Sunday, January 14 marks the 100^th day of captivity for the remaining hostages (estimated at 136) still being held in Hamas captivity against the laws of war. The freed hostages have testified to horrific conditions they suffered (here and here). The longer the remaining hostages are held, the ability to bring them back to Israel alive decreases. There is little to no knowledge where they are or how they are faring. Hamas had denied the Red Cross access to them.

Join the movement to bring them home. Write the number 100 on paper and place it over your heart as I am doing below. Photograph yourself and post it everywhere along with the tag #BringThemHomeNow

A poll was conducted between November 22 to December 2 of Palestinian attitudes in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel as a consequence of the Hamas-Israel War. The survey was taken by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, or PSR, and led by the respected Dr. Khalil Shikaki. The survey interviewed 1,231 people in the West Bank and Gaza (with an error margin of 4 percentage points). In Gaza, poll workers conducted 481 in-person interviews during the pause in fighting.

Dr. Shikaki spoke this week with the Vice President of Policy for J Street, Dr. Debra Shushan, and reported that attitudes of Palestinians in Gaza are at times very different from West Bank Palestinians, and both are different from attitudes of Israeli-Palestinian citizens.

The following are highlights of that conversation:

• Before October 7, Hamas never had a majority approval of Palestinians living in Gaza, and there was never majority support for a war with Israel. At the same time, 44% in the West Bank said they supported Hamas after the war began, up from just 12% in September. In Gaza, Hamas enjoyed 42% support, up slightly from 38% three months ago;
• Support for armed struggle against Israel totaled 35% of Palestinians during the term of the former Israeli government led by Prime Ministers Bennett and Lapid and rose to 53% for armed struggle against Israel during the current extremist government of Bibi Netanyahu;
• Despite the devastation of the war, 57% of Palestinian respondents in Gaza and 82% in the West Bank believe that Hamas was correct in launching the October attack. After October 7, Palestinians living in the West Bank increased their support of Hamas for two reasons: 1. the survey took place during the pause in which negotiations lead to the release of about 300 West Bank Palestinian prisoners to their West Bank Palestinian families; and 2. there is an overwhelming lack of support for the Palestinian Authority and PA President Mahmud Abbas in the West Bank;
• In response to the question whether Palestinians supported the Hamas massacre, rape and kidnapping of Israeli civilians on October 7 and whether Palestinians regarded the attack as war crimes, 80% of Palestinians recognize that killing women and children are war crimes. However, only 25% of Gazans actually saw videos of the massacre and of those 25%, they were ten times more likely to say that Hamas committed war crimes than those who did not see the videos. In the West Bank, 7% saw the videos and therefore the vast majority of West Bank Palestinians did not believe Hamas even committed war crimes;
• It is common during war, Dr. Shikaki noted, that each side tends to view news that supports its own narrative of the war. Palestinians overwhelmingly watch Al Jazeera news, and some watch Al Aqsa News or Palestinian television. None of the three networks showed the videos. Though some younger Palestinians watch social media, again, they tend to avoid looking at media that undermines their narrative to give them an element of deniability. Dr. Shikaki believes that in time, however, more Palestinians will see the videos of the massacres and their attitudes towards Hamas likely will change accordingly. While Israeli media coverage has focused intensely on the attack on October 7, Palestinian news has fixated on the war in Gaza and the suffering of civilians there;
• In response to the Palestinians’ preferred future for Hamas or the Palestinian Authority, attitudes are based upon which organization the people most trust to address Palestinian needs. Trust of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank is very low and trust of Hamas in Gaza is very low. Since the war began, there has been a slight rise in support for Hamas in Gaza and more so in the West Bank. 60% of West Bank Palestinians say that the Palestinian Authority should be dissolved. 88% believe that PA President Abbas should resign and the PA’s continued security coordination with Israel’s military against Hamas, Abbas’ bitter political rival, is widely unpopular;
• Attitudes depended on which of the two options Palestinians believed was most likely to bring results – violence or diplomacy. Gazans preferred violence and West Bank Palestinians preferred diplomacy. West Bank Palestinians preferred also a national unity government of technocrats including Hamas and the Palestinian Authority with elections held within a year after the end of the war;
• When asked who is most likely a unifying Palestinian leader, the vast majority of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank named Marwan Barghouti, the jailed Fatah and Tanzim leader who is serving in an Israeli prison 5 life sentences for the deaths of Israelis during the 2^nd Intifada between 2000 and 2005;
• 66% of Palestinians preferred the leadership of a secular nationalist leader (i.e. Barghouti) and 33% preferred an Islamist (i.e. Nasrallah). Barghouti is preferred because he is regarded as incorruptible, a democrat, of the Palestinian mainstream with a nationalist agenda that includes a two-state solution with the Palestinian capital in Jerusalem and the border between Israel and Palestine based on the 1949 armistice lines. Palestinians regard Barghouti as supporting both the diplomatic and violent approach. In a two-way presidential race, Ismail Haniyeh, the exiled political leader of Hamas, would trounce Abbas while in a three-way race, Barghouti would be ahead just slightly;
• The poll showed that only 15% of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza trust Israel, similar to the numbers of Israelis that trust the Palestinians. However, Israeli-Palestinian citizens trust both sides by large margins. Palestinians trust Russia and China far more than they trust the United States, Germany, France, and the UK, and they trust Qatar most of all (note: Al Jazeera is based in Qatar). Palestinian regard for Iran and Hezbollah has increased during the war.

