Is it right to cut off the innocent along with the wicked? This past week we saw in the Parsha the plea of Abram for the city of Sodom (Genesis 18). And it seemed reasonable, to save the city for a few innocents, but when the Eternal allowed Abram to work the numbers down to 10, He immediately headed out leaving Abram thinking that nothing was going to happen. But it did! In today’s situation, can we use that story to define how far Israel has a right to destroy the Palestinians left in Gaza? And are they innocent civilians?

Let’s look at another bible story. When Korah Dathan and Abiram (Numbers 16) coveted the position of leadership to the point of wanting to replace Moses and Aaron, they and all they owned were swallowed up by the earth opening it’s mouth. Surely there were innocents that were destroyed! What about the wives and children? Well, we are not told but often families stick together in their opinions and sometimes wives even drive their husbands to do things they would not have otherwise done. But we don’t know. And the kids? Why them? We are not told. Ok, so God did it and He knows best, right?

So today we have a hostile aggression into the land of Israel by the enemies of the Jewish people. So there are children in their midst, and yes we have seen movies of the children being trained to shout, “kill the Jews!” Are they innocent? Weren’t we innocent? Do we have to protect those who hate us when they have just savagely murdered our children and elderly—some holocaust survivors? What kind of moral equivalence is this? And what about what the Bible says regarding an eye for eye and tooth for a tooth (Exodus 21)?

Here is another scenario. Let’s suppose that some among the Gazan civilians decide that they want to stand with Israel and would somehow indicate that they did not want to support Hamas? Would it be right to go in and rescue them? Israel has actually offered this! And the fact that they do not express this? Does this mean that perhaps they are totally in support of what happened? And how is it that it was not only Hamas monsters that came through the fence, but many civilians joined in the murders of our people? Are they not all guilty?

It is true that much of the world does not give Israel the right to defend itself. They take up the theory that Israel must not kill civilians even though we lost over 1400 peace loving civilians who were not staging any kind of war against Gaza. Try as we may to show that the Palestinians are not so innocent because they have stood with the evil Hamas, the world joins in a loud and hostile cry oposing anything we do as evil and unfair. World leaders work to convince our government to submit to their idea of justice. The question is—Will Israel bow down to these evil suggestions?

It doesn’t matter that the entire group of the massacred innocent in our land, all them were innocent—none were fighters threatening Gaza.

And no it doesn’t matter, the world says, Israel has no right to wipe out those who chant slogans to annihilate the Jews and take over this beautiful Promised Land so that it no longer exists.

Why did God in the Bible tell Israel to utterly wipe out certain groups of people who inhabited the land? Is this an exaggerated account? The outward reason had to do with the temptation to worship the idols of these peoples who were present in Israel. They performed child sacrifice and other inhumane things for their gods. Because they were not fully destroyed, Israel began to participate in these things and ultimately had to be expelled themselves from the land of Israel.

So what is our position today? I say as many more are saying in a louder and louder voice: Let Israel destroy her enemies! Do not hinder our progress. To destroy Hamas and their supporters is to give the entire world a little more time to develop justice and peace.

Go IDF! Do not hold back!