Israel’s War on Hamas: To What End?
By Rabbi Boaz D. Heilman
August 21, 2025
The question of Israel’s war against Hamas leaves few people on the sidelines. You are either for or against. Which side you take defines not only your opinions, but also your values, as well as who you associate with. Ultimately, this war, possibly more than any other, has taken on an additional characteristic by which it is judged: ethics and morality. If the war is about survival (again, it doesn’t matter whose) then anything is permissible. Survival, after all, is the natural claim of every living organism, and is a basic human right. If, on the other hand, the war is “only” about occupation, then there are some rules, though these may be debatable. Is it permissible, for example, as the Lebanese journalist Ghadi Francis recently declared, “to kill an Israeli… wherever you see him in the world”?
Survival isn’t about ethics or morality. It’s about life or death. There is no in-between. Evil, however, is all about morality, a value we define and classify (and often struggle with), a standard that helps us make choices and determine our course of behavior.
In the Israel-Hamas war, evil has been invoked by both sides.
I will not get into this discussion right now; rivers of words and blood have already sprung freely from this concept, leading to obfuscation of the miserable fact that human beings are suffering, that lives of real—not theoretical—people are at stake.
But since I was asked to express my opinion on the recently published petition, “A Call for Moral Clarity, Responsibility, and a Jewish Orthodox Response in the Face of the Gaza Humanitarian Crisis” (https://www.timesofisrael.com/80-modern-orthodox-rabbis-urge-moral-clarity-in-face-of-gaza-humanitarian-crisis), I will limit my comments as much as possible and yet try to respond in as clear a manner as possible.
In 2005, Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip, dismantling all its 21 settlements there and evicting more than 8000 settlers. The unilateral disengagement came seven months after the end of the second Intifada, but was recognized more widely as a result of ongoing anti-Israel violence on the part of Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups. The discussion and political maneuvering that preceded the disengagement lasted for months and resulted in further radicalization of the Israel political parties. (Benjamin Netanyahu resigned from Ariel Sharon’s government in protest).
More than half of Israel’s population supported the disengagement. It wasn’t only because of the high price in human life and the cost of maintaining safety and security. There was also hope. Hope that perhaps following this sign of goodwill, peace might take a few steps forward.
Well, we know well what actually followed.
The October 7 pogrom was the culmination of twenty years of terrorism and violence. The war that followed it has—not surprisingly—resulted in massive destruction, suffering and death—and is on the verge of expanding even further. The accusations go in both directions: From one perspective, Israel is committing genocide; from the other, Hamas is evil and needs to be eradicated. There is no middle ground.
But the definition of genocide, like evil, can be pliable. In Reuven Kimmelman’s essay on the Biblical wars between Israel and Amalek, (Kimmelman, Reuven. ”The Ethics of the Case of Amalek: An Alternative Reading of the Biblical Data and the Jewish Tradition.” The Seforim Blog (blog), March 13, 2014), Professor Kimmelman makes a clear distinction between an ethnic and an ethical war. Following the October 7 attack, which resulted in more than 1200 Israelis dead and more than 200 taken hostage, this question has come up once again. The Biblical commandment to obliterate the very memory of the Amalekites is one that rabbis and Biblical scholars have struggled with for centuries. Does God command an actual genocide, down to the old men, women and children, as well as the destruction of all their possessions and livestock? Is that what an ethical God would demand?
In the Israel-Hamas war, Hamas has been compared to Amalek, resulting in the accusation that Israel is committing genocide based on an arcane passage in the Bible that seems to have little historical or moral validity.
But the Torah’s injunction against Amalek is anything but random. The Torah presents the nomadic tribe that roamed the Sinai and Arabian deserts, making its living by attacking unprotected caravans and weaker tribes and populations, as its paradigm of evil.
By any human standards, the October 7 attack by Hamas was evil. Hamas represents a society in which terror, murder, sexual violence and indiscriminate destruction are idealized and even sanctified. The evidence is clear and overwhelming—in volume, content and emotional impact. Blogger Reuven Spero summarizes it succinctly:
“Are there societies that deserve to be destroyed? Societies where the politicians and soldiers take shelter far underneath the ground and order an attack that will inevitably bring suffering upon their own people? Who steal international aid that has been provided for free by other countries - even their enemies - and hoard it for themselves, selling surplus at ruinous prices in order to finance the continuation of this war. Who, when attacking their enemies, do not content themselves by targeting soldiers and military infrastructure, but who murder, rape, mutilate, burn to death, and torture civilians? Who drag off hundreds, alive and dead, to tunnels and do not allow basic humanitarian aid to their captives, but rather starve them to death?” (Spero, Reuven. “R’ae: Children, Sex, and Destroying a Society.” Reuvenations (blog), August 20, 2025, /open.substack.com/…/r’ae-children-sex-and…/).
But now we return to the question I was asked to comment on: My position on the petition signed by more than eighty Orthodox rabbis seeking an end to the Gaza war.
The short answer is that I cannot add my name to the list of signatories, but not because I disagree with them. They are distinguished and learned rabbis whose scholarship and opinions I value highly. I can’t sign because in my mind doing so would be a grave disservice to those who sacrificed life and limb in defense of Israel—a great and important mitzvah in itself—and in following God’s invective against evil.
On the other hand, I too would like to see the war end as soon as possible. I don’t believe that eradicating Hamas—even if that were possible, which I’m not certain about—would result in an end to the hatred and violence against Israel and the Jews. This hatred goes back centuries and is rooted in Islamic culture and religion (though to be sure there are many Muslims who do not agree with or follow this prejudice). Evil continues to exist, and the struggle to eradicate evil from the world will always be there as well. The validity of Israel’s existence as a people, a religion, a culture and now also as a state, has always been questioned. Carrying on the war to some questionable end and aftermath will not resolve this basic issue. It will only add to the suffering and misery that have already taken such a toll on so many.
The release of the hostages—those who are dead and those who are still (barely) alive—should be the primary goal of the State of Israel at this point. Without a doubt, some will see this as capitulation, guaranteeing the resumption of terror and warfare. Yet for those who value life above death and destruction, this will always be a victory.
Will there be peace after the war ends? Only the most naïve of all would believe that. Of course we can always hope, but along with that we must always remember what Hamas/Amalek did to us. We need not only learn the lessons, but also actively remind ourselves and teach our children. That is the essence of the Biblical injunction (“Remember that which Amalek did to you,” Deut. 25:17-19). As for the eradication of the war on evil, I prefer to look at Ex. 17:16: “[It is] Adonai’s war with Amalek from generation to generation.” Though our hand in the eradication of evil is essential, ultimately this conclusion will be God’s doing.
© 2025 by Boaz D. Heilman
