Fri. Feb 14th, 2025

Between the bad and the worse

The history of the Jewish people is full of choices between something bad and something worse. Between bad and worse, bad is preferable. It is better, even if it is not good. It consoles, it does not satisfy.

Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakai, during the siege of Jerusalem, negotiated and capitulated to Vespasian in order to preserve the study of the sources, the academic heritage of Judaism. He kept the academy of Yavneh and its students. Many criticized this position, which meant the definitive defeat at the hands of Rome, but it achieved the survival of Judaism to this day. It was bad to capitulate, worse to disappear in a lost war against a cruel empire. Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakai chose something bad: the temple of Jerusalem would not be saved, rabbinical Judaism would be founded, which allowed the preservation of Judaism. The worst would have been the total destruction of the people and their knowledge. Titus, the son of Vespasian, ended up burning the second temple of Jerusalem and Jerusalem.

The history of the modern State of Israel has several episodes in which the choice had to be made between something bad and something worse. Ben Gurion collaborated with the British in World War II despite the cruelty of the White Paper, which drastically and cruelly limited Jewish immigration to British Mandatory Palestine. Not collaborating with the British war effort would be supporting the Nazis, something undoubtedly worse. 

October 7, 2023 means for Israel and the Jews a very strong wake-up call of how cheap and uncried Jewish blood is by a terrifying majority. It is the most tragic event since the Shoah, the Holocaust. Men, women and children were murdered, abused and kidnapped. The world has been impassive in the face of the facts known to all. After almost sixteen months of war, of unsuspected events in the convulsed Middle East, with 98 hostages in Gaza, a plan is reached that could free the unfortunate victims in unconfirmed stages.

The agreement that is beginning to be implemented just as these lines are being written is bad. Israel does not receive all the hostages, there is a capricious and unfair classification of these, and the other party and its allies are treated as respectable entities. Without going into any other qualifiers, it is enough to mention that they are kidnappers. And kidnapping is a crime that everyone strongly condemns, except in this particular case of the Israelis. 

Within Israel there are conflicting positions. On the one hand, there is the ethical commitment to rescue the kidnapped people at any price. These are innocent people, families suffering from the disappearance of their loved ones. There are all kinds of individuals, including children. The pain of the entire Israeli society is immense, the shame of having allowed October 7 to happen is tremendous. It is the suffering of an entire nation. 

The past experience of exchanging Israeli hostages for convicted prisoners in Israel has been disastrous. Those released from Israeli jails go on the loose and more attacks occur. One need not go far: Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind and material author of the events of October 7, 2023, was released when 1000 prisoners were exchanged for Gilad Shalit on October 18, 2011. There is no doubt that a mass release agreement is dangerous. Is this a sufficient argument for not accepting an agreement that releases hostages even in dribs and drabs?

The consideration that compels the agreement to be made is that it would be worse not to do so. The 98 hostages would be condemned to death. It is terrible to receive them in installments, but it is a matter of saving those that can be saved. Israel has pressed to recover its hostages, but the world consensus is that it must negotiate with those who hold these unfortunate victims. The position of those who pressure Israel to implement this agreement, without exerting full pressure on those who act as its counterpart, is not very well understood. Kidnapping is legitimized as a bargaining tool. Those who support the kidnappers are tolerated. Convicted and confessed prisoners are released. Quotas are negotiated and those are blithely labeled as humanitarian reasons.

Would any other nation in the world negotiate such terms with those holding its citizens hostage? Are there wars in which one side provides humanitarian aid to the other without demanding surrender? The Middle East is not only complicated but Kafkaesque.

When the first three girls to be released arrive home, everyone in Israel is overcome with indescribable joy. Emotions are expressed in tears, and people cannot stop thinking about the rest of the hostages, how terrible it will be for those who return dead, or whether the agreement will finally be completed. Again and again, Israelis and Jews, as well as other good people, ask themselves why not all the hostages have been released, why this terrible situation continues. The answer is obvious and sad.

The Israeli leadership chose to accept this agreement, which, although bad, is better than the alternative of not having the hostages returned partially or completely, even knowing the risks involved. The pressure exerted on Israel to agree to negotiate and accept the terms of the negotiation was tremendous. From its closest ally, the United States of America, and through the outgoing administration of Joe Biden and the incoming one of Donald Trump. The Israelis and the Jews, always grateful for their friends and their gestures of solidarity, do not hesitate to recognize the efforts and interest of the Americans in resolving this matter. The bitter taste of feeling pressured, and without all the hostages returned, remains of negotiating with those with whom one should not deal under any circumstances. Forced to choose between the bad and the worse.

From "no" from Joe Biden to “hell” From Trump, one common denominator can be found: Jewish blood is cheap. We are grateful that we have been able to choose the best… but between the bad and the worst.

As always, we must entrust ourselves to God.

Elías Farache S.

3 thoughts on “Between the bad and the worse”
  1. Mr. Farache S.: The October 7 pogrom did NOT occur in a Shtetl in Europe, but within the borders of the sovereign State of Israel. And it happened because the political and military leadership of the most powerful military power in the region (ISRAEL) was convinced that the suitcases with millions of dollars arriving from Qatar for Hamas would leave it “satisfied” and without anti-Israeli plans. That is the whole truth, and that is why the Netanyahu government refuses to convene a National Investigative Commission.

  2. The best of the Jews-Israelites. Brief parable and political cartoon: Question: What happens if a fly falls into the coffee? Answers. From the British: “Throw the contents of the coffee cup and… leave the place.” - From the USA = (Yankee, North Am..) “Take the fly out of the cup and drink the coffee.” - From the Chinese: “She eats the fly and throws the coffee away.” - From the Japanese: “Drink the coffee with the fly, because the fly is a free addition.” - From the Palestinian: “Accuse (to your mother) the Israeli for the violent act of putting the fly… and ask for all the help from the UN.” - From the Jewish/Israeli: “SELL the coffee to the American… the fly to the Chinese and ask for lemons from my garden” (the gardener fcq) Greetings.

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