The terror group that pioneered the concept of the suicide bomber and is hell-bent on killing Jews and destroying Israel is now forming a government within twenty miles of Israel’s major population centers. This is bad news for Israel. Anyone who has studied Hamas literature and understands their ideology will not only be very worried but completely horrified.
Those who say that this is a blessing in disguise fail to understand and grossly underestimate the evil nature of this group and the extent of its hate and contempt for Israel and Jews. Let us be clear: Hamas are to be equated with the Nazi party of pre-WWII Germany, and there is no silver lining in their coming to power. The burning question is: how could the Israelis have been so foolish and not seen this disaster coming? How could people like Yitzchak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Ariel Sharon–who loved Israel and fought for it – have been so myopic?
This is not the first time we Jews have been duped into believing the lies of our enemies who wish to destroy us. In the first chapter of Exodus, we read how Pharaoh convened his cabinet and said, "Come, let us deal wisely with them." The Midrash explains that initially Pharaoh was kind to the Jews and worked together with them in order to gain their trust. However very shortly afterwards the Egyptians began their brutal oppression.1
This was the Nazi approach as well. They would often tell the Jews that they were being relocated to better places where there was more work, but instead they loaded them onto trains to be murdered in gas chambers. There’s the famous and tragic story of the Jews of Riga who on December 8, 1941 were told that they were going for a picnic and instead were shot, all 28,000 of them, in the forest on the outskirts of town. Sixty years after the holocaust, we Jews should know better.
When are we ever going to learn our lesson? We may not trust those who have stated their intentions to kill us–not in the past, not now, not ever. So why do we fall for our enemies’ evil tricks time and time again?
The answer is that our greatest virtues are also our supreme failings. The Midrash 2 says that the Jewish people are, by nature, endowed with the traits of mercy, bashfulness, and charity. Jews are not killers; murder goes against the grain for a Jew. It is therefore hard for us to comprehend that there are others who are merciless and get joy out of murder. Innately, and mistakenly, we refuse to see that we are being tricked, preferring to believe that the other people want peace and are merciful like us.
This is where the Torah comes to protect us. To counter-balance our innate weakness to be merciful even to our sworn enemies, Jewish law states that if a Jewish city which is close to the border or coast is surrounded by gentiles whose stated intent is only to rob "straw and stubble" and not to kill, we must desecrate the Shabbat to defend the city against them. Failure to do so may result in the city being captured, and from there it will be easy for them to conquer the land.3 The law–however extreme it may appear at first sight–is unequivocal: we may not countenance even the slightest possibility that our enemies will feel confident about conquering our land. If this is so with regard to antagonists who claim that they do not have murderous intent, how much more so when their murderous intention has been plainly stated and openly and brutally carried out timeand time again.
The Torah was given to us by God to protect us both materially and spiritually, and ignoring its teachings causes ourselves damage on both these levels. The Torah categorically prohibits even the slightest compromise on Jewish security and safety, and the so-called "peace process" and the disengagement has done just that. Ignoring the Torah’s advice has had the catastrophic consequence of bringing a terrorist entity bent on killing our bothers and sisters on to our doorstep. When will we ever learn our lesson?
FOOTNOTES 1. Exodus 1:10; Midrash Tanchuma, ibid. 2. Bamidbar Rabbah 8. 3. Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 329.