On Weapons, Money and War

Today marks the 162nd day of genocide in Gaza. Since October 7th, around 32,000 Gazans have been murdered - that is every 1 in 75 Gazans. Over 12,300 children and 8,400 women have been killed, though this is not to devalue the lives of the men of Gaza either. Over 73,000 people have been injured and 8,000 are missing in Gaza. In the West Bank, where military and settler violence has grown in extremity, 433 people have been killed, of those, 116 are children, and over 4,600 people are injured.

It feels impossible to understand the totality of this devastation. Morally speaking, it also feels impossible to understand why our government continues to prop it up. We hear empty rhetoric about needing to ensure Jewish safety or about the faiures of some ill-faited efforts at peace, but ultimately - so much of what we are witnessing can be explained by capitalism and the powers that stand to gain from this continued genocide. 

Of course, we could spend our time talking about AIPAC, or organizations sending millions of dollars to the illegal settlements, but in the theme of the weekend of action - I want to talk about ties between weapons manufacturers and our congressional delegation, and I want to frame this within a Jewish context. 

As we will talk about more in a few minutes, every single one of the members of the federal delegation has received campaign contributions from the “defense industry.” Since weapons companies benefit eternally from the war machine, they require the will of politicians to keep their wheels turning. There are many different ways to talk about this relationship, history, motivations and the ethics behind it, but I wanted to turn to some Jewish text.

In Leviticus chapter 19:16 we read: Do not profit off the blood of your fellow. In a religion where texts often have many extra words, varying meanings, and can be interpreted endlessly, it feels poignant that Judaism is so clear on this. It is simple, we should not have financial gain from killing. I wish that any of our leaders would read something so simple and internalize what this means. 

Instead of doing what is just, instead of ending the violence, we see our delegation act with a stunning lack of coherence where they talk about “doing everything they can '' to reign in the Israeli government’s and military’s human rights abuses while also profiting off the industry that keeps the violence flowing. 

Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, an orthodox Rabbi who lived from 1933-2015, wrote: It is exceedingly vital that he who goes to war knows that he is not passing from a world with one order of values to a world governed by a different order of values. One man, and one nation, cannot be split in two. As so in every situation, at the acme of the hierarchy of values must mean peace.

While I agree with Liechtenstein that we need to value peace, and that many who orchestrate war abandon this principle, I also come to this from a very different perspective. Lichtenstein wrote this in 1973 while he was living in Jerusalem and leading a school for Orthodox Jews. He was a religious zionist who seemed to think that war was okay as long as it was defensive. I do not need to tell you all that Zionism has used the pretext of defense in horrifying and indefensible ways. What he and I think of as peace is probably different. For me it means that Palestinians have the right to movement, to return to their land, the right to live, to worship, to happiness. It means liberation for everyone regardless of race, ethnicity, religion and nation of origin. 

Our leaders have lost their way, or maybe, this was not something they ever considered. Their intentions may never have been to improve the world. All too often, those in politics do it for the money, the power, the notoriety, and not because they want to live in a world governed by peace. They do not care about the moral implications of making their money off of blood; and as a result of their “leadership”, we as Americans have been forced into supporting their vision of a world where weapons companies get to direct our priorities. 

Back when I used to go to synagogue, we used to say this prayer for the United States that began as follows: Our God and God of ancestors: We ask Your blessings for our country - for its government, for its leaders and advisors, and for all who exercise just and rightful authority. Teach them insights from Your Torah, that they may administer all affairs of state fairly, that peace and security, happiness and prosperity, justice and freedom may forever abide in our midst. 

This prayer always felt empty to me. I remember being 8 years old and listening to the Iraq war declaration on the radio and seeing the intense pride that my parents and my community felt for going to war. I would go to synagogue each week, and recite this prayer and even then - I understood that as much as I wanted my leaders to center peace, they did not want this for themselves. I also realized that for them, the “peace” they imagined,and the one that my synagogue imagened, was one of domination and suppression rather than of liberation.

It felt fruitless to pray for it to be different. Even as a kid, I didn’t believe in any kind of interventionist god who could make these people act differently. Fast forwarding a bit over two decades and it still feels empty to hope that our current leaders will do better, that they will leave the world of violence and money for one that is different.

Though this is how it feels today, I do not think that it has to be forever, and I would not be standing in front of you if I didn't believe that things could change or that we could play a role in this. We cannot give up the belief that we have the power to build another world, that we can instill better leaders who do hold the values of tzedek - justice, and chesed - kindness. We can and must continue to seek justice because true liberation and peace demands it.

Over the past weeks that we have shared this space together, I have spoken about what it means to reimagine a better world, bring aspects of heaven down to earth in our actions, to embody the values that wish to see in the world and to gather the light of the world and create something new. To build a world where war is not a financial incentive and Palestine is free. To build a war where to quote a 19th century prayer from Likutei Tefilot: war and bloodshed cease, where a great peace will embrace the whole world, where nation will not threaten nation, and humanity will not again know war.