Answer: In such matters it has already been said, Your thoughts are wanted but not your deeds. We cannot punish person A for the deeds of person B. It is immoral and contradicts Jewish law. He who has committed a crime will be punished, You can punish him severely but you cannot punish he who has not committed the crime. Abraham our father prayed for the people of Sodom who were evil and wicked, for the righteous that were with them so that due to the righteous they would all be saved. "One man will sin and the whole tribe will suffer?!" Even he who was an accomplice to a crime must be punished, for example someone who provides weapons, offers shelter or organizes and incites to murder – but not just any Arab.

You might say that it is hard to catch the murderer himself. For that we have the police and the secret services which work very hard, and in the end they catch the murderer whether he is in the country or out of it. They sacrifice themselves so that the murderer won’t escape. But it is impossible to punish another in his place. In the Gemara it is told that the Romans had trouble catching burglars so they would punish innocent people instead. Rabbi Elazar the son of Rabbi Shimon objected to this and volunteered to help catch the burglars themselves. Someone who hurts an innocent Arab, besides this being a state and religious crime, it also damages the national struggle. We lean on our moral power. We didn't come to steal a land that is not ours, but have returned to our own land based on truth and justice. Sure! We need an army and police, but what gives them power is the rightness of the struggle.

Our rabbis teach us that when someone is right he is willing to fight for it. Rabbi Reuben added that that is why we were always whipped by the gentiles when we were among the nations. We knew we were in the wrong for sitting on their land when they shouted : Jew, go to Palestine!. Now we are in our land we know we are correct and that with the help of God we will win.

Our national struggle succeeds because it is right, moral, pure and based on our right to our land. But if, G-d forbid, we start acting immorally, while thinking that the means justify the cause, not only is it immoral and contrary to the Bible, but it weakens the whole struggle and lowers us to a lowly and degraded level.

Therefore we shall not kill innocent Arabs, nor beat or insult any. You might say that there is no difference between the Arabs, it is one nation’s struggle against another. All the Jews against all the Arabs. When the Israeli army fights it doesn't distinguish between enemies. Indeed, in war anyone dressed in enemy uniform – "He who comes to kill you, rise and kill him first" , but that is a different situation than an Arab living in our own sovereign state. Indeed, it is not always easy to burn out all the weeds of crime, like in other countries. Even the Mafia in the United States. It is incorrect to say that every Arab is an enemy in actual fact or potential.

And even if we go according to the one who states that we are in a situation of war. It is even a worse matter. In a war, if a lone soldier initiates fire he will be court-martialed. There are officers and a Chief of Staff. We aren’t a posse of gun fighters roaming the deserts of Texas. The army will decide how we will fight. We prize personal initiative in many fields. But not in war, there the leader decides. A single person should not do something for which everyone will have to pay later.

Let us not forget: Murder of a gentile is murder. Even more so if we are to be a moral nation. Murder doesn’t help us at all, and even if it did it would still be immoral.

We know the internal motives for this idea: Despair, a cold look at our country as though everything is falling apart and we are on a train to a new Auschwitz, G-d forbid.

The opposite Is true! Our state is in a wonderful situation, Sure there are problems like in every country. Sure, we do mistakes, there is no righteous nation on earth which has done only good and never sinned. But you must look at the light. Our great situation in agriculture, industry, military and defense, culturally and morally, religiously and spiritually.

We can be proud with pure national pride. Do not only see what we are missing, but what we have. Not only the terrorist attacks that we have had, but those which we have not had, because they were miraculously averted and because the different defense forces give their lives to protect us.

We have to see the whole picture. The sun has shone upon us in our land since we have returned, with a few dark spots. Therefore we should strengthen ourselves. If we can’t solve a problem today, then we shall tomorrow .

Rabbi Shlomo Aviner