Q&A: Is It Permissible to Kill?
Is It Permissible to Kill?
Question
Hello Rabbi,
Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, was found in 2008, while serving his sentence in prison, to have a brain tumor. He was brought to the hospital. In a complex surgery they saved his life.
Already in 2008 people saw what he was capable of and how much danger and death he could cause to the residents of Israel, all the more so if he were to be released.
From the standpoint of Jewish law and morality, let us suppose it had been possible to kill him intentionally, under the guise of a surgical failure so that no one would suspect anything, etc. Would that have been permissible? What do you think?
Answer
I didn’t understand the question. You could kill him directly. Why is a cover story needed? Maybe for political reasons, but what does that have to do with Jewish law and morality? In my opinion, these people should not be treated at all; they should be left to die, and we should even actively help that happen. Our whole treatment of terrorists is absurd.
Discussion on Answer
And according to Jewish law one should crush his skull, so what of it?
A government not run according to Torah and faith, and with a relativistic morality that works against itself, is an evolutionary failure.
I wrote what I think. What is the question?
What about the fact that according to the law, the medic who arrives at the scene is obligated to assess who is in the greatest danger of death and treat that person first?
Does it make sense that on one side there is a terrorist and on the other side a Jew, and they would give life-saving treatment to the terrorist?