a better partner for peace. At first it seemed that Mahmoud Abbas might be such a partner, but whatever his intentions, the ongoing strife between Hamas and his Fatah faction show that he isn’t in control of the situation on the ground. The continued rocket attacks on Israel’s coastal towns and the recent terror attacks in Jerusalem, by Arabs driving construction equipment, suggest that much of the Palestinian population still wants war rather than peace.

Many generations of Jews have been inspired and guided by Pirke Avot, the Mishnah tractate commonly called "The Ethics of Our Ancestors". Some of its most compelling teachings are those of Rabbi Hillel (circa 60 BCE - 20 CE). The first of these begins "Be like the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace…” (Avot 1:12) But what if it’s not possible to make peace?

In 2001, one rabbi that I know, a long-time dove, was visibly heartbroken after seeing Palestinians on TV, rejoicing in the streets after the World Trade Center was destroyed. He concluded reluctantly that “There are some people that you just can’t make peace with.” If he's correct, how should we think about the State of Israel and what should we do for Israel?

First, we should remember, as Herb Keinon wrote in the Jerusalem Post on the day after the Lebanese prisoner exchange, that no other country in the world would have made such a deal. It illustrates to the world the difference in morality between Israel and its enemies.

Second we should continue to be advocates for Israel to our political leaders and to our non-Jewish neighbors. It’s the least we can do as we enjoy our relative comfort and security, far from Israel’s ongoing wars and daily concerns about potential violence.

Third, we should make an effort to travel to Israel, as I am doing very belatedly, to give her our physical support. More than our financial contributions, we need to show our fellow Jews in Israel that we’re with them in body as well as in spirit.

In about a week, I'll begin and educational tour of Israel with some of my fellow seminary students, some of whom are already in Israel. One of them, Irwin Huberman, spiritual leader of the Conservative synagogue in Glen Cove, NY (Long Island), whose "letter" to his Zaidie I quoted in my 3rd blog entry below, witnessed Israel’s mourning for Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev first hand. He wrote to us that “The rabbis, politicians and military leaders who spoke at the funerals talked about Israel’s iron will to carry on…that [Israel] is not a country of victims but rather a nation of victors.” He says that in addition to expressing their outrage, they apologized to the two dead soldiers “for not coming to their rescue sooner.”

This Shabbat, when it’s time to recite the mourner's Kaddish, I'll be inviting congregants to rise and join me in praying for Ehud and Eldad, with the hope that future generations of Israelis will somehow manage to live in peace in the holy land which they fought to defend.