The 30th anniversary of the massacre in the Western Negev caught me by surprise. The month that has passed since the cursed Sabbath feels like one long day. A day that is neither day nor night. On the cursed Shabbat I was attacked in my home with my family, in Kibbutz Nirim. We had so many miracles and good luck that saved us and did not stand by so many friends, acquaintances, classmates and classmates of our children, their teachers and so on. So early for ceremonies. So early to begin to understand the horror we encountered.
The 7.10 changed a lot of things in the path I considered for a better future in an area that has suffered from war for the past 22 years (in which I moved from Brour Hayil to Sderot and Nirim. When my original mother base is Ashkelon). Anyone who thinks exactly as he thought just before the greatest massacre in Israel's history is ignorant or a liar. I have believed for years that we must bring about a political agreement and talk to everyone. Also with Hamas.
I believed that the Palestinian Authority, Egypt and international bodies should play a decisive role, but we also need to talk with Hamas, which Netanyahu strengthened and talked to endlessly. I'm not there. In the world, for the most part, good and evil are mixed, on Simchat Torah we faced absolute evil. And absolute evil must be eradicated. From government and military power. We will not return to Nirim if Hamas sits on the fences. This is a distinct Israeli interest. And also a Palestinian interest...
The battle is between those who have lost their human form and those who believe in man
I changed the way I see things but not my values. Not my morals. The Jewish and the universal. When children and families are killed beyond the breached fence, I feel pain. Every child that is killed does not bring my return home closer nor our prosperity, on the Israeli side of the fence nor on the other. If we could pursue Hamas and disarm them without harming one child or one Gazan family, we should go for it with all our might.
On Simchat Torah we started the weekly portions from the beginning. The Bible brought to the world the concept of the dignity of the human being. The idea of "beloved man created in his image." It is easy and simple to believe this when everything around us is functioning and harmonious, relatively. The real test is when we may be tempted, and this is completely understandable, to perceptions of Jewish superiority, dehumanization and cruelty towards people just because of their origin.
The real battle is not between Jews and Arabs, but between those who have lost the human image within themselves and turned themselves into killing machines and between those who believe in man, those who believe in human dignity, those who believe in the victory of good over evil.
Ignoring the Palestinian suffering will bring us the next round
I know there is a vocal minority who will call me a "traitor" in the face of these basic things. That will call out "traitor" facing the quotes of love and concern for the convert, which the Bible is full of. I pray that "the way of the wicked will perish" and that they will repent. These are the same people who will applaud those who want to "throw atomic bombs" and actually demonstrate great desperation and very little resilience.
I don't flinch. As I will do everything to return to my home (which has since also been hit by a mortar strike that pierced the children's rooms), also as a Zionist and patriotic act, I will continue to defend my values. As Viktor Frankl said, there is no ability to carry out this struggle against the wickedness of Hamas without having the "What for", without having the purpose of "fixing the world with the Kingship of God". If we gather to see our whole world in terms of power and "a villa in the jungle", our time is limited.
It is not just about "mercy" or a value and humanitarian concept per se. I truly believe that this blindness towards the residents of the Gaza Strip envelope and towards what is happening beyond the fence, was the root of the rot that led to the disaster. That the thought that more and more protection and more and more suitcases of dollars, alongside the trampling of the Palestinian wing that renounces terrorism, will lead us to a good place. Those who ask us to ignore Palestinian suffering and persecute anyone who regrets the death of children are sowing the seeds of the next war.
On the Friday before the cursed Shabbat, I was in the sukkah of Moshe Ohayon, hy"d, in Ofakim. I taught alongside the Rabbi of the Torah nucleus there, Rabbi Shahar Botschak. I met Moshe's son, Eliad, hy"d. Moshe and Eliad went out on Saturday morning to open shelters in Ofakim and then fought the terrorists who infiltrated the city, until they fell side by side. In memory of them and in memory of many dozens of my friends and acquaintances who fell on that cursed day, I will not remain silent, even if my country has changed its face. And I will not lose hope. Because the wonderful people who live here and the country deserve my sword, redemption.
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Avi Dabush is the founder of the Periphery movement, CEO of "Rabbi's Voice for Human Rights" and a rabbinical student at the Hartman Institute.
