Is Israel Evil?

In an increasingly secular world, calling someone or something “evil” will seem to many as an anachronistic label, conjuring up as it does a reddish figure featuring a fiendish face and horns, pitchfork in hand, with wings and a tail. A truly dreadful and fearsome sight indeed!

Christians have traditionally viewed evil as a rebellion against God, embodied in the figure of “Satan” (aka Devil). Satan was identified as the cause of all suffering in the world.  Further, it was Satan’s fall from Heaven that illustrated the cosmic battle between good (God) and evil (Satan). As such, Satan existed as a malevolent force outside of ourselves, constantly attempting to entice us to accede to his wicked ways.

By comparison, in contemporary thought, evil is examined through psychological, social, and cultural lenses. Thus, evil can arise from one’s own psychological disorders, group dynamics or the sociopolitical/socioeconomic systems under which we live. No longer is it seen as a metaphysical or malevolent moral force lying outside of ourselves.

Yet, no matter how defined or understood, few doubt that someone like Hitler and his fellow Nazi leaders were indeed evil, if not the very personification of evil. But this still leaves open the question, what exactly is ‘evil’?

As far as Hitler and the Nazi leadership are concerned, we are indebted to two individuals both of whom made major contributions to understanding the manner in which those Nazis most responsible for the Holocaust and related genocidal acts understood what they were doing. How could they have acted so utterly inhumanely, so evilly?

Hannah Arendt is one of the best-known scholars of the Holocaust. She introduced the concept of the “banality of evil” in her analysis. She argued that evil can sometimes stem from ordinary people carrying out actions thoughtlessly, even without malice, as part of bureaucratic systems as exemplified by Adolf Eichmann’s role in Nazi war crimes. Arendt thereby forced us to recognize that otherwise quite ordinary people, under certain circumstances, can allow themselves to become part of acts of ferocious barbarity directed against fellow human beings. Thus, the ‘seeds’ or potential for acts of evil lie within each of us.

There is, however, a second, and less well-known student of the Holocaust, whom I find to be a pivotal figure in the study of the psychology behind mass atrocities. His name was Gustav Gilbert, a German-speaking, US Army officer and psychologist best known for his work during the Nuremberg Trials (1945-1946). He served as the prison psychologist, a role that gave him unprecedented access to many of the top Nazi leaders on trial for war crimes after World War II.

Gilbert is perhaps best known not for his own words, but for those of the most senior Nazi figure on trial, Herman Göring, head of the Nazi Air Force, i.e., Luftwaffe. When asked how it had been possible to gain the support of the German people for Hitler’s war machine, Göring responded:

“Why of course the people don’t want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don’t want war neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”

As much as many of us might wish to deny it, subsequent history makes it hard, if not impossible, to deny Göring’s assertion that “It works the same in any country.” For example, despite substantial domestic and worldwide opposition, in the wake of the fear aroused in the American people following the 9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush and his neocon associates successfully launched an invasion of Iraq based entirely on false assertions. Despite the massive death and destruction that resulted, not a single person responsible for American aggression against the government and people of Iraq has ever been held accountable for having deceived the American people, let alone taken the lives of more than 100,000 Iraqis, both military and civilians.

Understood in this light, it is similarly understandable that in the wake of October 7^th, the people of Israel would feel unsafe, fearful for their future. This fear has translated (or rather, been skillfully manipulated) into support for current Israeli governmental policies even as it carries out what many, this author included, consider to be acts of genocide against the people of Gaza and now extended to the West Bank, Lebanon and beyond. To understand this development is most definitely not to condone it. However, recalling Hannah Arendt’s insights, we can understand (again without condoning) why otherwise ‘ordinary’ Israelis, out of fear, have been persuaded to support the heinous actions of their government. Fear, especially fear connected to the survival of oneself as well as one’s loved ones, is an impulse that has been repeatedly shown to override every other consideration, even our very humanity itself.

