In the mass of reports and pictures and videos of the conflagration in Israel over the last week, the heavy disproportion in casualties was bound to surface. As predictable as sunrise, the media settles into its worn habits of reporting the latest iteration of David vs. Goliath. It seems to come down to an easily acquired statistic. Soon enough, those numbers quickly bubble to the top of news reports, as if that alone tells the story. This is what substitutes for real reporting, for the effort to dig into the real issues, and to comprehend the real motivations for the conflict. Instead, it’s somehow enough to show the lopsided numbers; anyone can see from them the clear mismatch of the two sides, and which side must be the underdog.
When scored like a sports event, it is indeed a clear mismatch. The sad and strange thing about this mismatch is that the logic that usually governs such a competition does not apply. In a soccer league, teams which are clearly out of contention are demoted. [To some extent, this is the logic of the Abraham Accords -- to demote, or ignore, the Palestinians and pursue other partners for Israel in the Arab world.]
But there is never a demotion. This is because the Palestinians play two games. To the foreign press, they play the game of compromise and a two-state solution. It is hard to discern actual support for this option. Polling numbers don’t favor this position nor is there leadership working to persuade the people about the painful compromises that would have to be swallowed to achieve it.
Instead, all of the money and the prestige goes to “resistance.” The persistence of that resistance, and its control over Palestinian vision, makes negotiation impossible. There might be a need for two states here, but if only one side concedes that, it cannot happen. (I know that there are also Israelis who speak about a two-state solution but don’t mean it. But the polling of Israelis shows widespread support and the discussion about possibly painful compromises is ubiquitous.)
This uncompromising resistance should result in demotion. But as long as the foreign press and allies believe the side that speaks about compromise, it never will. The Palestinians will never have to choose between the two approaches.
In the meantime, the resistance will never lack for causes of outrage. A byzantine land dispute, which would be utterly uninteresting if it was Palestinians removing Palestinians (or Jews replacing Jews), suddenly becomes an international event. And of course rioting on the Temple Mount can always make it appear that the Al-Aksa mosque is in danger. That canard provoked the Pogrom in 1929, and has rarely failed since.
So the lopsided numbers return. But there’s another way to count. This week, we begin the book called “Numbers” with a Parasha that reckons the population. This is not the first time. Rashi points out that a census took place as they came out of Egypt, and then after the Golden Calf to figure out how many were left. Now there is another counting, after the dedication of the Mishkan. Rashi calls the impulse to repeatedly count the Jews a sign of love. It shows how precious each one is.
The census is a confirmation of the individual, the acknowledgement of the infinite value of the individual. This is why the Mishna in Sanhedrin calls a single person a “full world.” And this is why the lopsided numbers in these flare ups will never tell the story. Each individual is infinite. For that reason, a nation must take seriously the wanton destruction of even one life.
There is a debate about whether the Mishna in Sanhedrin means all people or only Jews. I’m not basing anything on that debate. Any life is precious to Hashem.
The question is who believes the Mishna at all. The Quran contains the same line as the Mishna. Years ago, an Israeli political scientist visiting EB said that this emphasis on the individual was once called a fatal Jewish weakness by an Arab leader. Because they care about even one, he said, they will quickly lose their will to fight.
If it was just about numbers, that would be true. But it is a fight about the values that care about those numbers, a fight we cannot give up. In the Parsha we will read on the first day of Shavuot, there is a warning against storming the mountain. The warning says that if the masses come forward, “a great many will fall.” Rashi notes the use of the singular to speak of how many will fall in the midst of a verse which is in the plural. This means, he says, that even if one should fall, that is called “a great many.” This is the stamp of Har Sinai, the infinite value of the individual. To fight on faithfully means to continue to see even one lost life as too much. Not as too much to absorb. A long road requires one to absorb many blows. But if it becomes merely a number, and not a full world, we will have lost.
Shabbat Shalom
Congregation Emek Beracha 4102 El Camino Real Palo Alto, CA 94306
