“We are regarded as sheep led to the slaughter, to be killed, destroyed, beaten and humiliated” (Shacharit prayers, Monday and Thursday “Tachanun”)
The news has been filled with the Goldstone report and its repercussions.
Operation Cast Lead, in January, 2009, was a successful IDF operation against the Arab terrorists of Gaza. It was followed by the usual reaction: world condemnation of the operation as an atrocity and war crime. No Jewish military action, from Deir Yassin before the founding of the Jewish state to the Cast Lead Operation last year, has escaped the primary rule of war, a canard that says that if the Jews won, it must have been an atrocity.
It’s not only the military, which is in essence all our citizenry as the IDF is a citizen’s army, which suffers from these murderous libels. Any Israeli who rides the roads of Yehuda and Shomron has been no stranger to danger for
The primary rule of war is a canard that says that if the Jews won, it must have been an atrocity.
years. The Chamal (i.e.War Planning Room, actually an IDF abbreviation, but eminently suitable) which is responsible for security here in Beit El, confirms that there has been an upsurge in rock-throwing ever since numerous roadblocks were removed by Ehud Barak, Minister of Defense, at the urging of the Obama administration.
Just last Friday, a father drove here from the nearby town of Eli with his 4 year old who had fallen at home and had a chin laceration. I sewed it closed, and they made it home just before sunset, but not before they got “rocked” at the Arab village of Cinjil, just south of Shilo. Luckily, no one was hurt.
Our Rabbis had their say about Jews defending themselves in time of war, despite the international and governmental efforts to weaken our ability to defend ourselves and be "as sheep led to the slaughter" in our own country.
“And Pharoah took 600 select chariots and the chariots remaining in Egypt” (Exodus 14, 7). Rashi asks: “ If all the animals in Egypt died in the plagues, where did Pharoah get these horses?” He answers: “These were the animals of those Egyptians who feared the word of the Almighty (Rashi Exodus 9,10) and had sheltered their animals during the Plagues. This caused Rabbi Shimon used to say: ‘Even the best of the Egyptians should be killed, and the best of snakes should have its brains crushed; the best of the Kutim (gentile tribe) should be killed.’
The Gur Aryeh comments on this Rashi: “Our Rabbis never intended for us to kill ‘kosher’ gentiles. Rabbi Shimon’s statement referred to a state of war. If non Jews attack you in war, and fall into your hands, have no mercy on them (Deut. 20,3 ). Kill them, for they would have no mercy on you. However, to non Jews who have dealt well with you, you are to do no evil. For example, regarding the Egyptians who enslaved and murdered the Jews, the Torah commands not to hate them( Deut. 23,8). Egypt did, at least, provide them with a place to live for 210 years. If it is the law to do good with those who have done good to us; how much more so to whole nations who have protected us from our enemies.”
Thus it says in Samuel (15,6): ‘And King Saul said to the Keini tribe: Go, lest you be harmed; remove yourselves from near (the battlefield against) the Amalekites, for you showed kindness to the Children of Israel when they left Egypt’.
“With regard to what Rabbi Shimon said about snakes, even though no snakes are mentioned here in the Bible, Rabbi Shimon deduces a comparative analogy (kal vachomer) from the gentiles. That is, that despite the fact that some greater good may come from a non Jew [ish enemy soldier], for he might convert to Judaism, and so I might argue to spare his life- the Divine command is to kill the enemy warrior, for by attacking you, he reveals his visceral hatred for the Jewish people. It follows that one must kill the snake as well, for since creation, the Lord has implanted a visceral hatred for man in the snake. Make no peace with the snake, for thereby you violate the Lord’s statement ‘and I shall place hatred between you and the snake’”.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe discusses whether this comment of Rashi and Gur Aryeh could serve as a lesson for history. Maybe, reasoned the Rebbe, if G-d hardened the hearts of Pharoah and the Egyptians, maybe they were not fully responsible for their actions. Their hatred was not a natural one, and therefore they could not serve as a lesson for other wars and other anti-Semites. Even the Egyptians who “feared the Lord” enough to remove their animals from the dangerous, plague-filled fields, still harbored enough Jew-hatred to happily give their horses to Pharoah to reach the Red Sea for the anticipated “Final Solution”. Since Hashem "hardened their hearts" (Exodus,14,8) they cannot serve as a precedent.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe concludes that all the above is true, but since Rabbi Shimon mentioned snakes, saying :“The best of snakes should have its brains crushed”, it follows that “ a snake, with a proven history of hatred for Jews- should be treated in exactly the same way as the Egyptians: total annihilation”.
