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ver successfully and gain a first strike,
the death toll will be staggering. The
calculus of risk tilts overwhelmingly
toward preemptive action.
Jewish tradition values peace as the
highest good. It envisions a messianic
age in which war will disappear.
However, until the world is perfected,
Jewish law rules that there are two
legitimate types of wars. Other types
of wars are illegitimate and con-
demned.
The first is a war of self-defense "to
save the people of Israel from an
enemy coming at them."
(Maimonides, Yad Hachazakah, Book
ofludges). Self-defense is considered a
milchemet mitzvah, a commanded,
good deed" war.
The second type of legitimate war is
in a situation vvhen it is not clear that
the enemy will definitely attack.
However, the government feels that a
preemptive strike is warranted for
greater security or for expanded
boundaries yielding greater defensive
depth against a possible future
onslaught.
Since the war is not definitively one
of self-defense, it cannot be labeled a
mitzvah, a good deed. However, the
ruler is authorized to pursue this
course of action by his definition of
In my judgment, the Iraq situation is a
classic case of a permitted war. The
Bush administration has decided that
America's security demands preemp-
tive action now. Since the justification
is not self-evident, it is right that
Congress be asked to approve (it
already has done so), and that a wide
range of exemptions (and expressions
of opposition to the war) be allowed.
The likely loss of life among U.S.
armed forces and Iraqis, both military
and civilian, is tragic and heartbreak-
ing. However, given Saddam Hussein's
cruel and barbarous reign, many more
lives will likely be saved by his over-
throw than will be harmed in this war.
Personally, I hope for much more.
Smashing this dictatorship will
erode terrorists' standing everywhere,
encourage moderates and unleash
forces of democratization throughout
the region. States that harbor terror-
ist groups will be shocked into dis-
tancing themselves from these repre-
hensible forces.
Of course, this maneuver could fail; if
so, the forces of terror would be
strengthened. This is the risk of free-
dom. There are no guarantees in history
anymore. In my judgment, the risks of
not acting are far greater; the cancerous
growth of violence and terror cannot be
stopped any other way. If we fail, we
must take responsibility for our actions.
If we succeed, _democracy and human
dignity will take a giant leap forward.
Israel, too, may gain new neighbors
willing to make peace. For the Jewish
people, then, what is good for America
and American lives will be a blessing
for Jews as well. In other words, if this
war succeeds, then, as the Bible prom-
ises, what is a blessing for the Jewish
people will again be a blessing for all
the families of the earth. 17
But this is only "seeking" peace. To
pursue" it as well, the larger liberal and
progressive parts of the mainstream
Jewish community should join such
natural allies as the National Council of
Churches, Sojourners magazine, the
NAACP and the Sierra Club, that have
already formed a third anti-war coali-
tion — Win Without War.
For Jews like the Reform move-
ment and the JCRC/JCPA (Jewish
Community Relations
Coimcil/Jewish Council for Public
Affairs) network to be absent from
this table not only betrays Jewish val-
ues and interests but also fails to rep-
resent Jewish concerns when some of
the most important American public
groups are creating a new center of
moral and political energy.
It is as if mainstream Jewish organi-
zations had refused to take part in the
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
in the 1950s and 1960s because some
black groups were anti-Semitic.
During the late 1960s and early 1970s,
the chavurot (informal groups of Jewish
people who meet for study and/or wor-
ship), progressive Jewish political groups,
Jewish feminists and neo-Chasidic teach-
ers like Rabbis Abraham Joshua Heschel,
Shlomo Carlebach and Zalman
Schachter-Shalomi seeded change that
sprouted in the mainstream Jewish com-
munity during the 1990s.
In much the same way, anti-war Jews
today are seeding change that main-
stream Jewry needs to learn from. As we
now face the dangers to humanity and
earth from reckless unaccountable .eco-
nomic greed and reckless unaccountable
military power, they are drawing on and
appealing to Jewish values.
These values are not just empty
rhetoric. They are embodied in the
practical needs of Jews who are suffer-
ing from environmentally caused can-
cer and asthma, from overwork to the
point of emotional and spiritual
exhaustion from robbery of their pen-
sions by Enronic pirates, from health
care diminished and schooling wors-
ened to pay for war, from bottom-line
"downsizing" even of academic, pro-
fessional, and high-tech jobs, from
attacks on their privacy and civil liber-
ties, and perhaps even from death as
victims of terrorism in an endless war
that could have been averted.
Only at deep peril to itself will
mainstream Jewry fail to hear these
prophetic voices. II
national security. This war is catego-
rized as a milchemet reshut, a permitted
war. Given that this war is not self-evi-
dently justified, extra restrictions are
placed on the government:
• Going to war must be approved by
the Sanhedrin (a legislative/judicial
body) and not just the executive branch;
• There is a wide range of exemp-
tions from service, including those
people who are afraid (which I inter-
pret to include those who morally
object to the war);
• The permitted military tactics are
more tightly regulated. Maimonides
rules that in both kinds of war, one
must first offer peace to the enemy.
Only if the enemy refuses to surrender
can one proceed.
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WASKOW from page 33
Allowable War
((
gious obligations, can be done by sitting
(to eat) — or standing (to pray) or even
walking (to converse). But for the sake of
peace, we must not only seek it but if it
is running away, we must chase after it.
Most of the official American Jewish
leadership has sat, paralyzed, while
peace runs away from us all. They
should join those "peace-seekers" of
the anti-war movement who take
Jewish concerns seriously.
To do this, the "mainstream" Jewish
community should learn to distinguish
between anti-Israel and "pro-
Israel/pro-peace" strands of the anti-
war movement.
The United for-Peace & Justice coali-
tion, which sponsored the New York
rally on Feb. 15, is in the second strand
of anti-war energy. Its first Jewish
member was the Shalom Center. Since
then:, Tikkun, New York's Jews for
Racial and Economic Justice and vari-
ous smaller local groups have joined.
Mainstream Jewish groups should
support the efforts of such affirmative-
ly Jewish anti-war groups and should
be making sure that their own staff
and leaders get to meet and talk with
the Jewish anti-war organizers.