Reader asserts Shapiro’s views perpetuate historical conflicts

To the Editor:

During my fall visit to the Lakeland area I read the column “One year later” about support for Israel by Ben Shapiro, a conservative activist. He began his column with the words that the west is “on vacation from history”. To the contrary, I see Mr. Shapiro as living — stuck in history — leading to unending wars and hatred in the Middle East. His column should have been titled “Thousands of years later.” 

He claims the U.S. and western societies have turned a blind eye to evil. If that were so, we and our western allies would not be spending $1 trillion plus on military and security, including over $20 billion in military assistance to Israel, to the detrimant of many needed improvements at home. 

Mr. Shapiro’s strategy for peace calls for the death and destruction of all of Israel’s enemies. He cannot see any other way to achieve peace than following the ancient Hammurabi code of an “eye for and eye,” an early primitive code of justice, ignoring the more recent Ten Commandments as well as the New Testament about not killing, and loving your neighbor. The Jewish religion views Jesus as just another prophet, who was executed after committing blasphemy because some people could not accept his messages back then, and still today as clearly expressed by Mr. Shapiro. In fact, Israel’s code of justice is more like ‘one eye for ten eyes’ believing harsher punishment will bring better peace. But in reality, it practically requires their enemies, following a similar code of justice, to retaliate no matter how long it takes.

We must not get stuck thinking this issue is about unsolvable, complicated policies, or conversely, that this is a simple battle between good and evil. It is an obvious red flag that something is amiss when criticism of Israel’s government’s actions (not all Jewish people) is immediately labeled by fundamentalists as anti-Semitic. It is an extreme defensive reaction to believe that one is always right, especially when it is about how to think and perceive world events that affect us all.

The justification of this arrogance comes from the choice to follow a carefully selected, few ancient religious beliefs and ignore others. The most radical believers found in all religions cannot accept that people who choose to follow different beliefs are ok. While most people support religious freedom, this is not a blanket acceptance of all belief systems. It is time to stop this cycle of insanity by choosing to no longer follow ancient ones based on arrogance, superiority, and that advocate violence as a solution to solve disputes. 

Arabs and Muslims face similar challenges such as its religious war with radical ISIS, or the Taliban beliefs that suppress women’s rights. Using the behavior (violence) that you abhor to demonstrate that the behavior is wrong, does not create lasting behavioral change. In fact, it implicitly endorses it, as long as you believe that you are justified in its use, as both sides do in any conflict.

This is not a call for blind pacifism. Peaceful people have the right to defend themselves, including lethal force when regrettably necessary. Israel has a right to attack Hamas. But eliminating the threat and seeking the satisfaction of revenge is not the same thing. The tens of thousands of civilian deaths and the untold suffering of millions is not justified because Israel feels all Hamas terrorists must be destroyed immediately. 

Destroying occupied apartment buildings because a few terrorists were observed going into the building is not acceptable by modern, moral standards. Isn’t it possible that the terrorists moved to another location undetected through their elaborate tunnel network? We should celebrate the evolution of human consciousness that no longer approves of the mass killing of civilians such as occurred in WWII. Collateral damage (innocent deaths) should be minimized through careful actions, not just ignored for military convenience.

With that said, it is naïve to think that all non-combatants in any conflict, who are not directly engaged in violent acts, are neutral bystanders, because it is their beliefs that ultimately led to violence. Some raised their children to become the terrorists who attacked Israel a year ago. I recall one phone recording from last year of a young man calling his mother to tell her with excitement that he had killed Jews. Obviously, the son learned from his family and community that killing a Jew was the right thing to do. Stopping the indoctrination of such hatred in children on both sides, which exists at some level in all nations whether in the form of racism, bigotry or religious superiority, is essential to breaking the unending cycle of war around the world.

But to establish peace for Israel, the question of “Why so much hatred?” must be asked and answered. Here is part of the answer. For decades the Arabic Palestinian people have been living in extreme poverty. Nearly all aspects of their life have been controlled by Israel. People of any culture resent living under the thumb of overlords whether it is a country or tyrant. Mr. Shapiro purposely used the phrase “surrendered territory” as if to self-righteously claim the “holy land” is theirs and theirs alone. Such thinking prevents compromise and justifies expanding Israeli settlements into the West Bank, despite repeated calls by the global community including the U.S. to stop. This has further enraged the Arabs who live there. In reply to defend its policies, Israel has said that they can’t negotiate with the Palestinians because they do not accept Israel’s right to exist. But their resentment turned to rage and manifested the evil that the world witnessed last October. This does not defend the barbaric actions of Hamas, but helps explain why.

Meanwhile the suffering of millions in the Middle East continues. It is naïve to think that this level of massive destruction will not lead to more rage throughout the Arab world of nearly 500 million people. Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, has said that he would make sure that they (the Arabs and Palestinians) will never forget. And so they won’t, which continues the cycle of generational trauma and retribution.

And finally, according to Mr. Shapiro’s belief, peace will only come after the arrival of the true messiah. What does Mr. Shapiro and his fellow ancient orthodox believers believe the messiah will do that they can’t do themselves? Will the messiah lead the final destruction of all of Israel’s enemies which is as naïve as it is dangerous? For it and similar thinking found in parts of all religions will not stop the violent cycle of revenge, as learned from thousands of years of human history. Rather than choosing to follow the divine teachings of peace from their own prophets, the fundamentalists wait as they have for thousands of years to be saved, giving them a convenient excuse not to change, and to avoid the difficult, but sacred work of achieving lasting peace. 

The dropping of dysfunctional, old beliefs is urgently needed as human technologies to destroy ourselves have advanced rapidly in the nuclear, bioengineering, AI age. This threat can only be mitigated through practical and logical steps to slowly heal the centuries of mistrust, trauma, and resentment between different peoples such as the two-state solution that many Jewish people and many outside third-party experts have proposed for Israel and Palestine. This or better options will happen when most people on both sides desire peace over violence. If a religious belief does not help us become more loving, it is time to let it go, and use the power of honest, factual observations of what works and what has not worked to establish lasting peace which can only be achieved through mutual acts of understanding, kindness, forgiveness, and reconciliation. 

Michael Krajovic

Lake Geneva