New York – It’s hard to believe that every day the news reports have Syrians dying like flies and noone seems to give much of a damn. The report yesterday that 80 students were blown to smithereens was particularly galling. They were studying at their University in Aleppo when, apparently, death rained down from the sky, either through a missile or a bomb. One image had a female hand with a pen still in it, dismembered from the rest of her body. She apparently died while doing school work.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
I was a Rabbi at a University. If 80 students had died in a military attack it would have shaken the foundations of the academic world. Professors everywhere would have condemned this violation of the sacred halls of academia. But in Syria it’s just another day of indiscriminate slaughter.
The United States is the world’s strongest nation with the loudest voice. Can’t President Obama speak out?
I know we’re not ready to invade Syria or impose a no-fly zone. Americans don’t have the stomach for another war, or an invasion. But does that absolve us from simply condemning the slaughter in the strongest possible terms?
What would it cost, in blood and treasure, for President Obama to fly up to New York and address the United Nations with a simple declaration: “President Assad, I’m here today to tell you that the long arm of international justice will catch up with you. Today you’re a brutal dictator killing men, women, and children in order to stay in power. But one day, in the not too distant future, we will catch up with you. You will be arrested for crimes against humanity and tried for your butchery and mass murder. It may not happen today or tomorrow. But I assure that you one day, in the not too distance future, in the dead of night when you least expect it, it will happen. Soldiers of civilized nations will apprehend you and take you to the International Court of Justice at The Hague where you will stand trial before the world for your cruelty. And you will be held accountable for your appalling crimes.”
Isn’t that what the UN is for? It’s bad enough that China, and especially Russia, are protecting Assad and refusing to allow international action against him. But the American president is the very symbol of democratic freedoms and human rights to the entire world. He dare not remain silent.
Atlantic columnist Jeffrey Goldberg recently reported that President Obama said that Israelis don’t know what’s good for them. Bibi wants to build in Jerusalem but doesn’t realize that he is isolating Israel further in the international community.
I appreciate the President’s concerns. No doubt Israelis are especially grateful for the American President’s ability to divine Israel’s security needs even better than their chosen leaders. But perhaps our President should focus less on construction of apartments and homes and do something instead about the bombs and rockets that are killings tents of thousands of innocent Arabs. Syria is arguably the greatest humanitarian crisis that President Obama has had on his watch and he is, respectfully, failing miserably in doing anything about it.
The Arab leaders have proven even less reliable. While President Morsi of Egypt decries Jews as descendants of apes and pigs, he seems fairly oblivious to the indiscriminate slaughter of his Arab brothers in Syria. But it’s become fairly obvious that it’s not the Jews who are the enemy but brutal Arab dictators who will kill as many Arabs as is necessary to stay in office.
The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa, seems much more interested in forking over to Al Gore half a billion dollars to buy Current TV for Al Jazeera than taking out full page ads in the worlds’ leading publications alerting them to the Arab children who are dying in Damascus.
In the book of Genesis God asks Cain where his brother Abel is. Cain has just killed him and in effort to protect himself famously asks, “Am I brother’s keeper?” God’s response is ferocious. “What have you done? Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.”
We who witnessed the repeated genocides of the twentieth century –from Armenia and the Holocaust to Cambodia and Rwanda – will one day be called to account for our silence in the face of dead students and children.
Shmuley Boteach, “America’s Rabbi” whom The Washington Post calls “the most famous Rabbi in America. He can be reached at [email protected]
Well said, but if our President would take your suggestion, it would call attention to the fact that we’re not prepared to intervene, which, itself may be contrary to our national interest.
rabbi you are on the button thank you
Both sides want Israel in the sea, I really wont lose sleep on what happens there.
It is not even clear if the bombing in the university was the act of the Assad regime or the act of the rebels fighting him. The rebels include all types of Jihadists who are fully capble of commiting their own attrocities. It would be foolish to jump to the microphone and make public pronouncements before the facts are clearly established.
It would be absurd for President Obama to threaten to take Assad to the ICC in the Hague. The US is not a signator or member of the ICC. Israel, Canada the US and others view the ICC an undermining the Judicial soverignty of independant nations. (Perhaps he should threaten to establish a specific Syrian war crimes tribunal like the tribunals that were established in Rwanda and Nuremberg but that is very different than the ICC.)