Conclusions: This survey is a snapshot of current Palestinian attitudes in three arenas – Gaza, the West Bank and Israel. Attitudes taken in the midst of this war can change dramatically once the fighting ends and more is known among Palestinians about what Hamas terrorists did on October 7 in southern Israel. Attitudes will also dramatically be affected the day after the war ends and it is determined what plans are made to govern over Gaza and the West Bank. Attitudes will be affected also by whether the current Israeli government of Netanyahu and his extremist ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Betzalel Smotrich will continue to rule or not.

Introductory Notes:

I’m stunned by this poll showing that in the 18-24 age group of young Americans surveyed, far too many believe that the State of Israel should “cease to exist, and instead be replaced by a Palestinian entity.”

This is what the monthly Harvard CAPS/Harris poll (scroll down to page 46) discovered (I post below the Times of Israel article about the poll).

This poll did not break down the positions of young 18-24 year-old American Jews, and I hope that the percentages in America generally are not parallel with similar numbers amongst America’s young Jews. Whether they are or not, we have to assume that our 18-24 year-old American Jews and, for that matter, under 40 year-old American Jews too, are confronting either on college or high school campuses, in work and amongst their friends, sentiments such as this poll suggests are held given the dramatic rise in antisemitism in America since October 7 and over the past few years.

I believe that my re-issued 2019 book “Why Israel and its Future Matters – Letters of a Liberal Rabbi to the Next Generation – 2023 edition” with a Foreword that I wrote after October 7, is an important read for young Jews starting in early high school, but for older generations as well, because I offer nuanced broad-based thinking about why, despite this war with Hamas, we American liberal Jews need to support Israel for our own sake and for the sake of our Israeli brothers and sisters. I argue that we also need to support next steps in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a matter of necessity for Israel’s democratic and Jewish character and as a matter of justice for the Palestinians living under occupation.

My book is available from the publisher – Ben Yehuda Press – https://www.benyehudapress.com/   – or on Amazon.com. I ask you to consider purchasing it for your children and grandchildren from the age of 14 or 15 onwards, and for yourselves too – since its initial publication, people have told me that this is an important book for older American Jews too.

See my blog for more details about the book, and the list of endorsers – https://rabbijohnrosove.blog/2023/11/12/rabbi-rosoves-new-updated-2023-edition-why-israel-and-its-future-matters-letters-of-a-liberal-rabbi-to-the-next-generation-publ-november/

Here is the report of the poll in The Times of Israel:

Majority of all respondents support Israel, but results from 18-24 age group show majority think IDF campaign ‘genocidal,’ while saying calls for genocide of Jews are legitimate

By ToI Staff 17 December 2023

Over half of young Americans surveyed on Israel’s conflict with Hamas believe the Jewish state should cease to exist, and instead be replaced by a Palestinian entity, according to an online poll conducted this week.

