Jewish violence against Jews cannot be overlooked or condoned.

It’s time to talk about Jewish violence against Jews.  This blog may make me unpopular with some readers.  I’ve decided that as a person with a public readership, I have a responsibility to speak out against this phenomenon, which should be condemned.  Those who justify it—I’m not even talking about those who do it—are wrong.  They are contributing to the destruction of the Jewish community in Eretz Yisrael in a way that nothing else does.
I am very well aware that the authorities of the State of Israel use deliberate, premeditated violence against their political opponents

I am very well aware that the authorities of the State of Israel use deliberate, premeditated violence against their political opponents, and even consider it justified.  They said as much to the Parliamentary committee that investigated the pogrom at Amona.  I am aware that a man with a large public following and many admirers, Ami Ayalon of Labor, goes around the country singing the praises of civil war.  I heard him with my own ears.  I consider it a better than even chance that if we ever get to the point of a conflict over the destruction of Migron, Jews in the uniform of the Israeli state will open fire on other Jews at the order of their superiors.  They will think those orders justify what they do.  (How did he say it in German?  “Ich befehlen waren,” I obeyed orders).  Jews will be wounded, possibly killed, by that fire.  And yet I say that in present circumstances violence against Jews is immoral, even in self-defense.

How the internecine fighting that characterized the Second Temple period began is not recorded.  We only know how it ended.  But it was undoubtedly a product of escalation.  The people were politically divided, then as now.  One faction, perhaps the Tzedukim (Sadducees), possessed political power and were probably not above using force to reinforce it.  That will have produced a reaction—maybe throwing stones at first, who knows.  But stones led to knives and knives to swords and set-piece battles and the rest is recorded in the kinot of the Ninth of Av.
And yet I say that in present circumstances violence against Jews is immoral, even in self-defense

Chazal permit one to use deadly, even preemptive force against someone coming to kill you:  Haba laharogcha, hashkem vehorgo.  The words refer to a private conflict between individuals.  But I’m not trying to pretend to be a Halachic authority here, which I’m not.  I say that when violence is used and returned and escalated, then we are in a civil war, and civil war will finish not only us, not only our political opponents, but the entire Jewish community in Eretz Yisrael.  Therefore I think it is incumbent on us never to use violence against another Jew in a political context, even in self-defense.  Many of us are willing to give our lives in an IDF uniform for the welfare of the Jewish people.  I view this form of mesirut nefesh—not to harm Jews, whatever the provocation—in exactly the same way.  If preserving the welfare of the Jewish people requires self-sacrifice, so be it.

I personally think that nothing will hasten the demise of the current Israeli political establishment as the political fallout resulting from the unilateral use of deadly force against its domestic opponents.  If you ask me what the “solution” is, I think it lies in that direction.  But that is not an adequate reason either to eschew or to embrace violence.  Fundamental moral issues are involved.  One would have to be a wicked fool to look forward to or desire the political “profit” a unilateral slaughter of faith-based Jews would produce.  And one would have to be an equally wicked fool to desire, in present circumstances, to return the government’s violent provocations tit for tat.  The other side having abandoned wisdom, the burden of taking care for the Jewish people’s future falls on us alone.  That’s just the way it is.
when violence is used and returned and escalated, then we are in a civil war, and civil war will finish not only us, not only our political opponents, but the entire Jewish community in Eretz Yisrael

I therefore condemn unreservedly the wicked fools who placed a pipe bomb in the home of the vicious Jew-baiting Jew Ze’ev Sternhell.  They have no right to pass sentence of death on any Jew, far less on those innocent Jews who might die as a result of escalating violence.  Though I understand the frustration of the Jews of Yitzhar, I unreservedly disapprove of their throwing stones at IDF soldiers in Yosh.  One of those stoned was a grandson of Rav Kapach, ZT”L, and a former student at the yeshiva in Maale Adumim, none of whom will ever participate in an expulsion though it cost them their livelihoods and liberty.

My teenage daughters made clear to me that if Migron is to be destroyed they intend to go.  They are bold and fearless and I doubt I could prevent them if I tried.  I told them what I feared would happen.  My youngest daughter, just 14, looked me in the eyes and asked me, “and if so, are you telling me not to resist violence with violence?”  “Yes,” I said.  She held my gaze, and then nodded.  “But in any case I will be with you,” I ended.