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Jewish peace
Q: In the wake of Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's dismissal as chief commander of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Congress is evaluating our policy and presence there. Is it time for the U.S. to get out of Afghanistan? Do we have a moral responsibility to stay or to leave?
This week Jews around the world began the three-week mourning period commemorating the fall of Jerusalem and destruction of the Temple on Mount Moriah. This period will end on the ninth day of the lunar month of Av, the day the Temple actually burned, which is considered the saddest day on the Jewish calendar. While destroying the second Temple (in the year 68 c.e. according to Jewish sources) Roman invaders murdered at least one million Jews and captured 100,000 as slaves.
I mention this terrible part of Jewish history as a dramatic counter-example to war and empire. The mission of allied forces in Afghanistan is not to murder, destroy and enslave an entire population but to rout out a small but violent enemy and to allow the Afghani people to build a viable, autonomous state. The destruction of the Temple offers the modern world a warning from the history of Roman oppression.
From Jewish law and morality we learn there are two types of war; milchemet mitzvah and milchemet ha reshut, namely wars we must fight and wars we choose to fight. Foremost and always, the Jewish people must repel any assault on the Jews in or beyond the Land of Israel. For those of us who support the modern Jewish State this is no less true today than in the time of the Maccabies who fought off the Greeks and that of the Jews who defended Jerusalem from the Romans.
Mlichemet ha reshut, an unforced or voluntary war, must be approved by the highest court, the Sanhedrin, when proposed by a ruler who must give a compelling reason, a stated goal and a plan of action. In an amazing precedent to our country's founding principles and the current situation of foreign engagements, Judaism seems to counsel the strictest process of implementing war policy and avoiding the rush to call any military action a just exercise.
This is extraordinarily difficult in practice, whether in Afghanistan, Iraq or Gaza where terrorists hide among their own people while consciously targeting civilians. Nonetheless we should demand of America and Israel the highest standards as modern democracies rooted in the Judeo-Christian value system. Maimonides in chapter six of Laws of Kings even counsels that an army laying siege to a city should only fight on three flanks, leaving room for civilians and soldiers to retreat from battle. We have to give our sworn enemies a chance to surrender and choose peace.
Many people know the word for peace in Hebrew is "Shalom" which is also used in greetings and departures. The consonant root of this word; [Sh L M], is also found in the term for "complete," shalem. Thus, Jewish history, ethics and the Hebrew language tell us that peace is a complete state, and we must achieve no less in Afghanistan. While the Allied Nations fight this war on enemy territory we must constantly remember that the alternative is war within our own borders as we sadly witnessed on 9/11. Only a complete victory will assure us the safety we deserve.
By
Shmully Hecht
|
July 1, 2010; 11:55 AM ET
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Posted by: farnaz_mansouri2 | July 7, 2010 3:13 AM
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"...the Jewish people must repel any assault on the Jews in or beyond the Land of Israel."
So, because Abraham's warmongering spawn can not play well together, the "beyond the Land of Israel" part explains why Jews have been and will continue to be eternally at war.
Posted by: areyousaying | July 5, 2010 11:14 AM
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... Credit to "JJ" . . . . . . . http://onwapo.com
Posted by: good-bad-n-ugly | July 3, 2010 10:56 PM
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Real peace will come when people Love one another, and it won't come through revenge, as sweet as it is. First lesson, Peace=Love, hatred=violence, second lesson same as the first, no other way, none, simple, not easy, but has to be. Work it out!
Posted by: tony55398 | July 3, 2010 3:25 PM
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Given the American populace's short attention span and shortsightedness I think we should never take on such tasks as nation building. I am not sure there is any nation that has really successfully and intentionally build another nation, in the entire history of human kind. It may have been an unintended byproduct, but never an intentional objective that has been achieved ever. The citizenry of any country is never patient to achieve that kind of objectives as it generally takes huge amount of financial, human, and emotional investment on part of th builder nation. This may exist in the beginning of the endeavor, but never is that willingness sustainable in the long run. Additionally nation building also needs the cooperation of the nation being built. By definition a significant fraction of the nation will defiant and hostile. The motives of the cooperating will have to be suspect. Adding to thes obstacles, there is always the cooperating quislings are generally corrupt, without any base fallowing amongst their own - Case in point Karzai.
To all those wingnuts on the right, Bush was never really committed to nation building, that claim was one of the shifting sands of objectives to going into Iraq, & Afghanistan.
Best recourse for us now is to declare victory and leave the place, along the way find a way to dis arm Pakistan nuclearly speaking and just ostracize those two countries for the next 50 years till they build their own nations. They never were nations, at best they failed states.
Posted by: Secular | July 2, 2010 9:14 AM
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The irony of a Jew that supports the insanity of Zionist Israel speaking of peace and morality of war is lost on this one! Until the Zionists achieve a just peace (never?); no Jew should even approach the notion of peace and/or a just war!
Posted by: CHAOTICIAN101 | July 1, 2010 3:06 PM
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The comments to this entry are closed.
"...the Jewish people must repel any assault on the Jews in or beyond the Land of Israel."
So, because Abraham's warmongering spawn can not play well together, the "beyond the Land of Israel" part explains why Jews have been and will continue to be eternally at war.
Posted by: areyousaying
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Also Sprache Martin Luther, which his psycho crew continues to genocide humanity.