A friend of mine, whom I consider a great historian, explained to me how to win the war on terror.

First of all, we must know that there are way more Arabs & Muslims out there who would prefer not to have a war than there are those who wish to see this war continue.

However, this majority cannot speak up. Sometimes they are silenced by oppressive governments such as Iran and Syria. But they are also globally silenced by something the West fails to understand: Honor.

Most Arab terrorists in Israel chose their fate as a means of reestablishing their honor in their community. Usually these people were involved in drugs, thievery, rape, or other crimes. This goes for female terrorists as well who were accused of adultery or collaborating with Israel. The radical Islamists latch on to such individuals and convince them that the only way - nay, the best way - to cleanse their reputation and reestablish their honor is to prove themselves by attacking Israeli civilians, American soldiers, British soldiers, etc.

Khaled Abu Toameh says of the recent bulldozer terrorists:

Dwayat, who carried out the first attack on July 2, had lived in his neighborhood with a Jewish woman even though he was never married to her. He was also known as a drug addict who had spent time in prison for rape.

Abu Tir, the bulldozer driver in Tuesday’s attack, also had a criminal record and was reputed to have been involved with drugs and theft.

According to the sources, both men apparently came under pressure from radical elements to do something to restore their “honor” and “cleanse” their reputations.

Ala Abu Dhaim, the man from the capital’s Jebl Mukaber neighborhood who went on a shooting spree at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva in March, had also been dubbed by some of his neighbors as a “petty criminal.”

In the conservative Arab culture, when an individual is involved in a crime, he is often accused of having disgraced not only himself, but his entire clan. (jpost.com)

Toameh goes on to say that this is common for Arab terrorists in Israel.

So how can we use this theme to defeat the terrorists?
We must take a lesson from history.

World War two was ended by radical means. For the first time in history, humans used the nuclear bomb against other humans. Tens of thousands died in seconds, and many times more were harmed through long-term radiation.

However, the historical and military consensus is that the Japanese armed forces would have continued to fight the Americans until the point of utter defeat, and bloody defeat, costing millions of lives.

Why?

The Japanese armed forces were part of an honor based society.

There are only two options with honor based societies when it comes to war.
1) Complete, vast, bloody, crippling military defeat (which costs many more lives on both sides).
or,

2) Strike a blow(s) so powerful that the honor based society is “allowed” to surrender.

3) See footnote¹.

So with two nuclear bombs, suddenly surrender is no longer dishonorable. Rather, in the face of such force, the only honorable thing to do is surrender. It’s playing, and winning, by their rules.

And just because you win does not mean you cannot become partners and friends decades later, as America and Japan now are.

For the silent majority of Arabs and Muslims to be allowed to claim “surrender,” perhaps we, the West, must package such a claim as honorable.²

The mitzvah that Jews have of “Ahavat Yisrael”¹ (to love their fellow Jew) is a deeply mystical, emotional, and foundational mitzvah for the Jewish people. And we shall see, for all people ².

Yet some of us are confused about the way Ahavat Yisrael works. Is it enough to just love someone in theory? What does it look like when you really, truly love a person or people? (this applies in many interpersonal contexts)

The Lebavetcher Rebbe zs”l used to hand out $1 bills every sunday. Jews would wait in long lines to receive a dollar, and a blessing, from the Rebbe. The person would then donate the dollar to whatever charity moved their heart. As my rabbi said when he told this story, “the Rebbe was obsessed with charity!”

He started the sunday dollar handouts when he was already in his 80’s, and continued for many years, handing out millions of dollar bills. And each sunday he would stand there for hours - 2, 3, 4 hours at a time, without taking a break, and without sitting.

One day an elderly lady came to receive a dollar from the Rebbe. When her turn finally arrived, she said to the Rebbe,

“Rebbe, I have waited in line for a whole hour, standing on my feet, in my old age. To get a dollar and a blessing from you, it is well worth it. But you, you stand here for hours every week. Why not bring a chair and sit for a while?”

The Rebbe responded to her, “My dear lady, when one is counting diamonds, he does not get tired.”

When the Rebbe - or any tzadik (saintly person) - looked at a person, he did not see their nose. He saw their neshama (soul).

The Rebbe taught us what true Ahavat Yisrael is. To really love the people of Israel is to see them for who they really are, and not for their external casing.

It is the love of the Jewish people that stopped the terrorist attack in Jerusalem yesterday.

The religious off-duty soldier recounts what happened:

“As far as what happened,” Moshe Plesser³ continued: “I was bicycling from the center of town [westward] towards my home, when I saw a bulldozer battering a bus lying on its side and a lot of commotion. I immediately realized that it was a terrorist attack. I threw the bicycle to the side, and I ran⁴ towards the scene, trying to get as close as I could to the bulldozer so that I could get on it and stop the driver. As I got closer I tried to somehow get a weapon. When the bulldozer stopped, a policeman climbed up, and I climbed up right behind him, screaming at him to shoot.”

“Oron Ben-Shimon, with whom I was privileged to cooperate in stopping the terrorist, also climbed up, and he and the policeman tried to stop him with their hands. At first I could not shoot him, because the policeman stood in between us and the terrorist. The terrorist suddenly got up and started to drive again, screaming out Allahu Akbar, and Oron was able to turn the steering wheel so that the bulldozer wouldn’t run over more cars. Finally, I was able to grab⁵ Oron’s gun and shoot over the heads of the policeman and Oron, three bullets to his head. Then a Yassam policeman got on and fired again to ascertain his death.”

(in full at Israelnn.com)

The police officer’s failure to even think to shoot the terrorist proves that weapons training is not enough to defend the Jewish people (or your own family or neighborhood). We saw this with the fireman on Sept. 11th who valued American lives with every fiber of their being.

In Israel, it was Moshe Plesser’s tangible, non-hypothetical, love of the Jewish people that left him with zero hesitation in their time of need.⁶ This is true Ahavat Yisrael.

Today we were able to better grasp what Ahavat Yisrael - loving the Jewish people - means.

In the next post, we’ll discuss what the Jewish people must know about Ahavat Yisrael as relates to the Bnei Noach, and what the Bnei Noach must know about Ahavat Yisrael as relates to the Jewish people.

Stay tuned