The New World Order: Might Makes Right

By Shlomo Maital  

      Each week, I have a precious privilege, to speak with our Rabbi, preparing our podcast on the weekly Torah reading, both in English and in Hebrew. I get to pepper him with really hard, moral questions, in light of the Hamas massacre of October 7.  Lately, I have queried him about how those who sanctify life fight against those terrorists who sanctify and celebrate death.

     Israel is a Jewish country, with 7 million Jews, and 2 million Israeli Arabs.  Israel’s Arab citizens have in large part been equally shocked by the Hamas massacre and have largely not supported Hamas, as they did in the past – except for Hamas cells that are being rounded up.\

     Israel is a Jewish country with Jewish values.

     I served in the IDF reserves.  There is a concept known in Hebrew as Tohar HaNeshek –   the sanctity of your weapons.  Do not defile your weapon, yourself, your religion, by using your weapon in an immoral manner.

     OK – so what do you do, when your religion sanctifies life, and your enemy comes to kill you by sanctifying death, promising Paradise to its fighters in return for massacring infants and for defiling bodies in unspeakable ways.

      A leading Gulf Arab official asked an Israeli  intelligence officer this question, during one of many operations against Gaza rockets.  Which Israel are you?  Israel of 1967, that everyone felt was doomed and pre-emptively destroyed Egypt’s air force on the ground?  Or the Israel of 1973, surprised by the Arab armies and reacting chaotically in the initial days. (I was drafted then and saw it first hand).   

         Which Israel are we?

          There seems to be a new world order.  Its principle is ‘might makes right’.  Russia occupies Crimea, attacks Ukraine… and gains wide support, especially in China.  The UN Secretary General justifies Hamas’ massacre by noting Israel’s long occupation of Gaza (we left in 2005).  

          So – suppose you live in a civilized Western country – Israel, US.  You have values. You value life.  You have to fight wars but try hard to fight them in ways that harm as few civilians as you can, facing an enemy that hides under hospitals and mosques, behind the skirts of civilians.

          You live in a country that believes that right makes might.  But find a world in which a large proportion of countries believes that might makes right. 

          What do you do?  

           Here is what we will do.  You fight like hell, with all your might, preserving diligently the sanctity of weapons, to overcome those who sanctify death, believing sowing death will gain them a free pass to Paradise. 

           And you re-establish the principle that right is might.  Because it is.  And in the long run, it will prevail.  Because it has to.

          Might makes right?  No, this is not the new world order, nor will it ever be.