Rabbi Eliayashiv Decides

The leader of the Degel Hatorah political party as well as the chief rabbinical decisor (posek hador) of the Ultra Orthodox, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Eliayshiv, went against the official position of the government in recent days, and expressed his support for a cease fire between Israel and Lebanon. Eliayshiv said recently "the decision makers must take into account the position of the world nations. They shouldn't ignore or take lightly the ideas raised by other nations. If the United States raises solutions that could bring about the end of the war and save Jewish lives, they should be heeded. No offer or idea should be dismissed offhand. We mustn't anger the nations of the world.” (Haaretz 8/3)

What would happen if a cease is agreed on in the next few days? A commonplace is that without a decisive victory or minimally a successful outcome, Israel would lose its deterrence capability. The Hezbolah would declare a great victory, the Arab and the rest of the world would agree. I imagine many in Israel would not be able to say they are wrong. Segments of the Israeli population would believe Israel lost the war.

Defense Minister Peretz as well as the IDF general command feel they must destroy Hamas to a point where no fair minded person will be able to say Israel lost. I am not sure what such a victory would look like? I think everyone acknowledges it is impossible to kill all or even 60-70% of Hezbollah without a very long war. If this is correct, I wonder what difference it makes if we end up killing another 350 guerrillas. How will this change the perception? Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, a member of the security cabinet, laid out the government’s definition of success: "Full implementation of UN Resolution 1559, deployment of a capable international force with powers of enforcement and the ability to prevent the smuggling of arms into southern Lebanon, and the return of the two abducted soldiers. Anything less than these three conditions will be considered a failure.” Here the issue is to prevent Syria and Iran from rearming Hezbollah. Even if UNIFIL is reinforced with French troops it is not going to be easy to prevent a re-supplying of Hezbollah. The Syria-Lebanon border is very long and unprotected. It is very difficult to close such a border hermetically. We will not know if these conditions are satisfied for quite some time.

After having defeated the combined forces of the Arab armies time and again, to lose to a bunch of radical crazies is indeed humiliating. Apparently Rabbi Eliayshiv believes the saving Jewish lives is worth the humiliation. He is undoubtedly aware about the point of future deterrence. He must feel the certainty of saving lives in the present outweighs the possibility of an increase in the number of lives lost in the future.

I have a second deeper question. I am not at all sure I believe the thesis that if Israel were perceived to have lost the war its deterrence would be degraded. Who would start a war? Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia…no way. These are real countries with capitals and responsibilities. Israel has shown it can defeat the Arab nation states. Nothing has changed. Hezbollah, for sure, but they will continue to fight even if 80% of its members are destroyed. That is what Hezbollah does, fight, terrorize, kidnap. Same for Hamas. Israel has exhibited overwhelming military force to the Palestinians during the last two intafadas. Instead of intimidating the Palestinians and teach them a decisive lesson, the Palestinians chose to fight some more. They elected Hamas on a platform of no negotiations, etc. In the current war, Israel has fired 12,000 shells at the Gaza strip, 170 Hamas militants have been killed, there is no sanitation and yet they continue to fight.
Some people when intimidated and given every reason to believe they are up against an overwhelming powerful opponent choose to keep on fighting. One reason might be some societies just like to fight. Examples are Somalia, the Sudan, the Congo. Another reason, which I think is operative in the Middle East, is honor. In the case of radical Islam, the more they are defeated, the greater the humiliation, the more they are dishonored, the more they feel they must keep on fighting to defend their honor.

The results of an Israeli defeat just might be somewhat counterintuitive. If the Arabs can feel they won a war, any war, their shame will decrease, their pride and feeling of being strong will be bolstered, and maybe, their rage will subside just a bit. Rabbi Eliyashiv, as a scholar of Torah who has no feeling for military honor, and hence has no problem with the dishonor or shame of defeat, intuitively sees this point. Notice his emphasis on not angering the nations of the world. In the case of the Arab societies, I would describe it as not increasing their shame and subsequent rage. It is difficult for Olmert and Peretz, neither of whom had any prior military experience or military honors, to be equally sanguine.

The fundamental issues that will be raised as a result of this war will lead to major discussions, criticism and disagreements in Israel and America. I recommend Ari Shavit’s important article as a good place to start. Fasten your seatbelts, as they say…the war is drawing to a close, the intellectual fireworks are about to begin.