Hamas as an idea can be defeated, even if it never goes away - opinion

The current debate about what constitutes victory in Gaza is extremely frustrating. Too many of us are willing to leave Gaza with Hamas still standing, believing that Hamas is an “idea” and that ideas cannot be defeated.

And while Judaism teaches about the power of ideas, it also teaches that they can, in fact, be defeated when met with better and more just ideas.

We taught the world the idea of the one God yielding a single morality, requiring us to treat one another with justice and mercy. We gave the world the idea of equality before the law – and that birth or wealth does not privilege one in court. While years, months, and days have a natural corresponding cycle, we gave the world the idea of a seven-day week that has no natural astronomical parallel – and taught the world the idea of rest as an ideal.

The point is, ideas can be defeated, even if they never fully go away.

Ideas can be defeated: Hamas must be defeated like the Nazis were

Hamas needs to be defeated in the same way that the Nazis were defeated. Although Nazism still exists, the Nazis were brought to their knees, begging for an end to the war. A harsh price was paid. Trials were held. Germany was occupied and remained divided for over four decades. Today, it is one of the US’s greatest allies, as well as one of Israel’s best friends and defenders.

Japan, too, was completely defeated. It took two atomic bombs, killing approximately 200,000 people, mostly civilians, to get the Japanese to surrender. Forty years later, by the 1980s, almost every American listened to music on a Sony Walkman, wore a Casio watch, or drove a Japanese car. And all of this happened with the very same emperor sitting on the very same throne. 

Defeat of Hamas does not require that all its members be dead and buried. Many former Nazis continued to run Germany for decades after its surrender. What is required is the acknowledgment of defeat and a disconnect of the malignant ideology from the territory. 

The existence of Nazis in Argentina after the war, or in Charlottesville today, does not take away from the victory because they are not a ruling power and their ideology is no longer connected to a territory.

How we get to that image of victory is the job of the IDF and the political echelons. As a simple citizen and Zionist, I need them to speak confidently and unequivocally of that as their goal.

From a Jewish historical perspective, the Gaza war reminds me of that adage coined by Rabbi Yehoshua Weitzman, head of Yeshivat Ma’alot Yaakov: “The Eternal People do not fear a long road!” The early successes of Israel and the Zionist enterprise made it easy for us to believe that the road to redemption was linear. What we have learned in the last few years is that we really have no idea how Jewish history is supposed to unfold. We may know the destination and the final goal, but we have no clue how to get there.

Earlier this week, Jews around the world fasted on the 17th of Tammuz. The fast marks the many tragedies that occurred on that day in Jewish history, chief among them the breaching of the walls of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE. The rabbis teach that while these tragedies may have happened long ago, we shall continue to fast until we have learned the lessons behind why this happened.

The haftara we traditionally read on the fast is from the Book of Isaiah: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the Earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” This is an echo of Deuteronomy 29, in which we are told, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children, forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”

We can’t know how it will all work out, but we must have faith that it will; and until such a time, we must continue to do what we are supposed to do. 

From my vantage point, I see an Israel that is more just than anything Isaiah saw. We care far more for the minorities, widows, and orphans than Isaiah could ever have hoped. Our court systems are fair and just, while our social services are broader and more generous than the Bible ever asked.

We have more Jews living according to biblical precepts than ever before in our history. Some of our poorest citizens eat better and receive better healthcare than any former king of Israel, and it is all provided for by a national insurance program that could be described as “messianic,” were it not for the actual lack of a messiah.

Israel is truly an incredible place to live. You may come to Israel for the promise of Olam Haba (world to come) but stay for the rewards of olam hazeh (this world).

And because we are so just, and because we are doing our best to take Judaism out of the four walls of the beit midrash (house of study) and apply it to society as a whole, we deserve that those promises made in the Bible come true in our time. ■

The writer has a doctorate in Jewish philosophy and teaches in post-high-school yeshivot and misdrashot in Jerusalem.