(10-11-2023, 04:28 PM)RabbiO Wrote:(10-11-2023, 03:14 PM)searchinmyroots Wrote: When I wrote - "Pray for peace, no matter what is needed to obtain it", I was reflecting on our past and what needed to be done to accomplish peace (at least for a time).
An example would be in the Book of Esther. Not pretty, but necessary.
There are many other biblical instances where G-d worked with us, but we needed to go out and complete the mission.
There is the temporary peace of a cease fire, and then there is a lasting true and equitable peace.
There is the so called justice that is nothing more than taking revenge and then there is true justice appropriately meted out. There is a difference between retribution and revenge.
Delaying, and thereby destroying, the opportunity, if presented, for a true equitable lasting peace for the purpose of satisfying a desire for revenge would be perverse and in opposition to the values of Judaism.
There is no victory if in obtaining victory we become the very thing that we are battling against.
ln my own post I referred to "justice". I was not referring to a criminal matter (such where an accused person goes before a court firstly for judgment and then secondly either for acquittal, or for sentencing if found guilty). The invasion from Gaza by the Hamas "Palestinian" Arabs characterized as it was by Nazi style barbarism, is a matter of war; not a police matter As such the "justice" to which I referred, requires to be dispensed by the IDF (thus not the job of the Israeli police). Some people may call this "revenge" which, being a negative concept, is a term that can be misused (in my view), as an purported-argument for: doing "nothing"; and what would doing nothing bring: Further attacks from the perpetrator worse each time than before. I would respectfully suggest that taking military action against the Hamas terrorists will rather constitute justice, about which we all should unite in support, and essential to deter future "Palestinian" Arab attacks.
Did we really become the "very thing that we are battling against" when our people fought those who sought our destruction in Biblical times? What if that argument had been accepted as reason for not seeking to defeat the Nazis in the Second World War? By the way, the Hamas "Palestinian" Arabs are neo-Nazis as shown by the swastika-defaced kites they used for setting fire to Israeli farmers' fields, in 2018:
“Palestinian protesters carry a transparent kite defaced with a swastika during clashes with Israeli forces across the [Gaza] border today [web page dated April 20, 2018] - [AFP/Getty Images].” [Scroll down the web page to see the relevant image.]:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...ot-at.html