My Response to Bari Weiss
Bari Weiss is the founder and lead editor of The Free Press, to which I subscribe. Over the weekend, she video recorded and posted a very strong message in response to the murder of Sarah Milgrim, an American Jewish woman and Yaron Lischinsky, an Israeli Christian man. These two young adults worked together at the Israeli embassy in the District of Columbia and were days away from a marriage engagement.
Yaron and Sarah were shot dead by Elias Rodrigue of Chicago. As he was arrested, Elias chanted “Free, free Palestine. I did it for Palestine. I did it for Gaza.”
This is a terrible act of violence, and Elias will be incarcerated, charged, and tried for murder; and rightly so.
Bari Weiss spoke to this event and tied it to anti-Jewish protests around the world, including here in the Untied States. She described these episodes as “the global Intifada” by which she means a world-wide uprising against Jews.
“Intifada” is an Arabic word that is translated as “uprising” and has been used to describe two recent periods of organized, sustained Arabic or Palestinian protest against the state of Israel and its treatment of Palestinians: the first from 1987-1993 and the second from 2000-2005. “Globalize the Intifada” is a phrase now in use by pro-Palestinian activists to support the Palestinian calls for justice.
Bari Weiss interpreted these political activities as yet another episode of anti-Jewish sentiment, and she denounced them as dangerous to Jews everywhere. But one thing she did not do is properly place this double murder in the context of the Israeli war against Gaza. Yes, she rightly traced much of these terrible events to the Hamas attack on Israelis on October 7, 2023. But she failed to deal adequately with the Israeli retaliation, their sustained bombing of Gaza.
Which brings this fundamental question: How then can we express our disgust at the continuing Israeli bombardment of the people of Gaza?
The basic moral structure of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam recognizes the law of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” by which is meant that a response to wickedness is to be proportional to the offense.
No one blames Israel for responding in force to the unprovoked attack that killed more than one thousand Israelis and took more than 200 hostages. But likewise, no one sees justification in the sustained revenge that has killed more than 60,000 Gazans and left hundreds more wounded, orphaned, and malnourished. Even many Israelis repudiate these actions of their national leaders.
For 18 months we have watched the greatest military power in the Middle East bomb the hell out of the men, women, and children of Gaza. The 24-hour news cycle has brought this violent and vengeful struggle onto our handheld screens day after day. Bombings and invasions have been followed by the recent blockade that has prevented humanitarian aid (food and medicine) from reaching the starving population of Gaza.
If this is not genocide, what is?
But to publish such a paragraph or to ask such a question is to be accused of anti-Semitic rhetoric, of joining the global intifada, of walking down the road toward another Holocaust. This is not right.
What is right and just for people, including me, is to love and support the Jewish people while at the same time denouncing publicly the actions of the Israeli government.
People like myself here and around the world are angry about the continuing bombardment. Now, U. S. President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu are talking publicly about assuming ownership of Gaza and displacing some or all of the Palestinian people.
We must have avenues of public protest without having accusations of racism thrown at us.
A few months ago, the CEO of United Health Care Brian Thompson was shot and killed outside a hotel in New York City. Luigi Mangione was tracked down in Pennsylvania, arrested, and charged with the murder. Investigation is still underway, but it appears that this murder was a lone and desperate protest against a powerful and wealthy insurance company that denies claims for medical care while making billions in profits.
Now, a lone gunman shot dead two young staffers at the Israeli embassy in Washington. It appears to be a similar act of desperation, a lone gunman protesting the acts of a wealthy and powerful country.
Both gunmen risked death or life in prison in order to act out their convictions, their anger, their frustration. These murderous acts are wicked and must be condemned. But likewise the actions of multi-national companies and Middle Eastern armies are even more wicked and our expressions of condemnation must be received for what they are: righteous and legal and necessary.
I know the dangers Israel faces. I have vivid memories of October 6, 1983. Yom Kippur. I stood on the third floor veranda on the Shabbat morning in Jerusalem and watched as Israeli jets streaked through the skies and, a little later, Israeli tanks rolled down the highway. It was the beginning of the Yom Kippur War. Israel has a right to live in peace among its neighbors.
But Israel does not have the moral right to decimate Gaza and murder its people. Palestinians have a right to self-determination, a right to their own homeland, and a right to live free and prosperous. And I have a right to speak my mind about these things without being stamped with the prejudices of other people.
God bless the Jews. God bless the Palestinians. God bless those who are trying to bring peace among these people.
subscribe to the weekly newsletter to read all of Dr. Moody’s commentaries.
