As a Jew and a Buddhist, I Say: "Enough!"
Remember the model that Abraham set for us
The Jews are the mildest of men, passionately hostile to violence. That obstinate sweetness which they conserve in the midst of the most atrocious persecution, that sense of justice and of reason which they put up as their sole defense against a hostile, brutal, and unjust society, is perhaps the best part of the message they bring to us and the true mark of their greatness. —Jean-Paul Sartre in his 1946 article Reflexions sur la question juive [translation source unknown]
Sartre wrote those words in 1946, as about 250,000 Jewish concentration camp refugees languished in displaced-persons camps waiting for new homes, often rejected because of anti-semitism. That was also the year I was born to Jewish parents in the relative safety and acceptance of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
One year later, war broke out over the partition of Palestine, and in May 1948, the State of Israel declared its independence.
The first sentence of Sartre’s quotation is a hyperbole growing apparently out of the image of European Jews being herded into boxcars and walked into gas chambers without fighting. That image was always misleading because it didn’t include the escapees forming units and carrying out resistance to the Nazis, and it didn’t allow for the despairing acceptance that anyone may suffer when dominated by overwhelming force.
As I have written before, my DNA shows an ancestry that’s more than 99% Ashkenazi Jewish, and I lost two uncles, two aunts, and five first cousins in Nazi slaughters before I was born. I understand the desire for a Jewish homeland and the need to defend its citizens.
But more than pagers and walkie-talkies exploded over the last few days. So did my heart. I’ve been reluctant to speak out loudly in respect for my ethnic heritage and for the Israeli citizens who don’t support their current extremist government, but the terrorism that government unleashed this week violates both the clear Buddhist teachings of ahimsa, or non-harm, and the more nuanced Jewish principles of measured justice.
As I grew up attending Hebrew school and religious education in my Conservative Jewish synagogue, I was never comfortable with being part of a “chosen people,” or with the violence so often inflicted on Biblical enemies, or with the non-status of women. Instead, I identified with Abraham as he pleaded with God to spare the innocent residents of Sodom and Gomorrah after He decided to destroy the cities. Here’s Genesis Chapter 18, Verses 23-33, English Standard Version:
23 Then Abraham drew near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” 26 And the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
27 Abraham answered and said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. 28 Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?” And he said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” 29 Again he spoke to him and said, “Suppose forty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.” 30 Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. Suppose thirty are found there.” He answered, “I will not do it, if I find thirty there.” 31 He said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.” 32 Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.” 33 And the Lord went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.
This story ends with Lot, his wife, and their two daughters being rescued from Sodom as it is destroyed, but Lot’s wife disobeys instructions by looking back and is turned into a pillar of salt. I suspect that most people remember the wrath of God. What has always stuck in my mind was the temerity of Abraham to plead with that wrathful God for justice so that the innocent are not destroyed along with the wicked.
There's no wrathful God to plead with in Buddhism, but the Buddha advises us to act in ways to reduce suffering and to refrain from taking life. From the Dhammapada (verses 129-130) as translated by Gil Fronsdal:
All tremble at violence; All fear death. Seeing others as being like yourself, Do not kill or cause others to kill. All tremble at violence; Life is dear for all. Seeing others as being like yourself, Do not kill or cause others to kill.
Wars, terrorism, and self-defense raise legal, moral, ethical, and religious questions I won’t attempt to answer except to say that the best course is the one that will cause the least overall suffering. Disproportionate responses to violence cause unnecessary suffering. It’s sometimes difficult to know what response is proportionate and has the best chance to reduce overall suffering. It may be easier to spot wildly disproportionate responses.
The Hamas surprise attack on Israel on October 6 was disproportionately savage, but it was almost a year ago. When the Israeli government drops bombs and lobs artillery shells on hospitals, schools, and other civilian targets in Gaza, that’s disproportionate even if a Hamas leader is hiding among the innocent. When the Israeli government ignores murders and other crimes committed by Jewish settlers and soldiers against Palestinians on the West Bank, that’s excessive as well as illegal under Israeli and international law.
Now, the insidious and intricately planned scheme turning pagers and walkie-talkies given to members of Hezbollah in Lebanon into hand grenades ushers in a new era of disproportion. From today’s New York Times:
…[T]he presumed Israeli sabotage of hundreds or thousands of pagers, walkie-talkies and other wireless devices used by Hezbollah has taken the murky art of electronic sabotage to new and frightening heights. This time the targeted devices were kept in trouser pockets, on belts, in the kitchen. Ordinary communication devices were turned into miniature grenades.
And while the target was Hezbollah fighters, the victims were anyone standing around, including children. Lebanese authorities say 11 people died and more than 2,700 were injured in Tuesday’s attack. On Wednesday, at least 20 more people were killed and 450 injured in a second round of attacks with exploding walkie-talkies.
There is reason to fear where this attack on Hezbollah fighters might go next. The history of such sabotage is that once a new threshold is crossed, it becomes available to everyone.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his extremist government bear direct responsibility for the orgy of disproportionate violence over the last 11 months. It’s as if the most extreme Christian nationalists took over the United States government. But the violence has gone far enough for the Israeli electorate and the rest of the world to say: Enough!
It’s time for U.S. citizens to demand that President Biden and Vice President Harris more firmly condemn the Netanyahu government.
It’s time for us all to emulate Abraham, the father of Judaism, and plead for the innocent.
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As long as, Hammas refuses end the war they their equal responsibility for the deaths. During world war II, the Allies killed millions of civilians, The only critique I've ever heard of their actions in Europe was the bombing of Dresden.