Why the war in Gaza must end - The Jewish Standard

October 7 shocked the Jewish community, and we are still reeling from its savage brutality. Hamas is still holding 50 people hostage, many of whom are thought to be alive. The regime is weakened but intact, and their continued presence in Gaza means that Israel cannot ensure that another massacre won’t happen again.

Yet Israel’s quest for security and the return of the hostages is not working.Rather than bring itself closer to its goal, Israel’s military campaign has left suffering in its wake. For Israelis this war has meant young soldiers are returning in body bags and businesses owners are being forced to shutter their stores as they are called up again and again for reserve duty. Thousands of people remain displaced, unable to return to their homes, which are too close to the front.

And we must also face the suffering of Palestinians living in Gaza. Neighborhoods destroyed, innocent civilians buried in the rubble of errant bombs, whole families wiped out and increasingly starvation after the Israeli government enforced an unparalleled blockade on Gaza and is now launching an inadequate feeding program riddled with outbreaks of violence.

This war is not working and it needs to end.

The aims of creating safety for Israelis, returning the hostages, and defending against Hamas are just aims. Yet it is incumbent upon us to admit that the war, as it stands, is not achieving these aims and is causing great harm. If a certain path is deficient, we are obligated to find a new one. In fact, to remain on that path stubbornly, not admitting fault, not changing course, is immoral.

We are well aware that Hamas continually uses civilians as human shields. They hoard aid to sell it on the black market, using its profits to arm themselves. They kill protestors who speak out against them.

But we are uniquely tied to the Jewish citizens of Israel and so it is also incumbent upon us to speak out when we see the faults of their government. The current Israeli government is so concerned with preserving their power and coalition that they will placate voices on the extreme right who use mass starvation as a weapon, speak of forced Palestinian migration, and have a callous disregard for the innocent lives lost in this conflict. Starvation and disregard for the sufferings of the innocent flies in the face of Jewish values.

Israel cannot bomb its way out of this quagmire. With the crisis in Iran over, the time has come for the established Jewish community to call on Israel to end this war and bring home our hostages, even it leaves Hamas in power in the short term — something that 70 percent of Israelis will reluctantly accept, according to recent polling. Israel should then seriously pursue a long-term solution that will oust Hamas and ensure safety and dignity for both Israelis and Palestinians using every diplomatic tool at their disposal, with the help of regional and worldwide allies.

Thankfully, there are plenty of Israelis on the ground who are working for just this purpose. Israel is not monolithic. Recently, a groundswell of Israelis have pushed hard for the end of this conflict, not only because they see the heartache of their neighbors down the street but because they can feel the suffering of their neighbors just over the Gazan border.

Where diaspora Jews have limited power for real change since we cannot vote or directly lobby Israeli officials, these Israeli activists are uniquely positioned to advocate for change. We recommend visiting the websites of the New Israel Fund, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), and Standing Together. But there are countless others. They need us as allies, and we need them.

For too long it has felt like there is no space in American Jewry for this Zionist-centered, loving critique of this war. In the days after October 7, the world, and the Jewish community at large, quickly found itself in two camps. They either demanded that we support Israel’s actions entirely or they abandoned Israel completely. Too many between the two camps have stayed silent, without natural footing in this unnatural binary discourse.

If there ever was a time us to stand with our activist Israeli brothers and sisters and give Israel’s political leaders a loving rebuke, it is now.

There is a famous teaching in the Talmud that hard ethical moments are like two ships passing in rough seas. Although both have a right of way, one must yield to the other so they don’t both crash. We can debate the nuances of individual Israeli actions, but war is absolute. Either you are fighting or you are not. And if Israel continues on this path, the slow-motion crash we are observing will happen. Israel will find itself a pariah of the world, it will have failed to bring home the hostages alive, and millions of people on both sides will have suffered for naught.

Rabbi Marc Katz is the senior rabbi at Temple Ner Tamid in Bloomfield, and Rabbi Elliott Tepperman is the senior rabbi at B’nai Keshet in Montclair.

Opinion

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