Q&A: The Cemetery Named for Gaza
The Cemetery Named for Gaza
Question
Hello, Your Honor,
Another hard morning — online there’s an argument breaking out over whether soldiers at this time are dying in Gaza for nothing,
or whether one more tunnel, one more terrorist, means they are no longer in that category.
I’d be glad to hear your opinion on the matter.
Answer
This argument is being conducted without any relevant knowledge whatsoever. The question also isn’t binary. There’s no point to it.
Discussion on Answer
Naftul, you can’t know, but one thing is certain: when Religious Zionist soldiers fall, or soldiers from any sector, it serves the other side politically. Fewer births, fewer votes at the ballot box. What you can ask yourself, though, is whether there was another way — like flattening houses with ordinary artillery. And then slowly lifting the rubble, and from that hunting down the terrorist. The question is whether they’re sparing Gazans and as a result Jews are dying for nothing. Or whether they’re also taking into account what the world will say.
I don’t need to ask myself — I’ve got plenty of friends in Gaza who say this.
The question is whether killing a Hamas man and then resting — eternal rest, that is — is called “in vain” or not.
At least a Hamas man died, someone who could have killed lots of Jews, and he himself could have had children and grandchildren who’d do the same, so you know how many they saved. The question going forward is whether lots of soldiers are dying for nothing over one terrorist. These are matters of life and death — who am I to say? I don’t even know if there’s a person in the world who can decide matters of life and death. We’re not God, and Him I don’t understand either — what He is, who He is, why He does what He does, etc. If only it were otherwise, with God’s help.
Why don’t you ask whether taking care of your health is not a blessing in vain? In the end, we will all grow old, we will all fall ill, and we will all die. Wouldn’t it be better to direct all the enormous resources we devote to caring for our health toward other needs that would give us immediate pleasure? The same is true of dealing with terror; it may be that it will never be possible to destroy it completely and it will always grow back, but even the temporary benefit you gain from limiting its capabilities is worthwhile.
After more than two years and countless operations in Gaza that all look the same — there’s still no relevant knowledge? Like the old line that it’s still too early to sum up the French Revolution?