The monthly Harvard CAPS/Harris poll found continuing support for Israel in its campaign against Hamas among every age demographic but 18- to 24-year-olds.

Overall, the survey found that 81 percent of respondents back Israel. Among the youngest age bracket, though, support is evenly split between Israel and Hamas.

On several questions, voters in that age group seemed to express contradicting or muddled views. For instance, despite 51% replying in the affirmative when asked if Israel should be “ended and given to Hamas and the Palestinians,” 58% of respondents in the group also thought Hamas should be removed from running Gaza.

However, most of the entire pool of respondents (60%) preferred a two-state solution to the conflict.

The survey found that 66% of respondents in the 18-24 age group think that Hamas’s October 7 massacre constituted genocide. At the same time, 60% think that the attacks were justified by Palestinian grievances, indicating that they believe that genocide of Israelis is justified.

Overall, 73% of respondents said the onslaught was genocide, and similarly 73% believed it to be unjustified.

Additionally, a majority of all respondents across the board view the October 7 massacre — when Hamas-led terrorists rampaged through southern communities, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping some 240 to Gaza — as a terrorist attack (84%), including 73% in the 18-24 bracket.

Sixty-three percent of all respondents answered that Israel was trying to defend itself with its military offensive aimed at eliminating Hamas, which has ruled the Strip since 2007. But 60% of 18- to 24-year-olds said that the campaign constitutes genocide against Gazans.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has claimed that, since the start of the war, more than 18,800 people have been killed, mostly civilians. These figures cannot be independently verified and are believed to include some 7,000 Hamas terrorists, according to Israel, as well as civilians killed by misfired Palestinian rockets. Another estimated 1,000 terrorists were killed in Israel during and in the wake of the October 7 onslaught.

Young people were also against the overall trend on the question of a ceasefire: While 64% of respondents said a ceasefire should be agreed to only after the release of hostages and Hamas being booted from power, 67% of 18- to 24-year-olds favored an unconditional deal that would leave things as they are.

The poll also asked respondents about antisemitism on university campuses, which has been on the rise since the beginning of the war.

Many 18- to 24-year-olds seemed to be okay with hate speech at universities: According to the poll, 53% of young people thought students should be free to call for Jewish genocide on campus without punishment, though 70% said such calls constituted hate speech.

Out of all respondents, 74% answered that those who make the calls should face disciplinary action, while 79% said the calls were hate speech.

The survey also asked respondents about the congressional hearing on college antisemitism earlier this month, when the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania failed to answer in the affirmative that calls for Jewish genocide violate the universities’ code of conduct, saying only that they do so in certain contexts.

Their responses provoked a backlash from Republican opponents, along with alumni and donors who said the university leaders are failing to stand up for Jewish students on their campuses. Penn’s president Liz Magill resigned due to the criticism, while the other two have remained in their positions.

While 67% of 18-to 24-year-olds think the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and Penn universities went far enough in condemning antisemitism, when faced with comments they made during congressional testimony — that calls for Jewish genocide are only punishable depending on the context — 73% said they should resign.

Furthermore, a majority of respondents (68%) acknowledged that antisemitism is prevalent on university campuses, with 63% of 18- to 24-year-olds responding in the affirmative.

The poll also asked respondents who they believed was responsible for antisemitism on campus, with 24% saying the hatred has always had a presence; 20% blamed students; 18% left-wing political movements; 11% university presidents and administrators; 11% foreign funding of universities and student groups; 7% university professors; and 8% answered none of the above.

Only 8% in the 18-24 bracket believed antisemitism had always existed on campus.

Most of those in that age bracket said they watched or read about the presidents’ testimonies in the poll, which was conducted online among 2,034 registered voters on December 13 and 14.

“The heart of Hamas is evil.” So said Edmund Husain who discusses what Islamic theology and history tell us about both Hamas and the future of Israel.

