No, I am not a Mossad agent, but I did once skip the fare on a bus in Rome

January 12, 11:45 AMSpiritual Life ExaminerRabbi Ben Kamin

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An unfriendly reader conveyed a message that since I have been writing so much about the Gaza tragedy, and from the Israeli point of view (as if there is a “point of view” when young people are forced to kill and little children are caught in the middle) that I must be “some kind of Mossad agent.”  Mossad is Israel’s renowned covert agency and they must be so good that I don’t even know I’m on their payroll.

Another misanthrope, seeing in war yet another opportunity to safely grandstand from the safety of his suburban laptop, wondered why I don’t mind my own business and “stick to spirituality.”  As though war is not the most malignant spiritual disaster; what shall we do about it but post some more pious platitudes?  Like Martin Luther King, Jr. (to whom I adamantly do not compare myself) who stood up one year before his death in a church and decried the Vietnam War—against the advice of his allies and with the excoriation of his enemies—we who labor for God must speak up when the human spirit is co-opted by terrorists and draconian  “leaders.”

Everyone who gets it, who understands that finding Hamas gangsters is the equivalent of  America’s search for Al Qaeda operatives,  is profoundly saddened by the loss of innocent lives.

The misconceptions about Israel’s painstaking operation to stop terrorist missile attacks upon its towns and village from Hamas operatives in Gaza are not as great as I might have thought.  It may seem a trite configuration, but a whopping 78% of those polled on America Online still regard it as “justified.”  AOL is hardly a Jewish web site; the Jews, meanwhile, represent less than 2% of the US population.  The US Senate has unanimously voted in support of the operation.  A number of evangelical organizations, so outspoken in their admiration for and veneration of the Jewish state, have registered their encouragement.  Everyone who gets it, who understands that finding Hamas gangsters is the equivalent of  America’s search for Al Qaeda operatives,  is profoundly saddened by the loss of innocent lives.

And yet: Here is what Ralph Peters, a career intelligence officer, and a veteran analyst and columnist , wrote yesterday in the New York Post:

"Israel hasn't killed a single civilian in the Gaza Strip.(Hundreds of)  civilians have died, and Israeli bombs or shells may have ended their lives. But Israel didn't kill them.

"Hamas did. It's time to smash the lies. The lies of Hamas. The UN lies. And the save-the-terrorists lies of the global media.

"There is no moral equivalence between Hamas terrorists and Israeli soldiers. There is no gray area. There is no point in negotiations.

"Hamas is a Jew-killing machine. It exists to destroy Israel. What is there to negotiate?"When Hamas can't kill Jews, it's perfectly willing to drive Palestinian civilians into the line of fire - old men, women and children. Hamas herds the innocent into "shelters," then draws Israeli fire on them. And the headline-greedy media cheer them on.

"All Hamas had to do to prevent Israel's act of self-defense was to leave Israel unmolested by terror rockets. All Hamas needs to do now to stop this conflict and spare the Palestinian people it pretends to champion is to stop trying to kill Israelis and agree to let Israel exist in peace.
Hamas didn't, and Hamas won't."

As for me, I’m sorry I rode the bus for free from Via Veneto to Piazza Navone that time, but at least I’m owning up to it.