Jews’ right to ‘have guns’ and use them

Once upon a time four peasants got together to discuss why Jews do not hunt. One said it was because Jews do not like to kill God’s creatures. Another added that animals are defenseless and Jews will not hurt animals that cannot protect themselves. A third said that Jews do not like to follow the ways of the gentiles and that Jewish law specifically prohibits hunting for sport. Then the fourth peasant joined in with an answer that resonates with anyone who knows Jewish history. He said,” Jews don’t hunt because we don’t let them have guns.”

The recent Gaza flotilla incident is another reminder of this story’s tragic truth. The world always finds insidious ways to deprive Jews of the right to defend themselves. Even now, after the Israelis have finally gained independence and can freely exercise their right to have guns, their enemies still effectively keep them from “having guns” by delegitimizing their legitimate right to use them. Notice the way the Palestinians have managed to turn justice on its head in Gaza. No nation in the world would allow an enemy to fire rockets unimpeded into its population centers. Its first response would be to stop the arms supply. Yet when Israel imposes a naval blockade along the Gaza coast to do just that, its enemies cleverly delegitimize this legitimate act of self-defense by using it to portray the Israelis as heartless monsters who have inflicted this blockade on the defenseless, blameless Palestinians for the sole purpose of starving them to death. The truth be damned.

Why can reasonable people not see the unfairness in this? Number one, most people are not critical thinkers. They may be taught that “seeing is believing,” but perception actually works the other way around. People believe that the truth lies in whatever they are taught to see and hear as true. Hamas, Hezbollah and their Iranian handlers learned long ago that if you tell half the truth, you can get most people to believe your version of the other half.

Second, the world has been conditioned to believe that any charge leveled at Jews must be true. Two thousand years of anti-Semitic hate mongering has paved the way for this travesty.

Third, most Middle East countries want to believe the Palestinian version of the truth condemning Israel because they benefit from it at this point in time. Iran uses it to further cement her power over the Middle East. The European nations embrace it to placate their growing Islamic populations. Turkey uses it to shift her sphere of interest from Israel to Iran where she sees her future. And Hamas uses it to advance its cause and, at the same time, divert the world’s attention from its persecution of its Fatah brothers and sisters in the West Bank.

But Israel cannot afford to play this game. Her goal has to be winning the war on the ground, not the publicity war. The Holocaust taught us what appeasement begets. Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon and Gaza have taught us what acts of good faith beget — more fighting and less security. Israel cannot allow world opinion to determine its course.

Torah tells us that God gave us the commandments so that we might live by them, not die by them. God may not have been referring specifi- cally to modern Israel’s military challenge in this teaching, but its intent fits perfectly. Israel must follow God’s commandments, which require the pursuit of justice, mercy and righteousness, but never at the cost of her national life or the life of her citizens. The world may try once again to take away Israel’s guns, but it will never again take away her right to fight for her survival.

Rabbinically Speaking is published as a public service by the Jewish Press in cooperation with the Tampa Rabbinical Association which assigns the column on a rotating basis.