A number of comments on my previous post argued that Israel is "losing its humanity" and such as a result of the "occupation". Such cliches are often used by enemies of Israel who wish to weaken Israel by holding it to a higher standard of "humanity" than they hold the rest of the world. Such people are best ignored. However, some of those who responded to my post struck me not as enemies but rather as sincerely concerned Jews. I owe them a response.

I believe that the coarseness that you attribute to Israelis (the existence of which I don't deny) is a consequence not of Israel's policies but rather of its situation. The very idea of Jewish sovereignty requires that Jews engage in activities which in Galus they could leave to the goyim. Fighting wars, tilling the soil, and competing for pretty much everything with Jews just as clever as you, leads to the development of a distinct skill set from that required in Galus.

I find it as grating as you do that Israeli men from about the age of two speak in lower octaves and high decibels than the ear was designed to process. And I detest the secular Zionist ideology that sought to uproot many of the noblest Jewish traits developed in Galus. But it is a fact of life that building a desolate area in a bad neighborhood into a secure and modern State both requires and produces a somewhat tougher Jew than you (and, to some extent, I) regard as ideal.

It is worth bearing in mind that this slight contempt for Jews not quite like us cuts both ways. I've now lived exactly half my life in Israel and every now and then I am surprised by the sudden realization of how much I've changed without noticing. When I visit places like the Upper West Side, where I grew up, I find many of the men to be a mirror image of the macho Israeli: whining, self-indulgent sissies. It may not look that way to you because you hold up what you're used to as the norm from which all others are measured. But don't confuse what seems normal to you with the Universal Ideal Jew. (An amusingly extreme version of this phenomenon is Danny Boyarin's Unheroic Conduct which argues that, by rabbinic Judaism's own standards, "sissies" are the ideal Jews. In his parallel universe, being an Arafat-hugging homosexual goes beyond "not that there's anything wrong with that"; it's actually the epitome of frumkeit. Whatever.)

Now, perhaps your objection is to certain Israeli policies. Let's get specific. Should Israeli soldiers not check baby carriages, ambulances, wheel chairs for explosives? Should the Shabak not barge into houses to arrest terrorists preparing attacks? I don't know of any unpleasant measures used by Israel which do not directly or indirectly save innocent lives. If you do, please enlighten me.

Perhaps you believe that simply turning tail and abandoning the areas captured in 1967 will somehow render these tactics unnecessary. There is no basis for that whatsoever. Whether or not withdrawal is worthwhile for other reasons, the Arabs will continue to use terror and other tactics to try to liquidate us and we will need to use all the same tactics to defend ourselves.

One of you argued from ve-asisa hayashar vehatov that we have not done right by the Arabs. I must be candid with you. Only an am ha-aretz argues from psukim and only a moral shvitzer demands that others be kind to those who wish to murder them. I don't believe this is the proper forum for a halachic discussion of the proper attitude towards non-Jews with whom one is at war. The main sources are all capably analyzed in Responsa Bnei Banim, Part 3, Chapters 40-42.

I have the uneasy feeling that some of you don't actually know any soldiers who are waging the war we are now in and you form your impressions of them by what you read in the newspapers. And perhaps -- here I'm being harsh -- you are not so much offering carefully thought-out moral judgements as giving expression to the angst you feel when being judged by your non-Jewish or assimilated Jewish colleagues who get their information from the newspapers. I can only say this: betoch ami ani yoshev. I have been retired from the army but the soldiers whom you judge from afar are my friends and neighbors and their children. Each of them wrestles -- with wisdom and sensitivity -- with the difficult moral dilemmas presented by the intermingling of non-combatants with combatants. Each and every one of them makes me proud.

If anybody shows signs of moral insensitivity, it is those who sit at a comfortable distance from the battlefield and presume to pass judgement.