The State of Israel is fighting against foes who seek its annihilation. Anyone who characterizes the October 7 war as one of resistance to the “occupation” is, of course, lying. Israel did not occupy Gaza on October 7, nor has it since the summer of 2005.
Israel’s foes along the Gaza border are the trained murderers of Hamas and the theocratic rulers of Iran who underwrite Hamas’ terror. Iran’s other surrogates – in Lebanon, Syria and Yemen – are also enthusiastic participants in Hamas’ declared mission of “wiping the Jewish state off the map”.
Hamas is the vanguard of a malevolent force of hardcore, resolute haters of Israel and of Jews. They are not freedom fighters. They are not liberators. Their mission statement makes this plain. They demonstrated the depth and the beastly depravity of their hatred for Jews and for Israel in the ghoulish manner in which they attempted to “liberate” the Gaza-area communities on October 7. The mass slaughter on October 7 was in addition to Hamas’ fighting protocols that demands rockets be fired at Israeli civilians from behind the cover of Palestinian civilians.
The truth about Hamas should be easily obvious to people of “ordinary” conscience or moral compass. Sadly however, many people are blind to the obvious. Worse, many people deny it. Many more actually campaign to distort and rewrite the obvious.
After the first wave of revulsion with the October 7 horror, followed immediately by the eruption of anti-Jewish protests around the world, members of the Jewish community expected lay and professional faith leaders to condemn calls for the genocide of the Jews of Israel.
For the most part, however, the leaders of the other faiths have remained silent. That silence has been a shivering cold blow to Jews throughout the world, adding to our increasing sense of isolation.
But not all faith leaders have been silent.
Rev. Dr. Andrew Bennett, the Faith Communities Program Director at Cardus, effectively “shouted” his moral outrage against Hamas’ vile murderous sadism. In an article entitled Failing to Condemn the Murder of Innocents Is a Sign of Moral Rot, originally published in The Hub on October 18, 2023, Rev. Dr. Andrew Bennett wrote: “Prudence rightly exercised shapes my conscience so that I recognize that celebrating (or being silent about) mass atrocities against Jews is abhorrent and beneath me as a human being. Fortitude shapes my conscience such that I stand up and speak out courageously against evil and lies wherever I encounter them, for the good of our human life together. Justice is what I aim to promote when I see these deep ills of society and desire their remedy. Let us stem the moral rot we see and begin to build true solidarity in a more human culture in this country.”
We commend and thank Father Bennett for speaking out so forcefully, so publicly and with such moral gravity. We hope his voice will be heard by other faith leaders and persuade them to speak out in similar fashion.
Father Bennett’s article is available at:
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Am Yisrael Chai. The People of Israel Lives and will always.
Shabbat shalom
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)
November 3, 2023
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education 