My Response to Bari Weiss
Bari Weiss is the founder and lead editor of The Free Press, to which I subscribe. Over the weekend, she video recorded and posted a very strong message in response to the murder of Sarah Milgrim, an American Jewish woman and Yaron Lischinsky, an Israeli Christian man. These two young adults worked together at the Israeli embassy in the District of Columbia and were days away from a marriage engagement.
Yaron and Sarah were shot dead by Elias Rodrigue of Chicago. As he was arrested, Elias chanted “Free, free Palestine. I did it for Palestine. I did it for Gaza.”
This is a terrible act of violence, and Elias will be incarcerated, charged, and tried for murder; and rightly so.
Bari Weiss spoke to this event and tied it to anti-Jewish protests around the world, including here in the Untied States. She described these episodes as “the global Intifada” by which she means a world-wide uprising against Jews.
“Intifada” is an Arabic word that is translated as “uprising” and has been used to describe two recent periods of organized, sustained Arabic or Palestinian protest against the state of Israel and its treatment of Palestinians: the first from 1987-1993 and the second from 2000-2005. “Globalize the Intifada” is a phrase now in use by pro-Palestinian activists to support the Palestinian calls for justice.
Bari Weiss interpreted these political activities as yet another episode of anti-Jewish sentiment, and she denounced them as dangerous to Jews everywhere. But one thing she did not do is properly place this double murder in the context of the Israeli war against Gaza. Yes, she rightly traced much of these terrible events to the Hamas attack on Israelis on October 7, 2023. But she failed to deal adequately with the Israeli retaliation, their sustained bombing of Gaza.
Which brings this fundamental question: How then can we express our disgust at the continuing Israeli bombardment of the people of Gaza?
The basic moral structure of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam recognizes the law of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” by which is meant that a response to wickedness is to be proportional to the offense.
No one blames Israel for responding in force to the unprovoked attack that killed more than one thousand Israelis and took more than 200 hostages. But likewise, no one sees justification in the sustained revenge that has killed more than 60,000 Gazans and left hundreds more wounded, orphaned, and malnourished. Even many Israelis repudiate these actions of their national leaders.
For 18 months we have watched the greatest military power in the Middle East bomb the hell out of the men, women, and children of Gaza. The 24-hour news cycle has brought this violent and vengeful struggle onto our handheld screens day after day. Bombings and invasions have been followed by the recent blockade that has prevented humanitarian aid (food and medicine) from reaching the starving population of Gaza.
If this is not genocide, what is?
But to publish such a paragraph or to ask such a question is to be accused of anti-Semitic rhetoric, of joining the global intifada, of walking down the road toward another Holocaust. This is not right.
What is right and just for people, including me, is to love and support the Jewish people while at the same time denouncing publicly the actions of the Israeli government.
People like myself here and around the world are angry about the continuing bombardment. Now, U. S. President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu are talking publicly about assuming ownership of Gaza and displacing some or all of the Palestinian people.
We must have avenues of public protest without having accusations of racism thrown at us.
A few months ago, the CEO of United Health Care Brian Thompson was shot and killed outside a hotel in New York City. Luigi Mangione was tracked down in Pennsylvania, arrested, and charged with the murder. Investigation is still underway, but it appears that this murder was a lone and desperate protest against a powerful and wealthy insurance company that denies claims for medical care while making billions in profits.
Now, a lone gunman shot dead two young staffers at the Israeli embassy in Washington. It appears to be a similar act of desperation, a lone gunman protesting the acts of a wealthy and powerful country.
Both gunmen risked death or life in prison in order to act out their convictions, their anger, their frustration. These murderous acts are wicked and must be condemned. But likewise the actions of multi-national companies and Middle Eastern armies are even more wicked and our expressions of condemnation must be received for what they are: righteous and legal and necessary.
I know the dangers Israel faces. I have vivid memories of October 6, 1983. Yom Kippur. I stood on the third floor veranda on the Shabbat morning in Jerusalem and watched as Israeli jets streaked through the skies and, a little later, Israeli tanks rolled down the highway. It was the beginning of the Yom Kippur War. Israel has a right to live in peace among its neighbors.
But Israel does not have the moral right to decimate Gaza and murder its people. Palestinians have a right to self-determination, a right to their own homeland, and a right to live free and prosperous. And I have a right to speak my mind about these things without being stamped with the prejudices of other people.
God bless the Jews. God bless the Palestinians. God bless those who are trying to bring peace among these people.
subscribe to the weekly newsletter to read all of Dr. Moody’s commentaries.
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