Originally published at crisis magazine
Not too long ago, I had a conversation with a Catholic friend over the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) fighting in Gaza and its bombing in Lebanon—the IDF had not yet invaded the latter. While we both agreed that Israel, like any other sovereign nation-state, must defend itself against its aggressor, he vehemently sustained that the ongoing slaughter and displacement of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are justified—he had previously told me that the IDF should evacuate (i.e., exterminate) all Palestinians from greater Israel. He argued that just as God had sanctioned the holy wars in the Old Testament, the Jewish State is compelled to do likewise.
Those ultra-orthodox Jews or Zionists, like many among Catholic neo-conservative and Christian fundamentalist circles who believe that Israel is fighting a holy war in the Middle East, refer to the doctrine of the milchemet mitzvah (obligatory war), which is based on the Mishnah, part of the oral traditions of the Talmud.
Many of them point to the conquest of Canaan by Joshua and the Israelites when they carried out the divine command to eradicate the non-Jewish tribes that inhabited the land in order to prevent their sinful ways from spreading:
Orthodox. Faithful. Free.
