Justice, justice shall you pursue .
In May 1960 David Ben Gurion announced that Adolf Eichmann was in Israeli custody and would face charges stemming from his role as designer of the Nazi final solution, the murder of six million Jews. The trial spanned two years and ended with Eichmann ‘s conviction and execution.
The Holocaust itself was fading from memory, at least in an international level. The survivors did not want to talk about it for various reasons. They wanted to shield their children and probably shield themselves from the idea of your world and everything in it being torn away. I myself knew several people, all classmates, whose parents were survivors but didn’t use it as a topic to discuss. The state of mind of the survivors varied and is beyond the scope of this post.
But the Jewish people ,if not seeking vengeance, do seek justice
The title of this article is from a chapter in Deuteronomy, or devarim. Judges ,fair and incorruptible judges should precide over civil and criminal conflicts .
And there was nothing more criminal than the murder of millions of people.
It was only twelve years since the creation of the state of Israel and it had already been at war twice. But this atrocity was still raw and vivid and if individual Jews were going about their lives,as tortured as they might be, the Jewish state would not let it rest. Anyone who was part of the final solution would be hunted down and brought to justice.
By conducting a fair and open trial the policies, planning and management of the Holocaust were laid bare for all the world to see. For this reason alone Israel was right in its decision not to simply kill Eichmann in the dark of night. They did attempt that with other Nazi murderers but stopped when it became too risky and innocent people were killed
Besides that, the State of Israel decided to focus on the future and not the past. The point had been made in any case.
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There’s another Eichmann moment coming up now, one that saw its origin in the pogrom of October 7,2023. The Hamas murderers who had invaded, killed violated and kidnapped Israeli citizens did not all escape the IDF. Some were killed that day, some later during the war
And some were captured in Israel and brought up on charges. The evidence was everywhere including their own videos and their own confessions, made with shocking ease if not nonchalance . There was not even a hint of coercion.
Israel intends to broadcast the trials, at least that’s the stated policy. I hope they do just that. The hard core antisemites will still doubts, but the sheer weight and magnitude is impossible to counter .
The left for its part will be faced with exactly what kind of barbarism they are supporting and what proportional response is supposed to be.
And what they would do when attacked with such savagery
One more thing.
As I said, the title is from the book of Deuteronomy and the original Hebrew is
צדק צדק תרדוף.
There’s another line from the Pesach Haggadah which reads
תרדוף באף ותשמידם מתחת שמי ה’
עם ישראל חי
