The confidence to say “I don’t know”

Deborah Fidel, Executive Director

The news out of Israel has been hard in the last few weeks. The talking heads on TV and other media have been quick to point the finger at Israel for all sorts of bad behavior related to Israel’s war of self-defense in Gaza. Even those of us who love Israel have been challenged by the pictures and accounts of the suffering on the ground. It would be easy to jump on the bandwagon of criticism and declare that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) should or shouldn’t do XYZ, because certain words and ideas have taken root in the public discourse.

Having just returned from Temple Shalom’s second Volunteer Mission to Israel, I know that the picture is not as simple as the media narrative would have us believe. While there, we were privileged to meet and share a meal with soldiers of several units, including elite fighters and officers in the air force. Every single one of these young men and women was exemplary. Their stories of bravery and sacrifice had us in tears and filled us with pride.

When not in uniform, they are engineers, teachers, parents and our fellow Jews. We all commented that they reminded us of our own children and grandchildren, while also recognizing that our kids do not shoulder the burden of conscription, war and decades of reserve duty in order to keep the Jewish people safe. Simply put, the warm, friendly and engaging young people we interacted with could not be more different from the IDF you hear about in the media.

In the IDF, as in any army, everyone has a particular job. The cooks, the engineers and the officers all have different, but important roles to play. As Jews, I believe that we now have a job to do as well. I don’t need to understand the inner workings of IDF military maneuvers to know in my bones that Israel is fighting an existential battle with the forces of evil and that she must prevail in order to preserve the Jewish State and the safety of Jews all around the world. I also know that if the United Nations and western governments would pressure Qatar or Hamas, who is ultimately responsible for every single death and injury in Gaza, (including journalists and aid workers) to return the hostages and surrender, that the war would stop and the people of the region could start to think about “the day after.”

My job as I see it, is to support Israel in her time of need. I am making a conscious decision to root for “my team” and give them the benefit of the doubt when there are challenging episodes, because I don’t know whether Israel could or should be doing anything differently. I have no expertise in urban warfare, precision bombs, drone warfare or artillery fire. Guess what? Neither do most of the “experts” pontificating about the IDF’s conduct! So, no, I will not side with those who are sitting in judgment of Israel’s prosecution of this war, wagging my finger about all the things that they could be doing better, because I don’t know. What I do know is that Israel’s democracy and society are not perfect, but they strive to live up to the values enshrined in the Israeli Declaration of Independence and be a “Light unto the Nations.”

Diaspora Jews have a right and even an obligation in some circumstances to weigh in on matters that affect us in our spiritual homeland. But there is a saying in Israel that “you can’t see from there what we can see from here.”

When it comes to matters of war and peace, life and death, I think that there are times when we need to be brave enough to say “I don’t know” but “hineini!” I am here for you, nonetheless.

Our people in Israel are going through a hard time right now and they need friends who will trust them, and their democratically elected leaders, to make the right decisions – not pile on when there are plenty of talking heads and politicians who are unthinkingly repeating anti-Israel talking points from the comfort and safety of the western world.

Note: During the time I was writing this article (4/4/24), there were three sirens activated in Israel, alerting the residents of 17 communities to seek shelter because Hamas fired rockets at their homes, schools, hospitals and playgrounds (Sderot, Ibim, Nir Am, Zikim, Karmia, Ashkelon, Noam Industrial Zone, Beit Hagdi, Netivot, Shibolim, Sharsheret, Zimrat, Shuva, Kfar Maimon, Tushia, Havat Izra’am and Kfar Azza). Unless you follow Israeli media, I bet you didn’t hear about that.