Returning to Gustav Gilbert, the main task he set for himself was to understand the nature of evil, the evil that allowed Nazi leaders to engage in the mass atrocities they committed. After many hours and days of interviewing Göring and other jailed Nazi leaders, Gilbert shared with his fellow officers what he had come to understand as the ultimate nature of evil. “Evil,” he told them, “is the lack of empathy, the inability to put yourself in the other person’s shoes.” In short, to look at your actions from the other person’s point of view.

On the one hand, this seems an all too ‘common sense’ understanding, though it does place the source of evil squarely within each one of us. However, as commonsensical as it may be, when we observe the many conflicts throughout the world, past and present, when has one of the combatants ever genuinely attempted to understand the causes of the conflict from the enemy’s point of view. This is, I suggest, as true for the ongoing conflict in Ukraine as it is in Israel/Palestine. Just imagine, what might happen if Israeli leaders, from Netanyahu on down, tried to understand the deep-seated desire of the Palestinian people for the safety offered by a homeland of their own, not unlike the people of Israel?

Needless to say, at least at the moment, this is highly unlikely to happen. Why? Because current Israeli leaders are convinced they are leading a struggle of civilization versus barbarism, a struggle of humanity against “animals.” Thus, it becomes as unnecessary as it is impossible to view the conflict from the Palestinians’ point of view. Weaponizing fear, they have now succeeded in projecting or infusing their own inhumanity onto a majority, although not all, of the Israeli people. Genocide? Yes, many Israelis now say, if it is necessary to restore our sense of safety, our previous ‘good life’!

A ‘country’ lacks both agency and freewill, and therefore cannot be evil. However, as Hitler and many others have proven again and again, the acts of a country’s leaders certainly can be! In the case of Israel’s current leadership, there can be no doubt that their genocidal policies, with little to no concern for the wellbeing of the Palestinian people, are once again the very embodiment of evil. As such, their genocidal policies must be stopped, and stopped now through the concerted, dedicated, and untiring efforts of us all. Additionally, they must be held accountable for their actions before a court of law.

But in doing so, let no one think, especially the American readers of this article, that they are ‘innocent’ of complicity in evil. Not only are the bombs being dropped on Gaza, the West Bank, etc. being paid for with the tax dollars of all Americans, but the same was true for the bombs the US dropped in Iraq and many other countries.

An organization of progressive young Jews called Jewish Voice for Peace recently issued a statement on the first anniversary of the October 7^th uprising. It read in part: “We believe that every life is precious. Every life taken, every parent, child, grandchild killed this past year was someone else’s entire world. We mourn the at least 42,000 Palestinians killed by the Israeli military, knowing the true death toll is likely far higher. We mourn the 1,200 Israelis killed in Hamas’s attacks. And we mourn the 2,000 Lebanese killed by Israeli bombardment. But we cannot only mourn, with millions under current threat — we must fight like hell for the living.”

Given statements like these by progressive Jews the world over, as well as the fact that both Hannah Arendt and Gustav Gilbert were also Jewish, it is clear that the current genocide taking place in Gaza and beyond is neither the fault of the Jewish people as a whole nor of Judaism as a religion. Rather the responsibility clearly lies with current Israeli leaders and their supporters in Israel who believe they have the right (God-given in the minds of many) to either ethnically cleanse or kill Palestinians, the indigenous inhabitants of Israel/Palestine.   

In conclusion, I suggest that until readers of this article can honestly say they, too, are “fighting like hell for the living” in Israel/Palestine and beyond, none of us are truly innocent, none of us are free of the evil of self-concern at the expense of others. None of us can claim to have truly walked in the shoes of those subjected to injustice and oppression.  If we will but listen, the current carnage in Israel/Palestine once again teaches us what may well be the key to human survival on this planet. Namely, we need one another, for none of us can be truly safe until all of us are safe and free.    

Brian Victoria, Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow, Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies