[Avodah] Why is Milchemes Reshus allowed?

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, August 20, 2007 8:08 am, RAM <kennethgmiller at juno.com> wrote:
: Yes, an ubar can be a rodef. In such a case, the ubar is responsible
: for the situation. Granted that the ubar has no daas, and it is not an
: intentional threat, but nevertheless, the ubar *is* attacking the
: mother...
: So too, if the foreign country is <<< actually responsible for our
: starvation >>>, then we can defend ourselves by attacking them, even
: if they are not *intentionally* causing our problem, and this would be
: a milchemes mitzva.

Communities need to be able to support "natural growth". Not to get
too political, but even during Oslo's heyday, communities in Yesha
were given the ability to grow to support stability. Whether or not
you think that it was necessary at the time, AFAIK all agree with the
idea in principle; if a community can't grow, it faces a real threat
of failure.

It was this idea that I was thinking of when I wrote about the cost of
economic failure. There is a real -- even if unintentional threat --
posed by countries that remain on Israel's border at a time when the
country needs to undergo such growth.

Being a good neighbor will end up costing lives.

Of course it would require a melekh and a poseiq to determine what is
necessary and natural growth and what is (lehavdil elef alfei
havdalos) Nazi-esque "Lebensraum".

Tir'u baTov!
-mi

-- 
Micha Berger             Spirituality is like a bird: if you tighten
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Fax: (270) 514-1507                            - Rav Yisrael Salanter