1.
"What do you think about what's happening in Lebanon?" I was asked by journalists in Italy this week. "Here's a headline for you," I replied: "è finita la commedia," Italian for, "the party's over." For almost a year, we tolerated the attacks from an artificial entity that has taken root on our northern border. Hezbollah attacked without provocation from our side. It has fired on us incessantly, causing casualties and widespread destruction. Tens of thousands of residents from quiet communities in the north have left their homes, and for a year now they have been refugees in their own country. For years, the residents of the northern border saw Hezbollah's terrorist outposts just meters away. No more. Our patience has run out. We have crippled Hamas, Iran's arm in the south. While we have not yet finished the job – we still need to clear Gaza of tunnels, ammunition, and terrorists – we are in control of the Strip. Now, we turn to Iran's northern arm, Hezbollah.
2.
I told the Italian journalists that, in my view, the Western world has forgotten what the war is about. This forgetfulness is dangerous because Israel is not only fighting for itself but for the free world, against a tyranny that seeks to enslave us to its cult of death. On October 7, a Jewish holiday, thousands of terrorists invaded Israeli communities near Gaza. Along their way, they encountered young people celebrating at a music festival. They murdered everyone in sight, beheading our sons, raping our daughters until their pelvises were shattered, and then shooting them in the head. They tied parents and children together and burned them alive. They destroyed thriving communities, even killing those from the kibbutzim who had dedicated their lives to improving the lives of Gazans. They boasted of their deeds, uploading videos to social media.
On October 8, Hezbollah attacked while we were licking our wounds and were in the midst of the fight against the terrorists still swarming the Gaza border region. Attacks against Jews seem natural – it has always been that way in history. But this time, there was a change: every time in history that there was a pogrom, we fled or hid; this time, we rose from the ashes of the kibbutzim and fought back. This is unnatural in the eyes of the world, and only then do we hear the calls for a ceasefire.
3.
They asked me about the loss of civilian lives: "How can a democracy like Israel reconcile with the loss of innocent lives?" In response, I asked, what kind of monsters store rockets and ammunition under their children's beds? I presented them with a dilemma: a criminal is aiming a weapon at your daughter and he is hiding behind an innocent person. What do you do? Will you let your daughter die just to avoid harming an innocent bystander, or will you target the criminal even at the cost of his human shield? For me, I told them, the answer is clear. But if it's not clear to you, perhaps you have lost the moral clarity that your family's lives come first.
I spoke about Rabbi Akiva, who in the second century referred to the verse, "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18), as the greatest principle in the Torah. And yet, he taught: "Let your brother live beside you" (ibid 25:36) – your life comes before that of your friend (and certainly before that of our enemies). In other words, you cannot truly love others if you do not love yourself first ("as yourself!").
In any event, Israel did something no army has done before: it warned the Lebanese population to distance themselves from the homes where Hezbollah's missiles and ammunition were stored so that they wouldn't be harmed when the IDF destroyed the weapons meant to harm our children. And if any Lebanese are hurt, then it is Hezbollah's fault, and the parents' fault for agreeing to live with their children near these terrible explosives.
I also said to the Italians, what do you think will happen if Israel lays down its weapons and stops fighting – will the Arabs be impressed by the gesture and lay down their arms too? This of course is a rhetorical question because we know exactly what will happen. Only when the Arabs lay down their weapons will there be peace; when Israel lays down its weapons, it will cease to exist.
4.
I told them that the West, especially Europe, is tired of wars, precisely when decisive decisions are required. Europe doesn't recognize the danger, just as it didn't in the 1930s when the Oxford Union declared, ten days after Hitler came to power, that "this House will in no circumstances fight for its King and Country." Churchill understood the disastrous implications of the declaration and attacked it, but he was a lone voice in the wilderness. Israel is the frontline of Western civilization, and the Jews are a central part of the foundation of Judeo-Christian civilization. We're all in the same boat, and those who attack us hope to bring down the entire West. Those who understand this, support Israel because they are patriots of their own people.
"Look how many condemn you in the world," one of the Italian journalists said. "Aren't you afraid of being isolated," he asked. I answered that there are plenty of good people in the world who support us, and that there are nations, led by the United States, who support us, despite some disagreements. But, I added, even if we were to stand alone, it wouldn't be the first time that we stood firm on principles that initially seemed strange or even threatening to the world but eventually became common values. Consider Moses' teachings and the Ten Commandments – in the ancient world, many opposed these ideas, leading to moves to isolate us, until one of the sages of the nations described us with the immortal phrase: "A people that shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations." Later, we refused to accept Hellenistic paganism, then Christianity, and later Islam. This isolated us even further. Were we surrounded by friends during the Holocaust?
Even today, it seems we must be a light unto the nations, showing how to fight absolute evil and not surrender to it. Perhaps our role is to awaken the West to the fact that this era of freedom in human history may come to an end if we are not willing to fight for it and pay the cost – as heavy as it may be. As the prophet Isaiah taught in the 8th century BCE in Jerusalem: "I the Lord, in My grace, have summoned you, and I have grasped you by the hand. I created you, and appointed you a covenant people, a light of nations." The covenant is with us, the people of Israel. But our mission is to bring light to the world and contribute our ideas to it. If we do this, the prophet continues, the following will happen: "Opening eyes deprived of light, rescuing prisoners from confinement, from the dungeon those who sit in darkness." – the blindness will end, and the world will see reality for what it is. And when they understand that this war is not just ours, but is also for their sake, they will join us, and then we will succeed in freeing our captives from the darkness of the tunnels. Amen.
5.
I shared with them that two weeks ago, I visited Hebron and went to the archaeological site of Tel ("Hill") Hebron. I stood with the chief archaeologist in front of Hebron's ancient walls, which are dated to the 18th century BCE, around 3,800 years ago – the time of the patriarchs. We imagined our forefather Abraham standing at the city gates before these walls, asking the city's elders to purchase the Cave of Machpelah in order to bury his wife Sarah (Genesis 23). Hundreds of years later, the spies sent by Moses stood before these mighty walls. Their strength filled them with fear, leading them to report: "However, the people who inhabit the country are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large; moreover, we saw the Anakites (giants) there" (Numbers 13:28).
You see, I told the journalist, on the one hand, we are required to make decisions in the here and now, but on the other hand, we have a unique historical and cultural perspective. From this perspective, the existential battle in Gaza and Lebanon seems no more than a "virgola" – a comma in Italian. We have faced mighty empires and great men, and we overcame them (see: Genesis 32:29). They disappeared, and we remained. Such will be the fate of our current enemies.