The Gur Aryeh alluded to the Keinites of King Saul’s time . These were none other than the descendants of Yitro (Jethro). Unlike the snakelike, anti-Semitic Amalekites, Yitro was also called Reuel, meaning “a friend of G-d” (Shmot Rabba 27:1,7 and Mechilta). This searcher for truth, who had sampled all the world’s religions, stopped searching when he found the One G-d, who cared for people. Yitro and his descendants entered a millennia-long loving relationship with the Nation of Israel, and so were treated in kind. The story of Yonadav ben Rechav in the time of King Yehu is an example of this relationship (Jeremiah 35and Kings 2, 10-11, see note below).
Another treatment of the issue of Jewish defense is by the Ohr Hachayim, in his lengthy discussion concluding that Shimon and Levi were justified in wiping out the males of the city of Shechem for violating their sister Dina (the females and children were taken captive; Genesis 34, 25).The Shechemite men fought Shimon and Levi in defense of their king and prince, and “without killing these others, Shimon and Levi could not have wreaked vengeance from those who were guilty of capital crimes”. The Ohr Hachayim then mentions his main argument: Gentiles have only seven Noachide laws, for whose trespass they are liable to the death penalty. One of these commandments is the prohibition of theft and kidnapping. In the case of Dina, all the citizenry of Shechem were accomplices in the theft, as they aided, abetted and defended the kidnappers.
This is where we cross paths with Goldstone, Gaza and Cast Lead. Gaza has a citizenry that elected the Hamas party, who kidnapped another Jew- not Dina, but Gilad Shalit. By the standards of the Ohr Hachayim and the Gur 
Kidnappers and those who aid, abet and defend them are not entitled to mercy. 
Aryeh, the kidnappers and those who aid, abet and defend them are not entitled to mercy.
Moreover, we have the missiles shot from Gaza, the beach-bombs, the attacks on Karni, and the indoctrination of an entire populace with the legitimacy of the plan to annihilate Israel. When Israel defends itself and IDF warfare before the world, the absolute justice of our actions must be borne in mind. The non Jewish world will not accept Jewish legal arguments, but we Jews must be totally convinced of the righteousness of our actions (and that’s without taking into account the extraordinary measures the IDF took to minimize civilian casualties).
Finally, we come to the Arab rock-throwers. Jews have been maimed and killed by rocks (including young Amitai Kapach of Beit El, hy’d, who slammed into a cliff at the side of the road after a stone smashed his front windshield). I’ve had my windshield spider-webbed three times, despite thick windshields and fiberglass windows.
As an aside that strengthens the point, readers may not know that fiberglass deteriorates with time, and eventually the car windows turn translucent. The government used to provide new fiberglass window protection when a car would fail its annual mandatory safety test. Last week my 19 year-old “ Aliya car”, which has been driven by my daughter for the last five years, failed the test abysmally, as its windows are practically opaque. The Department of Auto Licensing authorized new windows, but they are paid for by the Department of Defense which has not authorized any funding for this purpose .
This is the policy of our illustrious Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak. Ultimate responsibility for this, of course, rests with the Prime Minister, who invited Barak into the government.
So-from Goldstone condemnation to government non compensation, the Jewish people finds itself without a “true friend” like Yitro and without the courageous,caring leadership of Moses.
(Note: Those interested in pursuing the subject of Yonadav ben Rechav are referred to Rav Matis Weinberg, Frameworks pages 13-147, where he also brings that the "gematria-note" for the verses, 72, of Parshat Yitro, are Yonadav [ben Rechav], leader of the Keini tribe)