Warfare a la Machiavelli

Machiavelli, in "The Prince," espoused a military doctrine surprisingly similar to the one advocated by Moshe in this past week's Parsha. Pinchas, Israel's Chief of Staff, had returned from a retaliatory war against Midian, who had sent their princesses to seduce the Jewish people so that they would engage in idol worship. In an exchange that is hard to understand; Pinchas, upon returning from his hugely successful exploits, is lambasted by Moshe, in front of Elazar, the Cohen Gadol, and all of the Jewish princes for failing on two fronts: one, not smiting all of the women sexually mature enough to have had relations (presumably, the age of three according to biblical thought), and secondly, not killing all males, regardless of age. 

The first is peripheral to the point I'd like to address; indeed, the midrash states that all young women were passed before Elazar to see if their faces would change color, the gold crown on Elazar's head mysteriously causing their faces to become green if they could have had sex with a man. A similar theme appears regarding the Sotah, or an adulterous wife, whose face would turn green upon drinking the bitter potion had she been lacking in fidelity. 

The second though hones in on norms of biblical warfare. Paranthetically, it's interesting to note that Moshe's ire was laser focused on Pinchas's first failing, not the second. As a matter of fact, Moshe simply says all men must be killed, creating a new paradigm of war on par with what we saw just a few weeks ago in the Haftorah for Bilaam. Sichon had threatened to attack the Jewish people 400 years after the latter had taken their lands in a war of defense prior to the entry to the Land of Israel. 400 years later the same acrimony existed; in other words, children, grandchildren, greatgrandchildren etc. etc. do NOT forget. In the war against Midian, Moshe Rabbeinu commanded Pinchas to execute each and every male; Machiavelli writes that any nation that ever has tasted the sweet taste of freedom can not be be subjugated because they will never accept the rule of another, i.e. they will always fight for independence. Far from the violence called for by Machiavelli, Moshe Rabbeinu was reflecting a very clear geopolitical reality overly pertinent to the current war we are fighting in Gaza.

In the bible, wars were fought till the end. A war of attrition was a sign that neither side was able to annihilate the other, with intermittent skirmishes, guerilla attacks, and brief forays behind enemy lines. The war against Midian was a war to the end; no, it wasn't Amalek, where no vestige, or surviving party could be left; it was a new modality of war - which is why Moshe had to explain to Pinchas what was at stake. It is wholly inconceivable that Pinchas went to war without knowing what the war plans were, that the goals were unclear – any general or Chief of Staff knows why he's been sent to the battle field. It would seem to be that what Moshe Rabbeinu was telling the Jewish people is that a nation who tries to destroy even a part of you, spiritually or otherwise has no right to exist, and when it comes to the tactical side of warfar, as macabre, or Machiavellian as it may sound, you need to annihilate the nation in its entirety. No male can be left, women are taken prisoners, put in the mikveh (separate ones of course) just like the Jewish male warriors, because they will cease to belong to Midian, but rather become Jewish through the rites of conversion. There will no longer be a nation that can rise up against you. 

Interestingly, the world took it as a given that after WWII Germany and Japan could undergo "re-education" and be brought back into the fold, perhaps because of the rich history of personal individual rights and liberalism; the question is, can something similar be done in the Arab world, a culture that places violence, subjugation, world dominance and jihad on a pedestal? Can there ever be open borders with Hamas? Could a Jewish businessman ever have a partner living in Gaza? Could student exchanges between the two be part of everyday life? The simple answer according to Moshe Rabbeinu seems to be know; vendettas founded on true hatred and intolerance for the other – that denigrate and fail to give voice to the other's right to exist – make it impossible to let the other live, or at least in its current state of violence. Hamas needed to be demilitarized before October 7th because of the threat it posed, but now that they started first, at least in keeping with the biblical principles given to us by the greatest of all teachers, Moshe Rabbeinu, at least the spirit of the Torah needs to be kept and this war must be fought till the end, any terrorist mechanism, apparatus, vestige utterly obliterated. No, there will be not be student exchanges - we tried that, with ill Muslim terrorists from Gaza being treated for free in Israel; we gave them free electricity, but to no avail, so whether or not we retake Gush Katif, something I deem a no-brainer, any attempt to sugarcoat the reality will only lead to greater devastation and carnage. A war against a nation - if the Palestinians want to be a nation let them be a nation, needs to be treated as such. The war against Midian, was, as Moshe clearly stated a war against a nation; Pinchas did not see it as such, which explains the discrepancy in their military tactics, but that notwithstanding, the evil amongst us needs to be uprooted for Arab youth will turn into the next wave of Hamas fighters if what is at stake is not called out for what it truly is, a jihad that takes prisoners only in so far as it can fuel greater bloodshed, murder and cruelty.