Many Israelis are watching the television news these days with feelings of powerlessness and shame. They see hundreds of haunted and frightened women and children crowding into the corridor of the Erez crossing and asking to be allowed to flee Gaza through Israel to the West Bank in order to save their lives.

But the defense establishment sees something else: It sees wanted terrorists about to blow themselves up and Iranian agents. The defense establishment apparently has its own vision, which does not let emotional or humanitarian considerations confuse it or cause it to change its rigidly made-up mind.

The pictures at the Erez crossing remind any person who still tries not to forget harsh scenes of locked, sealed gates from the previous century.

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It is also difficult not to recall the embarrassing scenes that accompanied the Israel Defense Forces' withdrawal from southern Lebanon: the South Lebanon Army refugees waiting by the fence, pushed, crushed and wailing, until finally, some were shoved inside, but many others were left behind, abandoned to work things out with the new lords of the south.

The question of passage for helpless people fleeing for their lives is as old as time. This Sabbath, in the Torah portion Hukkat, we will read of how Moses sent messengers to the king of Edom saying, "Thus says your brother Israel: You know all the hardships that have befallen us ... Now we are in Kadesh, the town on the border of your territory. Allow us, then, to cross your country. We will not pass through fields or vineyards, and we will not drink water from wells. We will follow the king's highway, turning off neither to the right nor to the left until we have crossed your territory" (Numbers 20:14-17). Edom refused to allow those unfortunates to pass and threatened them with the sword.

In a few weeks, we will read the Torah portion of Ki Tetzeh. That will tell us what the Torah's true attitude is to those who shut their gates and their hearts: "No Ammonite or Moabite shall be admitted into the congregation of the Lord; none of their descendants, even in the tenth generation, shall ever be admitted into the congregation of the Lord, because they did not meet you with food and water on your journey after you left Egypt" (Deuteronomy 23:4).

The fear that dangerous Hamas operatives might infiltrate into the West Bank is not baseless. But the Shin Bet security service presumably knows how to properly screen those seeking to pass - if that is what Jerusalem decides to do.

In the dark days before the Holocaust, it was similarly argued, not without justification, that the German and Austrian refugees fleeing for their lives could include moles seeking to assimilate into the countries through which they passed and sabotage them.

It must be hoped that Israel's first, cruel and unreasonable response to the disturbing scenes on the Gaza border will not be its last word. Ministers Daniel Friedmann and Gideon Ezra, the latter of whom has great security experience, have both spoken out in favor of a wiser and more humane policy.

From time to time, Israel dispatches rescue expeditions to disaster areas - the work of nature or of man. Our soldiers and civilians have extended emergency assistance in Armenia and Turkey, Rwanda and Bosnia, and many other places near and far. All these expeditions were organized by the beautiful Israel. It is unclear, unreasonable and inhumane that here of all places, right in our backyard, Israel should insist on revealing its closed, ugly face. Let the gates be opened immediately, and Israel will appear as it should be.