MY THOUGHTS ON THE WAR
By Dolev Reuven Gilmore
Dear friends,
Expressing the knowledge and experience I have gathered in my 72 years is important to my well-being. However, since the beginning of the war, I’ve written nothing. Why? When I think about what to write in my areas of expertise – nutrition, supplements and healthy living, these things seem trivial while each of us in Israel knows someone who was murdered or kidnapped, and every family has soldiers fighting in Gaza, the North or in Yehuda and the Shomron.
Maybe after I write down my thoughts about this cursed war, I’ll be free to write professional articles. I have heard that soldiers want us civilians to continue our routine lives as much as possible, because that is what they are fighting for. Therefore, I’m sending you my thoughts about “the situation”, even though I am not at all expert in political or security matters. So, take what I write with a grain of salt.
Let’s start with an abbreviated Biblical quote:
“Shechem son of Hamor… saw her and took her and lay with her, and he defiled her… Two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, took their swords and came upon the city and slew all the males… because they had defiled their sister.”
Yes, those days are long gone, and we no longer live under the dictates of “an eye for an eye”, but still, that chapter is etched into our genes. Paraphrasing the author, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the most dangerous men are those that just wanted to be left alone – a description suiting us perfectly. While our enemies shout, “Death to the Jews”, “Death to America”, “Death to Israel”, “Death to the infidels”, meaning death to everyone who doesn’t swear their belief in their twisted concept of Allah – we Jews only want to be left alone. As Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach said, “We Jews only want peace; and not only for us, but for the whole world.”
The sons of Jacob killed all the men of Shechem’s village for defiling their sister. Ten thousand times that, we want to avenge the pure evil that exploded upon our people on October 7. I’m hoping I’m not a sociopath when I say that I couldn’t care less about the “innocent” citizens of Gaza – those who joined the killing and raping and the worst atrocities that were ever imagined – not them, not the Gazans who danced and celebrated, not their children raised on Jew hatred, not their women who pray that their children will die while murdering Jews. As far as I’m concerned, we must kill them with no mercy, and we are forbidden to sacrifice our soldiers (our sons), so that we can appear nice in the eyes of the world.
Of course, there is a problem with killing all Gazans without distinction because I’m sure there are hundreds of thousands who hate Hamas, want peace and to return to work in Israel. I don’t blame them for not speaking out, because that would be like suicide. Our leaders face a moral dilemma with no solution, but the question remains: how many of our soldiers are we willing to sacrifice by not destroying all of Gaza from the air – men, women, and children – in order not to kill those who are truly innocent?
A woman once asked me if I think that God loves Jewish/Israeli children more than Arab children. Probably not, I said, but that’s not the real question. The correct question is how many Arab children would you be willing to kill in order to save one of yours. “All of them”, she said.
Actually, our leaders are partially free from the moral question of innocent Gazan civilians, because indiscriminate bombings would kill our kidnapped civilians, although I’m not sure that many of them have not already been murdered or will die during attempts by our ground forces to free them.
We are very sensitive to our captive/kidnapped soldiers and citizens. In the past we freed 1,027 prisoners, including 280 with life sentences for murders, in order to return one Gilad Shalit to his parents. Was it worth it? Ask the families of Baruch Mizrachi, Gilad Shaar, Naftali Frenkel, Ayal Yifrach, Dani Ganon, Mordecai Rosenfeld, Rav Michael Merk, Sergeant Yosef Cohen, Yuval Mor Yosef, and Amiad Yisrael Ish-Ran. They were killed by the freed criminals only as of mid-2021, and we don’t know how many were involved in the attacks in the name of Allah on October 7 or how many soldiers were killed by them in the current war.
I’ll risk telling you my opinion of the Shalit deal, but first I’ll remind you that I’m the father of Esh Kodesh Gilmore, הי"ד. The parents of Gilad Shalit did the right thing, stirring up the whole society to demand the deal. On the other hand, a true leader of the nation should have said to them, “I’m so sorry, but I cannot agree to this deal.” The writing was on the wall in huge, red letters.
Today, of course, we are talking about far more than one kidnapped citizen, and no Jew would be able to command the Israeli Defense Forces to erase Gaza from the air, on top of the kidnapped. However, I can’t help thinking that a robotic calculator, lacking feelings, seeing only the best path towards the future of Israel, and saving many more lives of our soldiers than the number of the kidnapped, would have concluded differently. Simple mathematics.
May Hashem guard our soldiers and citizens, help us conquer our enemies, change the Middle East for the better, and bring peace.
It’s difficult to find joy these days, but one positive should be recognized: the rise of love and unity pouring forth among the people of Israel.
NEVER AGAIN!
