If enacted, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir\u2019s proposed death penalty bill would spell moral and ultimately existential catastrophe for Israel and Jews across the world. In a recent email exchange with an astute Israeli insider, I shared the fear that this bill would pass in the Knesset, and prayed that I was wrong. In response, my politically savvy friend wrote unambiguously: \u201cThat would be catastrophic.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Some might claim that his statement is hyperbolic. They would be wrong. The collective deterrence delusion<\/a> that sustains this racist bill in the minds of so many proponents blinds them to the most imminent peril posed by this legislation. Not only will it fail to deter ter\u00adror\u00adism \u2013 and betray Jewish values<\/a> by cheapening life<\/a> \u2013 but it will, in fact, incite and invite more mur\u00adder\u00adous acts of ter\u00adror<\/a>. It will cross a line from which the state of Israel would never be able to recover. No invocation of the deterrence delusion \u2013 not even by the Shin Bet \u2013 can erase the reality that the death penalty will doom Israel to an ultimately catastrophic, self-destructive path that will engender all the Jewish world.\n<\/p>\n The Brutalization Effect\n<\/p>\n Scholars have written for decades about capital punishment\u2019s \u201cbrutalization effect,\u201d namely, how the death penalty actually increases homicide rates rather than deterring them. Prominent criminologist William J. Bowers verified this execution byproduct in his seminal work \u201cDeterrence or Brutalization: What is the Effect of Executions?\u201d<\/a> \u2013 a foundational 1980 study with Glenn Pierce analyzing New York State homicide data from 1907 to 1963, and a second scholarly article entitled \u201cThe Effect of Executions is Brutalization, Not Deterrence (1988)<\/a>,\u201d which presented a comprehensive re-evaluation of the deterrence versus brutalization debate. Bowers\u2019 research, particularly his 1980 article with Glenn Pierce, found that homicides typically increased by two to three incidents in the months immediately following an execution. His scholarship included various arguments. First, Bowers found that executions send a message that \u201clethal vengeance\u201d is a socially acceptable response to a perceived wrong. Bowers also concluded that state-sanctioned killings diminish public respect for human life, \u201cbrutalizing\u201d the population. Bowers and Pierce further demonstrated that potential murderers do not identify with the person being executed. Instead, they identify their own enemies with the executed criminal, seeing the execution as a justification for killing those who have wronged them. Ultimately, Bowers realized that capital punishment is an incitement to violence rather than a deterrent.\n<\/p>\n There is ample reason to apply this \u201cbrutalization effect\u201d to Israel and to con\u00adclude that the proposed death penalty bill would only entice would-be mar\u00adtyrs to attack Israelis. A renowned com\u00adment regard\u00ading the well-estab\u00adlished rela\u00adtion\u00adship between the death pen\u00adalty and the desire for mar\u00adtyr\u00addom comes from the 19th-cen\u00adtury writer Eliphas Levi. He demon\u00adstrated a keen under\u00adstand\u00ading of these dynam\u00adics when he wrote: \u201cEvery head that falls upon the scaf\u00adfold may be honored and praised as the head of a mar\u00adtyr.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Applying the brutalization effect and Levi\u2019s wis\u00addom to mod\u00adern-day Israel, it becomes clear that a man\u00addat\u00adory death sen\u00adtence for Palestini\u00adans who murder Jews will almost cer\u00adtainly increase the num\u00adber of attacks. Rad\u00adical Islam\u00adist ter\u00adror\u00adists \u2013 like those who per\u00adpet\u00adrated mass murder on Octo\u00adber 7, 2023 \u2013 cel\u00adeb\u00adrate mar\u00adtyr\u00addom in anti\u00adcip\u00ada\u00adtion of the sup\u00adposed rewards await\u00ading them in para\u00addise. They want to die for their cause. They prefer mar\u00adtyr\u00addom in the actual act of killing, but if they can kill and then be placed on a ped\u00ades\u00adtal \u2013 lauded as her\u00adoes facing the death pen\u00adalty for their cause \u2013 then all the bet\u00adter. Their idealization of celebrity execution is espe\u00adcially true in a world where \u2013 as they well know \u2013 so many individuals hate Israel for how it treats its non-Jew\u00adish cit\u00adizens. If the death pen\u00adalty were insti\u00adtuted, such scen\u00adarios would undoubtedly tran\u00adspire. Why would Israel want to play into the hands of poten\u00adtial ter\u00adror\u00adists in this way? On this purely prac\u00adtical level, the pro\u00adposed legis\u00adla\u00adtion is insane.\n<\/p>\n A far more severe pun\u00adish\u00adment for such individuals is incar\u00adcer\u00ada\u00adtion, which forces terrorists to con\u00adfront what they have done while endur\u00ading the con\u00adstric\u00adtions of a max\u00adimum-secur\u00adity prison every day. As a former Jew\u00adish prison chap\u00adlain, I can per\u00adson\u00adally attest to this harsh real\u00adity.