Edmund Husain is a British writer and political advisor who served as a senior advisor to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. His doctoral studies include Western philosophy and Islam. He has held senior fellowships at think tanks in London and New York, and is currently an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. Among his books are The Islamist, The House of Islam: A Global History, and Among the Mosques.

This hour-long podcast is exceptionally worthwhile, and I recommend it highly.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/foreign-podicy/id1313495723?i=1000637231707

I haven’t been posting for a while because I haven’t known what to say beyond what I’ve already said about this awful war that Hamas thrust upon Israel and the Jewish people.

I’ve been grieving along with everyone I know in Israel and the United States the loss of the 1200 Israelis murdered and desecrated on October 7, and the growing number of young Israeli soldiers fighting and dying in Gaza. I’m deeply worried about the lives and well-being of the Israeli hostages still imprisoned by Hamas. I’ve not stopped feeling the rage I experienced after the vicious and cruel attack, and my disgust has intensified like bile in my mouth as reports became known of how badly the freed hostages (children, women, and the elderly) were treated in their captivity in Gaza. And my shock and rage have been strengthened exponentially when I learned of the massive sexual violence perpetrated by savage Hamas terrorists against Israeli girls and women on October 7.

I’ve also been saddened by the deaths of all the innocent Palestinians in Gaza and I empathize with their families too, because that’s what we Jews do – mourn the loss of every innocent life.

I was recently reminded of a poem by Mary Oliver called “Heavy.” She expressed well how I’ve been feeling since all this began and how I presume so many Israelis and perhaps, many of you reading this also are feeling in these days:

That time / I thought I could not / go any closer to grief / without dying

I went closer, / and I did not die. / Surely God / had his hand in this,

as well as friends. / Still, I was bent, / and my laughter, / as the poet said,

was nowhere to be found. / Then said my friend Daniel / (brave even among lions), / “It is not the weight you carry

but how you carry it— / books, bricks, grief— / it’s all in the way / you embrace it, balance it, carry it

when you cannot, and would not, / put it down.” / So I went practicing. / Have you noticed?

Have you heard / the laughter / that comes, now and again, / out of my startled mouth?

How I linger / to admire, admire, admire / the things of this world / that are kind, and maybe

also troubled— / roses in the wind, / The sea geese on the steep waves, / a love / to which there is no reply?

Regaining perspective in these days is important for our emotional and mental well-being. So is breathing, seeing and appreciating the quieter things that are meaningful and filled with beauty and loveliness – the natural things, family and friends and creativity of all kinds.

May our people in Israel be fortified in this fight, and may the IDF be victorious over the evil it is confronting. Then may peace come to Jerusalem and to all the peoples of the Land.

This blog also appears at The Times of Israel Blogs – https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/when-mourning-is-going-close-to-death-without-dying/

Yehuda Kurtzer, Director of the North American Hartman Institute and host of the Podcast “Identity/Crisis,” interviews Tal Becker, an Israeli lawyer, Senior Fellow at the Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, Legal Advisor of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and a veteran member of Israeli peace negotiation teams. They discuss the ethics of Israel’s war against Hamas.

Yehuda and Tal explore just war theory through legal, philosophical and Jewish frameworks and analyze the actions of the IDF and Hamas accordingly.

This is among the most important podcasts I have listened to since October 7. Their conversation is cogent and clear and goes far beyond the headlines and looks at the reality of this unprecedented war and the moral values of Judaism and Israel.

If you are confused by any aspect of this just war, are not certain that Israel is behaving according to the Laws of War even though everything Hamas did on October 7 is contrary to all ethics in war and are obvious war crimes, or want to understand more clearly the nature of the enemy that is Hamas and the principles of war that Israel has indeed followed to the best of its ability, listen to this hour-long podcast. You will be glad you did.

Listen here – https://www.hartman.org.il/fighting-a-just-war/

Dear Friends,

Days after October 7, my publisher at Ben Yehuda Press called to tell me that he wanted to reissue my 2019 book “Why Israel and its Future Matters” with a new cover and tag line “Letters of a Liberal Rabbi to the Next Generation” plus a Foreword that I would write about the Hamas massacre of 1200 babies, children, men, women, and the elderly in southern Israel, Hamas’ kidnapping of 240 hostages, and the Israel-Hamas War.

