The Genocide-Prevention Holiday

Jonathan S. Tobin
Commentary/Contentions
18 March '11

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/03/18/the-genocide-prevention-holiday/

The world was understandably obsessed this week with the disaster in Japan and the civil war in Libya. That’s part of the reason why two other news stories in the Middle East were largely ignored. One was the bloody massacre of five members of a Jewish family in a West Bank settlement. The other was Israel’s capture of a ship with a cargo of Iranian arms intended for the Hamas terrorists who govern Gaza. While the world’s attention is currently diverted from Israel and its dispute with the Palestinians, no matter what happens elsewhere, we know that sooner or later the narrative that depicts the Jewish state as being unwilling to make peace will return to the top of the international media’s agenda. And when it does, we will again be treated to more distorted stories about heartless Jews and Palestinian victims that will reinforce the false impression that the lack of peace is due to Israeli and not Arab intransigence. When that happens, observers would do well to recall the slaughtered Jewish family and the Iranian arms shipment.

Yet the juxtaposition of these two events with the holiday that Jews celebrate this weekend is a coincidence worth noting. The Jewish calendar is littered with dates that mourn tragedy and celebrate triumph. But Purim, which begins at sundown on Saturday night, is special in that it highlights the perils of weakness in the face of hate and the importance of taking timely action to head off mass murder. Indeed, the symbolism of this festival is such that, earlier this year, the Iranian government, which is led by men who seek to emulate Haman — the ancient Persian villain whose failed attempt to slaughter the Jews is chronicled in the Book of Esther — announced plans to turn the site in that country that is traditionally known as the Tomb of Esther and Mordechai into a museum commemorating those killed by Jews defending themselves against Haman’s attempted genocide.

The willingness of Palestinians to descend to the bestiality required to slit the throat of a sleeping Jewish infant (a feat reportedly commemorated in Gaza by the distribution of sweets) and the determination of Iran to pursue its own genocidal plans for the Jews by both sending arms to Hamas terrorists and proceeding with their nuclear project illustrates the horrific nature of the ongoing siege of Israel. Though Israel’s critics, as well as some in the Obama administration, sometimes speak as if all that was needed to end this conflict were but a few more concessions from Prime Minister Netanyahu, this week’s buried stories demonstrate the intractable nature of this conflict and the necessity of Israeli strength and military daring in the face of such threats.

The message of Purim is that if you really want to stop genocide, you need to do two things: speak up and then act decisively. That’s what Esther and Mordechai did, and what Israel and its friends must continue to do to head off the desire of latter-day Hamans to wipe out the Jewish people. That is a lesson that applies to more than threats to the Jews, an important point to remember when cynics urge inaction rather than intervention to topple tyrants and to forestall mass murder around the globe.

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