Judaism has teachings and guidance for its adherents through the Hebrew Bible and rabbinic literature relating to the notion and concept of peace.
The modern Jewish state of Israel with its majority of Jewish citizens, since its inception and has been involved in a peace process with its Arab neighbors, such as: Judaism is the source-religion for the notion of a Messianic Age, a theological term referring to a future time of universal peace and brotherhood on the earth, without crime, war and poverty.
(Isaiah 2:4)The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.
They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
That obstinate sweetness which they conserve in the midst of the most atrocious persecution, that sense of justice and of reason which they put up as their sole defense against a hostile, brutal, and unjust society, is perhaps the best part of the message they bring to us and the true mark of their greatness.Judaism's religious texts overwhelmingly endorse compassion and peace, and the Hebrew Bible contains the well-known commandment to "love thy neighbor as thyself".
"[15] When the time for war arrived, Jewish soldiers are expected to abide by specific laws and values when fighting.
[21] In the Mishna, Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel taught: "The world rests on three things: justice, truth, and peace.
[21] According to sixteenth century Rabbi Judah Loew of Prague, Jewish law forbids the killing of innocent people, even in the course of a legitimate military engagement.
[21] Rabbi Moshe Avigdor Amiel (1883–1946), who was the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, wrote that military restraint was an absolute demand of Torah law, for "Thou shalt not murder" applied irrespective of whether the victim was Arab or Jew, and was the basis of Jewish ethics.
[21] He wrote: "Human life is undoubtedly a supreme value in Judaism, as expressed both in the Halacha and the prophetic ethic.
It is also forbidden to break vessels, tear clothing, wreck that which is built up, stop fountains, or waste food in a destructive manner.
One example was when King Hezekiah stopped all the fountains in Jerusalem in the war against Sennacherib, which Jewish scholars regards as a violation of the Biblical commandment.
[30] Nachmanides, writing a century later, strengthened the rule and added a reason: "We are to learn to deal kindly with our enemy.
"[30] Despite controversial public comments, Ovadia Yosef, an influential Sephardic rabbi and distinguished rabbinical authority, advocates for peace negotiations in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict since the late 1980s.
Using an argument first articulated by the late American rabbinical leader Joseph Soloveitchik, Rabbi Yosef claims that the Arab–Israeli conflict endangers human lives, thereby meeting the above criteria and overruling the priority of commandments pertaining to settling the land of Israel.