I agreed and on November 10, the book was reissued. Here is a brief description of the volume:

“Presented in the form of letters from a rabbi to his adult sons, this volume argues that Jews of all ages need Israel as a source of pride, connection, and Jewish renewal, and Israel needs them for the liberal values that they can bring to the Zionist enterprise. Exploring the roots and antisemitic branches of the campaign against Israel, Rabbi Rosove demonstrates why it’s wrong to characterize Israel as an oppressor state and damn it with blanket condemnation. A 15-page appendix features a timeline/mini-history of Zionism and Israel from the 19^th century through October, 2023. After each letter/chapter are a series of discussion questions for families, book groups, and courses on Israel and Zionism.”

The Foreword discusses how Israel and the Jewish world are different after October 7 and how the Hamas attack shines a light on Hamas’ mission to destroy Israel, murder all the Jews of the Jewish State, and establish an extremist Muslim Caliphate on all the land between the river and the sea. Rosove explains that Hamas is an existential threat to the Jewish people and to anyone interested in Israeli-Arab and Israeli-Palestinian peace, that Israel has no choice except to prosecute its war fully to eliminate Hamas’ military capacity and its brutal sovereignty over Palestinians in Gaza while striving to retrieve the hostages, avoid killing innocent Palestinian civilians, and avoid opening up wars against Hezbollah in Lebanon and Palestinians living under Occupation in the West Bank.”

The new edition is now available at Ben Yehuda Press (https://www.benyehudapress.com/WIM-2023) or online at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Consider purchasing copies as gifts for Hanukah for your yourselves, your children, and grandchildren.

“A must read!” – Isaac Herzog, President of Israel

“This thoughtful and passionate book reminds us that commitment to Israel and to social justice are essential components of a healthy Jewish identity.” – Yossi Klein Halevi, author, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor

“Rabbi Rosove grapples with modern Israel, Jewish identity, relations between Israelis and Diaspora Jews, and perhaps most significantly whether ‘you can maintain your ethical and moral values while at the same time being supporters of the Jewish state despite its flaws and imperfections.’ It is a book that many of us wish we had written for our children.” – Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer, Former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt (1997-2001) and to Israel (2001-2006), Professor of Middle East policy studies at Princeton University

“In its call for ‘aspirational Zionism,’ the book is honest and tough about Israel’s flaws, but optimistic about the country’s direction and filled with practical strategies for promoting change. This is a no-nonsense, straight-talking work, intellectually rigorous but deeply personal.” – Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, President Emeritus, Union for Reform Judaism

“Rabbi Rosove’s optimism, and his boundless faith in Jewish peoplehood and Jewish values, makes this book an invaluable blueprint for Jews, both in Israel and around the world, to help the Jewish State live up to its founding values of acceptance, pluralism, and democracy and become a true light unto the nations.” Anat Hoffman, Chair of Women of the Wall, former Executive Director of the Israel Religious Action Center

“A moving love letter to Israel from a rabbinic leader who refuses to give into despair, but instead recommits to building a democratic Israel that lives up to the visit of its founders.” – Rabbi Jill Jacobs, Executive Director, T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights

“In a beautifully written, passionate, emotional and heartfelt book, Rabbi Rosove describes his love for Israel. Always honest, authentic and sincere, John does not attempt to hide Israel’s imperfections. His forty years in the rabbinate taught him that anything human is imperfect, and that true love requires engagement in the work of improvement and repair. The form of Rabbi Rosove’s book is a series of touching letters to his adult children. In this way, John writes to all our children. Read and Reread Rabbi Rosove’s book. Turn the pages over and over again. You will glean his spirit, and the spirit of our people that has created and sustained the State of Israel – one of the great miracles of the world.” – Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, Senior Rabbi, Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, New York City, and host of “In These Times Podcast”

This message and the video below was sent by Shir Nosatzki, an Israeli woman who told the extraordinary story how on the morning of October 7 Israeli Arabs saved Jews at Kibbutz Be’eri. She wrote:

“Out of the horrible darkness of the October 7th massacre, there are shreds of light emerging in the form of heroic stories of rescue and humanity – Arabs and Jews facing the terrible inhumanity together and helping each other. 

