Opinion | Loving Israel Means Calling to End the War in Gaza
By: Esther Sperber
Haaretz, January 23, 2025
I once trusted the IDF and Israeli government to protect all innocent lives while fighting a cruel enemy, but mounting evidence challenges this and should be a wake-up call to the American Jewish community.
Israel and Hamas reached a deal in which 33 hostages will return from captivity in Gaza over a period of six weeks, in exchange for a cease-fire in the Strip and the release of around 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and detainees held by Israel.
We all took a deep breath Sunday, when hostages Romi Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher were reunited with their families. We know this is a fragile deal, and pray that it brings the return of all the hostages and an end to a brutal war that has claimed the lives of more than 400 Israeli soldiers and tens of thousands of Palestinians.
But alongside the anticipation and hope, I was shocked last week to receive an email from the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America titled "Mixed Emotions."
"After close to 500 days of the unimaginable darkness of captivity, this long-awaited day leaves us with a confused jumble of feelings," wrote the signatories: Orthodox Union President Mitchel Aeder, Executive Vice President Rabbi Moshe Hauer and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Rabbi Dr. Josh Joseph.
Continuing, they wrote that they rejoice with the return from Gaza of hostages and soldiers, yet "share the frustration of many of them that their mission remains incomplete." They demand: "There should still be hell to pay," recalling U.S. President Donald Trump's oft-repeated, ambiguous threat in the event all of the hostages were not released before his inauguration Monday.
For 15 months, Israel has been fighting a war in response to the savage October 7 Hamas attack. The hostages are still missing, missiles are still falling on Tel Aviv and my dear friend Effie lost his son. City bus stops and lampposts are covered with stickers commemorating fallen soldiers, a reminder of the constant mourning and trauma.
During this time, the American Jewish community has provided Israel with unwavering support. In the immediate aftermath of Hamas' attack, North American Jewry raised a staggering $1 billion for Israel. With concern for family and friends on the front lines, many refrained from questioning Israel's military strategy and its lack of a political plan for the "day after." Yet many question Israel's war conduct nevertheless.
On October 22, 2024, the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem issued a press release headed, "The world must stop the ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza," detailing the forced evacuation of civilians under bombardment and the severe restriction on humanitarian aid.
On November 21, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, for alleged war crimes. On December 5, Amnesty International published its own investigation, claiming that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
The reports were met with dismissal and denial within the Israeli and American Jewish communities. Netanyahu expressed this in his dismissal of the ICC warrants as "absurd and antisemitic," a sentiment many Jews shared.
I never thought that a war would solve this conflict, but I believed that the high rate of civilian casualties was an unfortunate consequence of fighting a cruel enemy, embedded within civilian infrastructure. I had grown up with the conviction that the Israel Defense Forces and the Israeli government were committed to protecting all civilian lives. However, a growing body of evidence has shaken this belief. Stories, many published by Israelis and the Israeli press, cannot be dismissed as motivated by antisemitism. They must be a wake-up call to the American Jewish community.
Moshe Ya'alon, a former defense minister and IDF chief of staff, said, in a television interview that sparked widespread outrage in the Israeli media, that he believed Israel was committing war crimes and ethnic cleansing in Gaza.
Lee Mordechai, an Israeli historian, compiled an extensive database and report, "Bearing Witness to the Israel-Gaza War." It begins with these words, "I, Lee Mordechai, a historian by profession and an Israeli citizen, bear witness in this document to the situation in Gaza. ... The enormous amount of evidence I have seen ... has been enough for me to believe that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian population in Gaza."
Nir Hasson, in an article in Haaretz reviewing Mordechai's work, highlights numerous disturbing incidents, including images on social media of soldiers posing with lingerie found in homes and shops to a report of a commander ordering his troops to shoot and kill people waving white flags.
Unfortunately, the infractions in Mordechai's report are not isolated incidents. On December 31 alone, Haaretz published four articles, by Yaniv Kubovich, Hagar Shezaf, Nir Hasson and Jack Khoury, describing atrocities in Gaza. These reports are shocking. They expose a reality that is hard to comprehend and impossible to accept; a Gaza that is ravished not only by famine, disease, urban destruction and forced evacuation but also by an utter disregard for human life.
Many argue that war is inherently brutal and that U.S. actions in Iraq and Afghanistan were equally, if not more, reprehensible. Mordechai refutes this claim. He notes that in the first month of the war, 10 times more children were killed in Gaza than in the entire first year of the Russia-Ukraine war.
According to the (Hamas-run) Gaza health ministry, over 46,000 people have been killed, around half of them women and children. Compare this to the civilian death toll in Iraq (11,516 over five years) and Afghanistan (46,319 over 20 years). A new Lancet Journal report suggests that the actual number of civilian casualties in Gaza may be significantly higher than reported.
Are the IDF's actions war crimes? Ethnic cleansing? Crimes against humanity, or genocide? These terms have grave moral, legal and political implications, and I leave it to the experts to make this determination. But I know these actions are morally wrong and spiritually sinful. The silence of the American Jewish community in the face of these horrors will haunt us for generations.
Israel is trapped in a vicious cycle of trauma and destruction, pain and violence. I feel deep empathy for the suffering of Israelis and have actively advocated for the return of the hostages. Yet, as Mordechai said in a parlor meeting in New York this month, one injustice cannot justify another injustice.
The coming weeks will be a test not only for Israel and Hamas, but also for the American Jewish community. With their deep connection to and love for Israel, American Jews can play a unique role, one that can express concern and criticism from a place of love and support.
Following their unprecedented support, rabbis, educators, politicians and intellectuals have the moral standing and obligation to urge Israel to bring all the hostages home, end this brutal war and support a major humanitarian aid initiative to alleviate the extreme need in Gaza. We must reject calls like Itamar Ben-Gvir's to stop humanitarian aid and fuel, electricity and water to Gaza and demands such as those of Bezalel Smotrich and the Orthodox Union to resume the war in a few weeks.
We must speak up, not only for the sake of the people of Gaza but for the sake of our own conscience before humanity and God.