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by Rabbi Nathan Kamesar
I write on the heels of a head-spinning week in the news: in the span of seven days, we had an American president deploy US Marines to an American city, raising alarm bells among legal observers around the country; in response, millions demonstrated peacefully under the aegis of “No Kings;” and a beloved Minnesota lawmaker and her husband were murdered, and another Minnesota lawmaker and his wife were shot, in a terrible act of political violence, all this week.
And while I am monitoring these events with deep care and concern, my heart remains bound up with my people in Israel, who are facing one of the scariest times amidst these 619 days of war since October 7, 2023, when Hamas carried out the deadliest attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
These last 20 months have been heart-wrenching — for Israelis, for Palestinians, for observers all around the world. I know Israelis often feel alone in their place in the world, and my heart is with them.
This is especially the case as Iranian missiles fly into the country, targeting civilian areas, having already killed some 24 people, with the number expected to rise.
Of course, the 350 missiles Iran has fired since Friday come on the heels of an unexpected and devastating preventive strike by the Israel Defense Forces on Iran’s nuclear and military infrastructure, significantly damaging Iran’s nuclear capacity, and taking out a significant number of top Iranian generals and nuclear scientists, who had, in some respects, dedicated their professional lives to the destruction of Israel.
I know people are war-weary. I am, too. When we open our siddur, our prayer book, three formal times per day we pray for peace; the central prayer of a prayer service, the Amidah, closes with a prayer for peace. That remains our prayer today and always.
Still, I understand why Israel’s leadership believes that the path to peace sometimes involves damaging, and ultimately destroying, the war-making capabilities of one’s enemies. Now, eventually, the endgame has to be a peace agreement; a negotiated settlement in which Iran commits to not enrich uranium, to not make nuclear weapons. I pray for the day when all nations participate in nuclear disarmament, a step on the pathway to Isaiah’s prophecy that the many peoples “shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not take up sword against nation; they shall never again know war” (Isaiah 2:4).
I understand why, in the meantime, Israel believes it needs to take matters into its own hands. Hours before the strike, the International Atomic Energy Agency declared that Iran was not complying with its nuclear nonproliferation obligations, accelerating its enrichment of uranium to the extent that Israel believed Iran was weeks away from nuclear capabilities.
People should not read Israel’s portrayal of the Iranian regime’s desires as propaganda: a public square in Tehran hosts a huge digital countdown display established by the regime counting down the days until Israel will allegedly cease to exist, and Iran has “death to Israel” inscribed on missiles. The Iranian regime has denied the Nazi Holocaust, and has made destroying Israel of paramount importance in its foreign policy. (Yair Rosenberg’s article here was a particularly helpful source on these matters). Not only is Hamas actively supported by Iran, but an entire ring of proxies which have attacked Israel before and since October 7 — Hezbollah in Lebanon, militias in Iraq, the Houthis in Yemen — do so with military support from Iran.
Israel’s decimation of most of the military might of those proxies, especially Hezbollah, with the bold intelligence and military strikes against Hezbollah serving as something of a roadmap for this current attack against Iran, have deprived these groups of the capabilities of exacerbating Iran’s present attacks against Israel. While we pray and hope and work for a day when a military never needs to be used, I understand why Israel feels that it needs to take these bold strikes, surrounded as it has been by enemies, primarily funded by Iran, who seek no long-term peace with Israel.
Still, I do not intend to glorify war. The toll of human suffering is immense. That has been particularly the case in Gaza. I understand why people might have a significantly different relationship to the war in Gaza than they do to the preventive strike against Iran. Regardless of whether you give full credibility to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry’s reported death toll in Gaza, there can be no doubting that the people of Gaza have experienced significant suffering; many children have been killed. Even when one factors in blame for Hamas for starting this war, for using its people as human shields, I can understand why people would want Israel to end the war in Gaza and look for a political pathway forward, given the heartbreaking toll on human life in Gaza.
I can further understand why people — both Israeli citizens and international observers — would have long since given up trusting Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, as an honest broker for why military action against Iran was overwhelmingly compelling in this moment. Many Israelis surmise that his need to keep far-right-wing ministers in his government, thereby keeping himself in power, has led him to prolong this war in Gaza. This, even as Hamas, if not entirely eradicated as a political force, has been decimated as a military one, and when of the 202 hostages who have been returned home, far more of those who have come home safely have been released through negotiated agreement rather than military might (though surely there is an interplay between military pressure and negotiated agreement). I understand why huge numbers of Israelis would want to prioritize bringing home the remaining 53 hostages even if it means a negotiated ceasefire with Hamas, and why even international friends of Israel, like Canada and the United Kingdom, would have significant concerns about the day-to-day well-being of Palestinians, even if Hamas deserves a significant share of that blame.
But while consensus in Israel about where to take the war in Gaza has long since run aground, Israelis appear deeply united about these recent strikes against Iran: Iran has fueled and funded a decades-long proxy war against Israel; aspires, and has been close to, nuclear arms that could be used against Israel; and has long since lost the faith of its own people.
I pray for the world envisioned by Isaiah. As Jews, as humans, we all do. And prayers should not simply be fanciful notions that we hope for but take no steps toward, but rather should focus the mind and concentrate the heart toward the ends for which we pray.
I also, though, understand why the people entrusted with the task of protecting Israel’s citizens would conclude that in this moment it would be irresponsible not to take some of the military steps Israel has taken against Iran and its proxies, even while I understand why Israelis are significantly questioning and even protesting against other such steps, like those in Gaza.
The task of keeping the people of Israel safe in a dangerous world, while also upholding the value that all people are created in the image of God, is incredibly challenging. There is no alternative to, day-after-day, doing the hard work of bringing all of ourselves — our minds, our hearts, our spirits — to the challenges we face.
I pray that our leaders have the discernment to do what is right and just; I pray that innocent people, children, in Israel, Gaza, Iran, and all around the world, remain safe and secure. I pray that Isaiah’s words come true.
With prayers for an ultimate, lasting peace,
Rabbi K
