I don’t get it. I just don’t get it. Why can we not treat our enemies with basic human respect and decency? If an Arab terrorist wants to starve to death, why can’t Israel just honor his preference and let him starve? As we say in Yiddish: “Ya want you should starve yourself? Gei Gezunteh Heit! (Do it in good health!)” Let him starve. As the abortion-on-demand crowd croons, in their role as darlings of the Left: “Our Bodies, Our Selves.” Gei Gezunteh Heit.
He made his choice, and now the world is rid of him. Since people in Israel cannot get the government to adopt the death penalty for Arab terrorists (and the reasons for not doing so unfortunately make sense) at least let the murderers do it to themselves. Why not? It is peaceful, saves money on food, opens prison beds for newcomers on line, saves the showering water that Itamar Ben-Gvir cannot cut off without running afoul of the Attorney General (Yoetzet Mishpatit or Yoetzet Rodanit?), and reduces the prison population and recidivism.
I never have understood force-feeding Arab murderers on hunger strikes. What? The government is afraid of what Russia will say? Iran will threaten violence? Syria will complain? Hamas will go to the World Court? Biden and Blinken and Nides and Tlaib and Omar will tweet disapproval? Ben & Jerry’s will start handing out ice cream in Israeli prisons? A bunch of shrieking anti-Zionist female college students at some Woke BDS college will stop eating Sabra hummus?
Who cares? Those who hate Israel already won’t hate Israel an iota more if some Arab terrorist goes on a Middle East Weight Loss Diet to the max. And those who love Israel will celebrate Demokratyah — the buzzword of the Woke, the linguistic proxy for all that is secular, anti-religious, anti-patriotic.
I will go a step more. And please forgive me if I am missing an obvious point. If a bunch of Arab Wannabe-Terrorists choose to lock themselves inside the Golden Colander on Har HaBayit (the Temple Mount) during Ramadan, why not let them lock themselves in for as long as they like? And if that means they are locking out other Muslims who want to get in there to prey, why must Israel send in the army and create an international incident for which it will not be praised but condemned? Why not let them lock themselves in? Let Jordan beg Israel to break in to get them out, and let Israel respond that Jews have no appetite for dislodging Arabs from their house of prayer.
One day, Israel will reform its Supreme Court. The Jordan Valley will be reunited formally with the country. (Don’t use the word “annexed.” Use “reunited,” as is used for Jerusalem.) Eventually, more and more of Judea and Samaria will be reunited. It is inevitable. There now are more than 800,000 Jews in those parts of Jerusalem that came under Israeli sovereignty in 1967, and in the rest of Judea and Samaria. Those Jews comprise as much a proportion of all Israeli Jews as American Blacks comprise of America’s population.
Eventually, the Law of Return will be revised and reformed to apply only to Jews — not to Gentile refugees from Ukraine and elsewhere looking to make a quick shekel on their way to relocating in Europe, and not to Americans who get “Marilyn Monroe conversions” by reform rabbis who do not believe in G-d and who, in many cases, are not even Jewish themselves.
So, eventually, all sorts of normalcy will reign. And capital punishment will be adopted to apply not only to Eichmann but it will be possible to apply it to people who actually murder Israelis and who wait for the day they are free to murder more.
But in the meantime, small steps. If a murderer wants to starve to death, be a mentsch and let him. And even let him know we champion his cause. Every morning, bring a plate of p’tcha (jellied calves’ feet) into his cell. That will help keep him on his diet.
To receive Rav Fischer’s Weekly Extensive Torah Commentaries or to attend any or all of Rav Fischer’s weekly 60-minute live Zoom classes on the Weekly Torah Portion, the Biblical Prophets, the Mishnah, Rambam Mishneh Torah, or Advanced Judaic Texts, send an email to: [email protected]