Recently the world has beheld acts of violence and carnage that were only believed to exist in a nightmare—or Hollywood horror movie: innocent men, women, and children, indeed, babes, slaughtered at the hands of Hamas terrorists.
We could puzzle on how the Israeli government and the Mossad, perhaps the most efficient and sophisticated intelligence gathering organization in the world, missed a terrorist operation that was meticulously planned—with some training done in the open.
But that is beside the point now. Israel is in a state of war that will have grand implications, not only for the Jewish state, but for the world.
The issue regarding who was at fault in such a way for this situation to transpire misses the real point. It is not human government, per se, that we can point a finger at. Nor is it the political jostling in the Knesset, although there may be some culpability.
No, it is simply this: the idea that people are basically good.
This may come as a lightning strike to many, especially those of past generations who learned in college about behaviorism—i.e., that men and women are indeed good, but their environments distort this, and thus we have aberrant and murderous behavior.
Again, no: men and women are born with a proclivity to do evil and to not act altruistically.
King David reminded us of all of this in Psalm 51:5: Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
David was not talking about the sexual act, but the very nature of the human condition.
As human beings we seek our own comforts, often at the expense of others. This does not mean that we are not capable of good. Rather it simply means that while we are capable of walking old ladies across the road and giving to charity, we are much more inclined to figure out what we can get from those acts: a feeling of self-satisfaction and the glow of virtue.
Taking this to the present situation in Israel, we see that while Israel has always been vigilant to protect its people, the seemingly good move to protect West Bank settlements, resulted in taking a wary eye off on what was going on in Gaza, thinking that no such horrendous plan could be executed. It is difficult to draw any other conclusion without lapsing into myriads of conspiracy theories (“It was allowed to happen so as to take the attention off Israel’s internal constitutional problems!” “ It was allowed as an excuse to ignite a full scale war with Hamas so that the IDF could totally eliminate them”…etc).
One only needs to look at the pure, hard reality of the brutal murders that Hamas fighters perpetrated to see that men and woman, especially those prone to violence, need to be restrained.
Now, both Israel and the world may see a multi-front war that could engulf all of the Middle East and, indeed, draw into it major world powers.
One must wonder if Hamas thought through the Israeli response. Obviously, with scores of Israelis dead, the Israeli military was going to unleash a maelstrom of bombing on Gaza that will kill, not only their own fighters, but non-combatants as well. Could they possibly think that they could withstand a full IDF invasion?
What is the end game?
In minds that are obviously on the far spectrum of evil, perhaps the idea is to gin up support from the entire Arab world and turn those now at peace with Israel into adversaries once again. So far, it is a great blessing that Egypt has remained neutral.
If there was any doubt that human beings can be savage animals, it was profoundly erased by the current events. These events did not happen in the shadows, but in daylight for all to see.
The great Rabbis taught that man is a mixture of heaven and earth—his soul is created in heaven, but he inhabits an earthly body with passions and faults. If this were not true, the Talmud’s 2,783 pages would be meaningless.
It is hoped that there is a way that the incredible inferno of hate and violence can be extinguished in the coming weeks.
To do this, men and women must work against their worst natures.
And that might be a task of supernatural proportions.
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Joseph M Bianchi is an author and journalist based in Greenville, SC. He is a frequent contributor to national and international publications.
