In an op-ed on Ynet, Israel’s most popular news site, Rabbi Donniel Hartman of the Hartman Institute demonstrates the moral bankruptcy of Jewish thinking on Israel:
Targeted killings of known terrorist leaders, those with blood on their hands and the self-expressed desire and capacity to spill more blood, are not morally ambiguous, but rather acts of tikkun olam, repairing the world.
(…) I recognize that evil exists, and that it is our responsibility as Israelis and moral duty as Jews to see this evil, and even if we cannot destroy it completely, to do everything in our power to limit it and to not allow its terrorist intent to rule our neighborhood. In doing so, we are not instigating a cycle of violence, but rather giving expression to the value we place on life and our right as a sovereign people to try to provide a safer future for our citizens.
Rabbi Donniel Hartman is the head of the Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, which is “a leader in sophisticated, ideas-based Jewish education for community leaders and change agents” (from their website).
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Response: In the first comment, XYZ asks “What do you want from the guy?” Well, a popular argument about “targeted killings” is that they make “a necessary evil” in modern warfare (I don’t agree, but I understand where this position is coming from). But Hartman is turning everything into a “holy war” against pure evil. This is not politics anymore, but the worst kind of religious-messianic nationalism.