Don’t Bite the Hook

My late father-in-law, Ed Levit, (alav hashalom) was a great fisherman. His approach was Zen-like as I believe any truly great fisherperson’s approach is. He was intensely patient. He carefully chose what he somehow knew would be the correct lure. Using that lure he would find the right place and with care and control bring the fish to where he was. And he knew, he just knew, the fist would bite the hook. It just couldn’t stop itself. My father-in-law didn’t go fishing for small pan fish or easy to catch types. He was a master at finding and catching the strong, large fish, the “one that got away”. Somehow, they bit that hook.

Have you ever bitten the hook? I know that I do all too often. Someone says or does something and I react to their bait. I will say something or do something in direct reaction to the “lure” they threw out toward me. I shouldn’t, but I do. This is something I keep working on to avoid. Anger is often the reaction to the lure. Or saying the same old thing when someone says that “hot- button” statement. It is hard not to, right? And what does biting that hook usually accomplish us?

A flotilla of ships left a Turkish harbor to deliver food and humanitarian aid to Gaza. Israel is blockading Gaza (as was Egypt up until the day Israel boarded the ships in the flotilla). The legitimate political aim in this blockade is to prevent military equipment from reaching Hamas, the organization that controls Gaza. Hamas is a rogue organization. Its members have murdered more Palestinians than they have Israelis. They control by force. And they are a terrorist organization. Yet, in Jewish law you are not allowed to punish the group for the sins of the leaders.

Hamas continues to pledge and work for the destruction of Israel. If they had the military ability to send more rockets into Israel and attack women and children as well as Israeli soldiers, they would. That is one of the reasons for the blockade. And it is on some level legal to blockade the enemy when you are at war, and as far as Hamas is concerned, they are at war with Israel. And Israel has the legal and more importantly, moral responsibility to protect its citizens. Since my arrival at Or Ami in the summer of 2006, we have experienced two previous events. Six Or Ami students were in Israel that 2006 summer when from Lebanon, Hizbollah terrorists kidnapped three Israeli soldiers and then shot hundreds of rockets into Israel, bringing on the Israeli attack into Lebanon and the evacuation of our kids to the south of Israel. Hamas began shooting hundreds (ultimately thousands) of rockets at Israeli homes and cities late in 2008. Israel attacked into Gaza.

In both cases it is more than easy to illustrate that Israel’s attacks were legally and militarily appropriate. The external political and public relations success of such action is another discussion, but protecting your citizens is a primary moral responsibility of the government. And any time Israel will engage these groups in a military way, Israel will win. Israel’s military power is so superior to Hamas or Hizbollah there will never be a chance for these groups to withstand Israel’s attack. And in both cases the military abilities of Hizbollah and Hamas were crushed. Yet, both remain in control of their areas and confronting Israel.

The flotilla was an attempt by a Turkish Muslim group to break the blockade in a world news and political fashion. (This group, despite claims from some Jewish organizations and Israeli sources, does not have any connections to any terrorist organizations). The people on the ships anticipated they would not get through, they anticipated the Israelis would board and stop their ships. Unfortunately some planned to attack the Israeli soldiers when confronted. (The Turkish organizers were extremely angry that the Israeli soldiers were attacked- you may not have heard about that) And the Israelis knew this. And they knew on which ship this would happen. Still, they followed through. And people died and Israeli soldiers were hurt.

The flotilla was about as big a lure as I have ever seen. And Israel bit the hook.
The results were and are the same as usually comes from biting the hook. When the fish bites the hook, the fish loses. When we bite that hook, we may feel good for a moment when we feel justified by our angry reaction to the lure. But, ultimately the lure thrown has controlled us. We bit and didn’t really get anything good accomplished.

Israel has an incredible depth of very smart and creative folks. I know there are better and more effective solutions than always taking the lure and the bait on the hook from Hamas. It is time to gather all those smart Israelis and engage in new thinking, in new and different visioning to bring an end to all this fear and pain. And I while I pray the Palestinians will do the same, the Israelis still must do so even if they are the only side to start trying.

While certainly legal, the boarding of the vessels accomplished only negative results for Israel. Just like the results those fish got every time my father-in-law went out in his boat. It is time to stop biting the hook that Hamas and Hizbollah and this time, the flotilla, floated at Israel. They knew exactly how Israel would react. They knew they would lose and Israel would win, but lose before world opinion. Albert Einstein, a really smart Jew said “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

It is time to heed that advice. It is time to stop biting the hook.

L’Shalom, Rabbi Ben