By
Rabbi D.B. Ganz
What does the Talmud advise when it
comes to protecting the U.S. from terrorism? The
Talmudic approach to combating terrorism:
The USA should announce to the world:
All Muslim terror groups, even those with no concrete
plans for specific attacks, are dedicated to slaying Western infidels. Their
members are thus all coming to kill. The same holds true for people and
countries that host or in any way assist them. Unfortunately, discussing the
virtues of not killing with all such people is pointless for they lack the
humanity to feel that murder is improper. Instead, immediately killing many of
them is the only way to stop their planned murders of our own good and innocent
people.
Accordingly, we shall begin launching all out attacks
against the military and civilians of any country anywhere in the world that in
any way hosts or assists terrorists. We are first issuing a warning and giving
you two weeks to expel, imprison or execute these killers in your midst and
demonstrate evidence of such. After that time, our policy of, “If one is coming to kill you, rise up and kill him” will
be in effect. This will also apply to those who
assist the terrorists financially or even allow them movement of funds.
When it comes to protecting our people, we will not
recognize our so called ‘friends.’ If Saudi Arabia is found assisting
terrorists financially as they have been rumored to in the past, we will attack
that country as well. If Pakistan continues turning a deliberate blind eye to
killers living in their country as they did for years in the case of Osama bin
Laden, we will attack them.
We will limit ourselves to conventional weapons. But if
Pakistan, or any other country, so much as mentions attacking the US with
nuclear weapons, we will consider using our own far superior nuclear arsenal of
weapons against them. Although this raises the terrifying specter of nuclear
war, if the Pakistanis know the US is serious, they will back down. In such an
all-out conflict, Heaven forbid, they may or may not succeed in somewhat
harming the US. But for sure, their entire country would be annihilated. As
already mentioned, though the Pakistanis may not care at all if their “guests” detonate
a bomb in Peoria, they would strongly object to being vaporized themselves
because of those same terrorists.
The message to Iran’s leaders is: unlike you, we are humane
people, and to us, harming anyone is repugnant. You, however, give us no
choice. For decades, you have been the world’s foremost sponsor of terrorist
murder. The gruesome marks of your bloodstained hands are everywhere where
civilized people live. Now you are building nuclear weapons to further threaten
and destabilize the world. You, more than anyone on the planet, are coming
to kill. We know intellectually and experientially, that negotiating with
you about your murderous intentions is pointless. Hence, if we repeat the
catastrophic 1930’s appeasement of Adolph Hitler and allow you to continue
arming yourself with nuclear weapons, it could lead to altogether more death
than even the Nazis caused. You therefore have one day to go away peacefully
and surrender control of your country and its nuclear program. If you do not,
we will immediately launch an all-out attack on your nuclear facilities and
embark upon a systematic bombing of your country’s military and population
centers. We will not stop until your country surrenders.
Mention has been made in this chapter and elsewhere in
this book of the notion that, “Compassion where there should be cruelty begets
far greater cruelty where there would have been compassion.” The idea likely
applies to this instance more than to any other scenario mentioned in this
volume. If the USA follows the anti-terrorist policy of this chapter and is
prepared to carry it out, there might be some initial cruelty and loss of life.
The terrorist threat, however, will be mostly removed. If, however, it shies
away from this proactive and forceful approach in the name of humanity,
infinitely greater cruelty and bloodshed could result. It is thus the moral
duty of all countries threatened by terrorists to respond in this manner. It is
a component of a government’s overarching obligation to protect its citizens. What
the Talmud advocates is not moral cruelty; it is moral clarity. [more...]