Watch this inspiring story (no traumatic images). This video reached over a million views throughout Israel in less than 24 hours. It was shared widely throughout social media by both Jews and Arabs, further strengthening our belief in a Jewish-Arab partnership. While there are people in Israel, including senior government officials, who are trying to fan the flames between Jews and Arabs and use this horrible moment to try and break us apart – we resist. We will not let them, nor Hamas, destroy what we’ve built.

Please share this [blog] with friends to spread the notion that October 7th was not a war between Jews and Arabs. It was between light and darkness. And there are Jews and Arabs on both sides. Let us all spread light.” 

Watch here: https://youtu.be/CrXtTYm_NB8?si=IgXIO-baQNkFKzT1

The following, posted by Jonathan Alter (the American journalist and author) that he calls “Thinking Straight about the Israel-Hamas War,” was signed by more than 400 Columbia University and Barnard College faculty about the Israel-Hamas War that I would have signed in a New York minute. Alter wrote at the end: “This fine letter should be a model for statements from other institutions and communities. Higher education, in particular, must now face a reckoning. It will either retreat to the status quo ante, failing to instill the proper “ideals and values” in students or undertake a much-needed assessment of what a liberal arts education — or any education — means.”

Here is the open letter:

“There are many statements, letters, and counter letters circulating, and we have no interest in waging a war of words while an actual war is raging. Still, given what we have heard from others on campus, we are moved to write to emphasize three simple points.

First, at a great university like Columbia, there should be robust debate about complex and difficult issues, such as whether a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is appropriate or feasible, who is to blame for the miserable conditions in Gaza, and what the wisest strategy is, going forward, to produce a just and secure peace in the region.  The signatories to this letter themselves have diverse views on these subjects. The university must foster an environment where debate on these important issues can proceed without intimidation or harassment.

At the same time, there is no excuse for Hamas’s barbaric attack on Israeli civilians, which was an egregious war crime. There is no justification for raping and murdering ordinary citizens in front of their families, mutilating babies, decapitating people, using automatic weapons and grenades to hunt down and murder young people at a music festival celebrating peace, burning families alive, kidnapping and taking hostages (including vulnerable populations of elderly, people with disabilities, and young children), parading women hostages in front of chanting crowds, and proudly documenting these nightmarish scenes on social media. We are horrified that anyone would celebrate these monstrous attacks or, as some members of the Columbia faculty have done in a recent letter, try to “recontextualize” them as a “salvo,” as the “exercise of a right to resist” occupation, or as “military action.” We are astonished that anyone at Columbia would try to legitimize an organization that shares none of the University’s core values of democracy, human rights, or the rule of law.  Any civilian loss of life during war is awful but, as colleagues on the faculty acknowledged in the letter mentioned above, the law of war clearly distinguishes between tragic but incidental civilian death and suffering, on one hand, and the deliberate targeting of civilians, on the other. We feel sorrow for all civilians who are killed or suffering in this war, including so many in Gaza. Yet whatever one thinks of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or of Israeli policies, Hamas’s genocidal massacre was an act of terror and cannot be justified, or its true purpose obscured with euphemisms and oblique references. We ask the entire University community to condemn the Hamas attack unambiguously. We doubt anyone would try to justify this sort of atrocity if it were directed against the residents of a nation other than Israel.

Finally, the University cannot tolerate violence, speech that incites it, or hate speech. Just as we condemn any bigoted comments or acts directed at Palestinian and Muslim students, we are appalled by the spate of antisemitic incidents on campus since October 7. These incidents, which include antisemitic epithets, physical assault, and swastikas scrawled on bathroom walls, are growing in frequency and are creating a hostile and unsafe environment that impacts our entire community. In the same way that the University defends other groups from this sort of disgusting conduct, it is essential to do the same for Jewish and Israeli students. To do otherwise would betray our ideals and the values of Columbia as a great university.”