The overreaction of the world press to the idiotic behavior of the IDF soldier who bashed a statue of Jesus that was on a cross in the garden of a private home in Southern Lebanon is, while not unexpected, patently ridiculous.

The incident some days ago was regrettable to be sure.  However, our government and the IDF responded quickly by taking two people into custody whose activities that day were related to this incident.  The solider who wielded the axe was quickly sentenced to 30 days in jail while the case of the photographer is still under investigation.

In addition, the entire brigade was suspended from operating in sensitive areas and the IDF’s Chief of Staff was clear in his reaction when he said:

“This is a grave ethical incident that is out of line with IDF norms and values. We all swore the soldier’s oath upon enlistment—weapons are to be used solely for the purpose of carrying out the mission, and never for revenge. We will not accept such incidents within the ranks of the IDF.”

To my mind, this should have been enough to deal with a relatively minor incident for an army that has been fighting wars of survival on multiple fronts for the last two and a half years.  Yet, here is what a correspondent of mine based in the US sent to me today:

“I am more than aware of the double standard so often placed on Israel.  At the same time, it is not just one soldier. The 30-day sentence for the Jesus smasher and his photographer seems quite light to me, especially after Netanyahu promised “harsh” punishment.  Israel (and Israelis) is supposed to know that Christians should be our greatest allies, the at moments like this, the gov’t needs to show it, forcefully.”

I should not that there have been similar reactions from others who seem to me to be blowing this up way out of proportion and then criticizing how it is being handled here as well.

By the way, I would be willing to bet that the writer of that response has never spent time in jail and, therefore, has no idea how 30 days in a cell is not a light sentence at all.

I responded by pointing out that there is a government in power here which was legitimately elected.  They are responsible for these decisions and our option, if we disagree, is to do something about that later this year when elections come around and I hope we will do so.  In the interim, second guessing them takes us nowhere so I try not to do that.

This incident was not a breach of security, it did not put anyone in danger, it didn’t affect anyone or anything except perhaps bruise the egos of the world’s Christian community who, I hasten to note, has spent centuries bruising ours and murdering us in the process as well. So, if this small act of one person was sufficient to bruise the ego of the world’s Christian community, it is not even possible to chronicle the bruises to the ego of the world’s Jewish community by the Christian community over the last 2,000 years.

For nearly two millennia, Jewish communities faced systematic violence, persecution, and massacre at the hands of Christian zealots, often driven by theological, economic, and social anti-Judaism. This persecution, which saw Jews labeled as “Christ-killers” and “enemies of God,” resulted in widespread atrocities across Europe and the Middle East, culminating in the Holocaust.

A few examples will illustrate the point.  Historic massacres of Jews included the Crusades during the 11th-13th centuries; Blood Libel Accusations of the 12th-20th centuries; Black Death Pogroms from 1348-1351; Spanish Inquisition and Expulsions in the 15th century;  Khmelnitsky Uprising in Poland & Lithuania from 1648-1657; Russian Pogroms in the 19th and 20th century; and, of course, the European Holocaust from 1933-1945 which destroyed two thirds of European Jewry (i.e. a third of world Jewry).

In situations similar to what we faced this week, a bit of perspective on the part of the world would be nice although not expected for sure.

We’ve had enough of blowing this up way beyond what it was, simply a nut case who got carried away and did not think.  It is not constructive for anyone to summarily morph this into an insult to the world’s Christians.  In the course of the last two and half years alone, since the Hamas massacre of October 7th, countless acts of destruction against Jewish people, institutions, cemeteries, monuments and communities have been suffered by the world’s Jewish community.  Those acts, given their frequency, magnitude and stated intent are an insult to the world Jewish community.  The dastardly act of one IDF solider in a private garden in Lebanon, does not event come close to qualifying as such.

After a terror attack in London June 2017, former UK Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, of blessed memory, said: “What terrorists seek to destroy, we will continue to build: community, democracy, tolerance, respect for each other and for the sanctity of life.”   A lesson worth learning even today.   Let us hope we are all up to the task.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)