The unyielding cost of Israel's right to self-defense - opinion

At a time when the very survival of our nation hangs in the balance, you’d think that the consideration of how we are viewed by the nations of the world would be the last thing on our minds. Apparently, it isn’t.

Somehow, we are still obsessed with how others perceive us, to the point of asking ourselves if the targeted assassinations of our greatest enemies were worth our being marked as a pariah, earning us the most reviled title on the planet.

Ever since the death of Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammed Deif, and Hezbollah senior commander Fuad Shukr, Israel has had to live with the looming threat of harsh reprisals. We wonder if “tonight” would be the big showdown, when we finally are forced to deal with deadly weapons rather than the taunting intimidation of bluster that has accompanied us even prior to the October 7 massacre, but which has intensified since then.

In his article “Jewish extremism threatening Israel,” (Jerusalem Post, August 9), Rabbi Kenneth Brander wrote, “That is where we remain today, asking ourselves when the attack will come and how bad it will be? Will we suffer more unspeakable loss and lasting trauma?” In yet another article, “Superpower Fatigue,” Ruth Wasserman Lande expressed the worry that “a long list of countries are watching us with a very, very critical eye” (Jerusalem Post, August 9).

Sadly, this is the exorbitant price being paid by Israel for the right to defend her land and her people from the existential threat, manifested by the brutal October 7 massacre, in which an invasion took place on Israel’s sovereign territory, followed by constant rocket attacks, necessitating the evacuation and displacement of tens of thousands from our country’s northern and southern borders. 

But all of that is a side issue to the stringent demands constantly being placed upon our military, which is obligated, well beyond others, to follow the letter of the law when it comes to the rules of engagement of war. Welcome to the world of improbable expectations, where collateral deaths are forbidden and where surgical operations are demanded in order to ensure our high moral standards are impeccably observed.

No benefit of the doubt will be afforded to Jewish soldiers who are deployed to save the homeland. On the contrary, they will be expected to reconstruct every move, every order, and every bullet, in order to exonerate themselves should a Palestinian die as a result of the purposeful or accidental acts of their own terrorist fighters.

Even after a comprehensive dissection of the events has taken place, leaving no room for doubt who the perpetrators were, it won’t necessarily make a bit of difference to those whose agenda is to cast guilt on us.

IT SEEMS obvious, but second-guessing our defensive actions is not only a waste of time, but a complete exercise in futility. When you are hated and reviled, based upon your ethnicity – the equivalent of the scarlet letter to our enemies – you can exercise the greatest caution and care, even placing yourself at a tremendous disadvantage to avoid blame, but it will almost always be to no avail.

Take, for example, the repeated libel characterizing us as a nation committing genocide against innocent Gazans by starving them to death. It was the constantly echoed mantra heard from college campuses to the halls of international courts, declaring that Israel was deliberately preventing humanitarian aid from entering the areas where the Gazan people were concentrated.

It wasn’t until photos were made available and aired on Israeli television, showing saturated marketplaces with enough food to feed a few populations, that those accusations subsided. Nor was it disclosed, until it could no longer be kept a well-hidden secret, that Hamas members were seizing many of the trucks carrying tons of food and other supplies earmarked for residents. The supplies were only released to Gazans once they forked over hard cash to Hamas, as they continued to extort their own people over whom the world wept.

Hamas exploiting Palestinians

The lengths to which Hamas terrorists have exploited Palestinians for the sake of useful public relations was unconscionable, yet trivial and inconsequential to dishonest media and agenda-driven activists who desperately needed to paint Israel as the consummate villain in this war, where lying social media posts never die. 

Rabbi Brander says that we need to do better as a society by “developing the tools and mindset needed to live with the differences and challenges in Israeli society, such as respect for others… as well as Muslim and Arab citizens, strengthening each person’s or community’s individual identity.” 

It’s great advice and works well when everyone engages in that kind of needed tolerance, but so long as much of the world is vested in seeing us through the prism of evil players who must be eliminated, we should not be unduly preoccupied with winning the gold for being the world’s best neighbors, because we already are.

No other country is committed to feeding the same people who danced in the street following the massacre of our citizens. No other country would free 1,000 prisoners in order to secure the freedom of just one hostage. No other country would take in wounded terrorists and give them needed medical treatment to save their lives so that they can, one day, participate in a massacre of Israelis.

Yes, Israel is far from perfect, but it’s head and shoulders above all others who stand in judgment of us while turning a blind eye to despicable nations that commit atrocities on their own people and deny basic rights and freedoms to their populations. 

Although slavery, human trafficking, and exploitation of minorities and children are rife in so many countries, and well known to agencies such as the UN and the Hague, condemnation is reserved for Israel.

So why engage in second-guessing since it won’t change anything? Israel has an obligation, first and foremost, to its citizens and residents, just as any other civilized nation. It has the further responsibility of acting within the moral framework of its high ethics and values. We take great pains to do that.

Consequently, there should be no price too great to continue to defend ourselves – whether or not it is acknowledged as being within our right to do so – and do it justly. 

The writer is a former Jerusalem elementary and middle school principal. She is also the author of Mistake-Proof Parenting, available on Amazon, based on the time-tested wisdom found in the Book of Proverbs.