There is still a matter of human beings being slaughtered daily!! Some of them could be Jews. There were still a few Jews left in Syria. Nobody knows now what has become of them! We do need somebody to speak up!! Even if it is only our State Senator! If Obama will not speak, then flood our Senators offices with calls!! emails, letters, etc. They may get the message.
1) Obama has condemned Assad’s actions a long time….
2) Unfortunately words with out action is not worth anything and as the writer himself says the US in not ready for another war. Instead of blaming Obama the writer’s missive should be directed at those who allow Assad to stay in power ( Iran , China, Russia)
I think this criticism would be better directed at the new york times or wall street journal for their double standard of putting israel front page above the fold and this hardly gets a mention
What version of the NY Times are you reading – the Yiddish one? The version I get has been reporting extensively about Syria. Articles about Israel are often on the front page because, after all, it is the NEW YORK Times and rumor has it there are several Jews and Israelis living nearby.
With all due respect Rabbi, the US isn’t and shouldn’t be the worlds policeman.
That said, it would be nice if arabs of the Middle East would get involved, if they’re so concerned. After all, they have money to burn, thanks to petro dollars, they have plenty of bodies, let them do the heavy lifting, for a change.
Has the good Rabbi looked at what happens when the US gets involved.
Take Iraq for instance, we spent trillions of dollars, that we couldn’t afford and sent us into a recession, fighting for the Iraqi people by ousting Saddam Hussein and giving the citizens over there some semblance of democracy.
They still hate us and always will. Let their brethren do some dirty work too.
Whilst you might have tax exempt status and have no worries about the financial burden placed upon us the US citizens, when engaging in war far from our shores, my taxes just shot up since the begining of this year.
I haven’t even begun to mention the loss of life to US servicemen this would cause.
Do you have a child serving in the military, don’t think so.
So please Rabbi, don’t publicise your ‘gevaldiga’ ideas that ultimately ends up being ‘Oif yenems cheshbon’.
Whilst the arabs are busy with each other, they have no time to scheme and plot against Israel. The status quo over there, don’t bother me, in the least!
Don’t you have bigger fish to fry, Rabbi?
If this is what Arabs do to each other, imagine what they would do to us if they could?
If he would intervene there would be calls new democratic entanglement. He is smart and let sleeping dogs in peace. Israel is not in danger and since when do we become the guardians against Arab brutality
Its terrible whats going on in Syria. Pure slaughter. Self inflicted slaughter from both sides. One monster aginst another. I am sure there are very decent individuals probably on both sides. Unfortunately as Jews we have to wish good luck to both sides
I agree with #9 ; there are wars going on all over the world, at this very moment, mostly in underdeveloped areas. Thousands of people die all over the world every day, by homicides, acts of war, disease, starvation, accidents, etc. It was less than 20 years ago, in 1994, when nearly 900,000 African civilians (men, women, and children) were slaughtered in Rwuanda, within a 90 period, when there was violence, between the Tutsis, and the Hutus. At that time, there was no voice in opposition to the slaughter by either the western industrialized world, or by the underdeveloped countries, including the Organization of African Unity. The USA cannot go around fighting battles all of the world. Enough Koreas, Vietnams, Iraqs, and Afghanistans! We should not get involved in the Syrian civil war. We became involved in helping the Libyans. How did they thank us, by attacking our consulate, and killing Americans!
As mentioned, no proof that Assad did it, and more likely, the rebels who have Al Qaida types among them. They are the ones who generally bomb schools. Hard to believe a leader would attack his own country’s distinguished university.
But nevertheless, this is the tragedy of Arabs and Islam. Wherever they go, they stir up bloodshed. A sad story appeared recently about a 7 year old girl who lost her foot in a Syrian attack and keeps crying over how she misses it.
You want to help them, but they are their own worst enemy. They are so consumed with hate, every one of their countries is backwards, because they can’t let go of their culture. And the more backwards they get, the more angry they get, which causes even less progress, and they are caught in this cycle.