\n<\/p>\n Proponents of this bill maintain that execut\u00ading ter\u00adror\u00adists will pre\u00advent future hostage-taking in prisoner swaps. What they fail to recog\u00adnize is that Israel can avoid this out\u00adcome simply by chan\u00adging the law to for\u00adbid includ\u00ading any\u00adone dir\u00adectly involved in murder in any future pris\u00adoner exchanges, without excep\u00adtion. Such legis\u00adla\u00adtion would solve the prob\u00adlem without cre\u00adat\u00ading new mar\u00adtyrs around whose memory other ter\u00adror\u00adists would assuredly rally.\n<\/p>\n An Existential Threat to the Safety of Jews Everywhere\u00a0\n<\/p>\n This perilous bill poses more pervasive dangers for Israel and the Jewish world. If the Knes\u00adset were to enact it \u2013 lead\u00ading to the uncon\u00adscion\u00adable stain of exe\u00adcu\u00adtions darkening the moral fab\u00adric of Israeli soci\u00adety \u2013 anti\u00adsemitic extrem\u00adists would assuredly blame all the world\u2019s Jews for this state-sponsored killing pro\u00adgram. The death penalty would nearly fit it into their warped view of Israel \u2013 and, by exten\u00adsion, Juda\u00adism \u2013 as a so-called \u201cdeath cult.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Just as this bill jeop\u00adard\u00adizes the physical safety and secur\u00adity of Jews across the globe, it also threatens to per\u00adman\u00adently mar what remains of Israel\u2019s moral stand\u00ading among the more than 70% of the world\u2019s nations<\/a> that have abol\u00adished the death pen\u00adalty in law and prac\u00adtice. In today\u2019s volat\u00adile polit\u00adical cli\u00admate, which already imper\u00adils the rule of law in Israel, this issue fur\u00adther nor\u00admal\u00adizes the invoc\u00ada\u00adtion of state viol\u00adence and widens the gap between mod\u00adern Israel and the cent\u00adral Jew\u00adish value of the invi\u00adol\u00adab\u00adil\u00adity of life.\n<\/p>\n To illustrate this, consider the probable future if Israel were to enact this legislation. As Ben Lynfield correctly predicts<\/a>, the bill, once passed, would mark a \u201clooming death certificate for the Israel that was.\u201d After the shock of the bill\u2019s passage had settled, global nations would realize, as Ron Dudai has compellingly written, that the far-right had cemented its ascendancy<\/a> in Israeli society. Death cult claims would gain credence worldwide.\u00a0 The bill would permanently decimate Israel\u2019s already fragile moral compass in the minds of hundreds of millions of human beings and a majority of nations. As Israel would begin carrying out frequent executions of hundreds of prisoners, human rights activists the world over would continue to make legitimate comparisons with Iran<\/a> and other global perpetrators of egregious judicial killings. The bill\u2019s inherently racist nature \u2013 targeting only non-Jewish terrorists \u2013 would give only further weight to the argument that Israel is an apartheid state.\n<\/p>\n The thousands of mem\u00adbers of \u201cL\u2019chaim: Jews Against the Death Penalty<\/a>\u201d have out\u00adlined, ad nauseam, mul\u00adtiple addi\u00adtional reas\u00adons why this death pen\u00adalty bill is, by defin\u00adi\u00adtion, an abom\u00adin\u00ada\u00adtion. L\u2019chaim delin\u00adeated these points in a Hanukkah post, enu\u00admer\u00adat\u00ading in detail \u201c8 Reas\u00adons to Vote Against the Death Pen\u00adalty this Hanukkah<\/a>.\u201d These include the fact that the death pen\u00adalty viol\u00adates the human right to life, always con\u00adsti\u00adtutes tor\u00adture, risks execut\u00ading the inno\u00adcent, is racist in its applic\u00ada\u00adtion, and \u2013 from Adolf Hitler to Don\u00adald Trump to Ben-Gvir \u2013 has been used as a polit\u00adical tool, par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlarly dur\u00ading elec\u00adtion cam\u00adpaigns. L\u2019chaim has also illus\u00adtrated how Jew\u00adish tra\u00addi\u00adtion renders the death pen\u00adalty vir\u00adtu\u00adally impossible, and how many exe\u00adcu\u00adtion meth\u00adods are dir\u00adect Nazi legacies, includ\u00ading fir\u00ading squad, gass\u00ading, and lethal injec\u00adtion. Famed death pen\u00adalty abol\u00adi\u00adtion\u00adist Elie Wiesel best artic\u00adu\u00adlated L\u2019chaim\u2019s stance when he said of cap\u00adital pun\u00adish\u00adment \u2013 in the shadow of the Holo\u00adcaust \u2013 that \u201cdeath should never be the answer in a civ\u00adil\u00adized soci\u00adety<\/a>.\u201d Israeli law\u00admakers should heed Wiesel\u2019s mes\u00adsage and recog\u00adnize that exe\u00adcu\u00adtions are not the answer today, and never should be.\n<\/p>\n If they fail to do so, catastrophe assuredly awaits for Israel and all the Jewish world.\n<\/p>\n Cantor Michael J. Zoosman, MSM\n<\/p>\n Co-Founder: L\u2019chaim: Jews Against the Death Penalty<\/a>\n<\/p>\n