Israeli leaders should remember their Jewishness

 Zachary Baker, a Liberal Democrat member in Bristol, has launched a campaign to institute a new Associated Group within the party, "Liberal Democrats for Peace in the Middle East". His intentions laid out on Liberal Democrat Voice are clearly heartfelt, but the comments - well worth reading - to his piece show how difficult it will be to achieve his aims. Thankfully, the two relevant groups already existing in the party, Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel and Liberal Democrat Friends of Palestine, have a mutual constructive relationship and contribute to party policy.

I have occasionally criticised the politicians in Israel, particularly those of Likud, for turning the dream of Zionists into just another client state of the US military-industrial complex. For those people, keeping conflict boiling not only within the boundaries of the modern state but also in the wider Middle East suits their financial and political interests. One hopes that the more disparate coalition which has now taken over will, in addition to weeding out the corruption which has flourished in the last decade, remember another strand of their common religion, and one which they share with the one Muslim member of government, the "obligation to strive for peace". The phrase is that of Richard H Schwartz in his blog on The Times of Israel.

Most of us are already familiar with the quotations from Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3-4:

“And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation. Neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.” 

Richard Schwartz comments 

The Jewish tradition does not mandate pacifism, nor peace at any price, although some Jews became pacifists based on Jewish values. The Israelites frequently went forth to battle, and not always in defensive wars. But they always held to the ideal of universal peace and yearned for the day when there would be no more bloodshed or violence, and when the instruments of war would be converted into tools of production

He goes on to list many more texts from the books which Jews, Christians and Muslim hold in common, together with judgements by Jewish thinkers down the ages. This section of his blog seems particularly relevant to the current situation in Israel:

While Judaism recognizes the duty of each person to protect his own life and to defend others from violence, it specifically prohibits the shedding of innocent blood:

Murder may not be practiced to save one’s life… A man came before Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi (Judah the Prince) and said to him, “The governor of my town has ordered me, ‘Go and kill so and so; if not I will slay you.'” Rabba answered him, “Let him rather slay you than that you should commit murder; who knows whether your blood is redder? Perhaps his blood is redder.”

Even in a clear-cut case of self-defense, Judaism condemns the use of excessive violence. The Talmud stresses that if a person being pursued could definitely save himself by maiming a limb of the pursuer, but instead kills him,” the pursued is guilty of murder.