Lust for revenge? Hardly. Lust for revenge looks like what the Russian army did as it raped, pillaged, and burned its way to Berlin. Good reporting Sheri.
From my view point, things seem bad enough without creating more division. This is the time to put ideology aside and focus on the mission at hand; the return of the hostages and the destruction of hamass.
It's telling that so many people, driven by a political agenda, frame Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza in terms of revenge, and nobody at all frames in terms of the Torah verse: "Justice, justice shalt thou pursue." It is not mindless bloodlust or a selfish thirst for revenge that drives the effort to call to account the murderers, rapists, kidnappers and torturers of Gaza (certainly including many more persons beyond the official membership of Hamas). Failure to bring them to justice would be immoral and contrary to Jewish principles and values.
So, what is that political agenda that tries to paint the war in Gaza as un-Jewish? I suspect it's the same phenomenon we see in the United States, where if Donald Trump is for it, whatever it is, his opponents declare it immoral, un-American, and inhuman. That has long been the attitude of the Israeli opposition to Netanyahu and Likud: whatever it is Bibi and his party do or say or advocate, the opposition is categorically against it. Thus, they try to paint a war against an implacable and genocidal enemy as a shanda that makes Israel look like a vengeful and bloodthirsty bully instead of a tiny nation fighting for its survival against a transnational coalition fully committed to the annihilation of the Jewish race.
Let's remember what the world actually did to the genocidal regimes of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. It required of them unconditional surrender. No cease-fire to let their civilian populations improve their living conditions, no deal to let their governments stay in power in return for a truce: the Allies pursued justice to its ultimate end, meting out death and destruction so long as those running the evil regimes clung to any shred of power. And there was no talk of proportionality: the United States in particular suffered hardly any losses at the hands of Germany before its entry to the war, and only a few thousand casualties on December 7, 1941, across Pearl Harbor and its other bases across the Pacific. Yet the United States provided the materiel, personnel, and leadership to swing the hammer that pulverized Germany against the Soviet anvil, and it unleashed a weapon of such power that the world could scarcely believe it. Now revisionists who hate the West and want to strip it of moral standing as the savior of modernity, just as anti-Israel revisionists want to strip Israel, and Jews in general of their moral standing as adherents to an ancient code of proper human behavior.
Lust for revenge? Hardly. Lust for revenge looks like what the Russian army did as it raped, pillaged, and burned its way to Berlin. Good reporting Sheri.
Excellent, Sheri.
From my view point, things seem bad enough without creating more division. This is the time to put ideology aside and focus on the mission at hand; the return of the hostages and the destruction of hamass.
Great job, Sheri - really appreciate the work you put into reporting this
To those who would offended by choice, the “wrong” time and place are part of the game.
You're right
It's telling that so many people, driven by a political agenda, frame Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza in terms of revenge, and nobody at all frames in terms of the Torah verse: "Justice, justice shalt thou pursue." It is not mindless bloodlust or a selfish thirst for revenge that drives the effort to call to account the murderers, rapists, kidnappers and torturers of Gaza (certainly including many more persons beyond the official membership of Hamas). Failure to bring them to justice would be immoral and contrary to Jewish principles and values.
So, what is that political agenda that tries to paint the war in Gaza as un-Jewish? I suspect it's the same phenomenon we see in the United States, where if Donald Trump is for it, whatever it is, his opponents declare it immoral, un-American, and inhuman. That has long been the attitude of the Israeli opposition to Netanyahu and Likud: whatever it is Bibi and his party do or say or advocate, the opposition is categorically against it. Thus, they try to paint a war against an implacable and genocidal enemy as a shanda that makes Israel look like a vengeful and bloodthirsty bully instead of a tiny nation fighting for its survival against a transnational coalition fully committed to the annihilation of the Jewish race.
Let's remember what the world actually did to the genocidal regimes of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. It required of them unconditional surrender. No cease-fire to let their civilian populations improve their living conditions, no deal to let their governments stay in power in return for a truce: the Allies pursued justice to its ultimate end, meting out death and destruction so long as those running the evil regimes clung to any shred of power. And there was no talk of proportionality: the United States in particular suffered hardly any losses at the hands of Germany before its entry to the war, and only a few thousand casualties on December 7, 1941, across Pearl Harbor and its other bases across the Pacific. Yet the United States provided the materiel, personnel, and leadership to swing the hammer that pulverized Germany against the Soviet anvil, and it unleashed a weapon of such power that the world could scarcely believe it. Now revisionists who hate the West and want to strip it of moral standing as the savior of modernity, just as anti-Israel revisionists want to strip Israel, and Jews in general of their moral standing as adherents to an ancient code of proper human behavior.
Very well put
Point blank Sheri 🙏🏽