Bob Schwartz

There is a dispute about how many Palestinians, including children, were killed in the Israeli rescue of four hostages in Gaza. Gaza says 274. Israel says less than 100.

We have to step back and consider that dispute. Is it about numbers? To put it another way, are there moral metrics?

The answer to that last question is: of course. We have forever attached different judgments when bad or questionable acts are done in volume. Mass shootings and massacres have a different character than those with one or a few victims.

In recent and pertinent history, the massacre by Hamas is regularly characterized as the greatest Jewish catastrophe since the Holocaust, which stands as a modern standard for horror. If it had not been six million, but “only” five million or four million, would its character be in any way changed?

In the same recent history, the numbers of Palestinians killed in Gaza has captured the attention of the world. Maybe it is 35,000, maybe more, maybe less, maybe (almost certainly) thousands were children. Does the exact number matter? Is there a line at which “unfortunate but justified and necessary” crosses over? Or, as some in Israel and in America still say, no number is too high, no suffering is too much.

Which brings us back to this particular operation. I am disappointed in Jewish people for a very specific reason. We are the people of the Talmud, one of the greatest disputational records in world history. No detail was too small or arcane to discuss.

Jewish people are free to support any positions and policies they want. But my Talmudic hope is that the discussion goes beyond and beneath reflexive response, exemplified by “right to defend” or “right to exist.” There are questions that should be discussed, openly and without accusation. Earnest questions such as: Is collateral death of 100 different than 274? The Talmudists would have a field day with that one. The fact that we—heirs to those Talmudists—are not having those discussions would make them laugh and cry.

© 2024 by Bob Schwartz