Tag Archives: gaza

At Last – The Hostages are Returning to their Families

20 Monday Jan 2025

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I have waited until the first group of hostages is home to express my joy in the agreement that brings about a ceasefire, the return of the hostages, and increased humanitarian aid into Gaza. At last, I’m beginning to feel a measure of relief that the first three Israeli hostages – Emily Damari, Romi Gonen and Doron Steinbrecher – are home after their 471 days of captivity and that the remainder of the hostages will be home soon. According to the agreement, 30 more hostages will be released during the first phase of the agreement in groups every Saturday over the next six weeks. In the next phase, more hostages will be released.

The greatest of all commandments in Jewish tradition is the “pidyon shevuyim – redemption of captives” (Maimonides, Mishnah Torah, Hilchot Matanot Aniyim 8:10-11). The Shulchan Aruch, the authoritative 16th century code of Jewish law, emphasizes that “every moment that one delays in freeing captives, in cases where it is possible to expedite their freedom, is considered to be tantamount to murder.” (Yoreh De’ah 252:3) Three millennia ago, the Psalmist exclaimed “B’shuv Adonai et shivat Zion hayinu k’cholmim… – When God returns the captives to Zion we will be like dreamers — our mouths will be filled with laughter and our tongues with joy.” (126:1)

Hamas’ kidnapping on October 7th 250+ babies, children, young women, men, and seniors from their beds and the music festival, and viciously raped many of the young women, paraded both the living and dead through the streets of Gaza like trophies to the cheering of the crowds, are unforgivable crimes against humanity. Worry about the fate and well-being of these hostages has been a constant every-day reality for Israelis and the Jewish people worldwide. The suffering too of innocent Palestinian civilians at the hands of Hamas’ criminality has been also a deep concern over all this time for compassionate human beings everywhere. Now, at last, the suffering can begin to end and Israelis and Palestinians can start to move on, to reconstruct their destroyed and damaged communities, to heal from this longest war, and consider paths towards peace with justice and security for both our peoples in our shared Homeland.

As a Jew and as an American, I’m grateful for the Biden Administration’s consistent effort to find a diplomatic resolution that brings about a ceasefire and the return home of the hostages. Credit is due as well to the incoming Administration that worked with Biden to achieve this agreement.

As much as we Jews are thrilled that the first small group of hostages are home and more are scheduled to be reunited with their families in the coming weeks, there is something repulsive and morally offensive to me that these innocent and peaceful men, women, children, babies, parents, and grandparents will be returned in exchange for the release of those terrorists who committed cruel acts against our people, who have much Jewish blood on their hands, or who profess the murderous Hamas intentions towards the Jewish people and Jewish State. I comfort myself, however, in the knowledge of and respect for Jewish tradition that insists that we do everything possible to bring home innocent captives and not leave them to a certain fate of death in the tunnels of Gaza.

I’m guardedly optimistic that all the hostages will be home soon and that peace will settle in the land. Until that happens, it is upon us to remember that despair is not an option, that hopeful aspirations have historically characterized the Jewish people regardless of our circumstances, and that our dreams of the return of the captives will be fulfilled and that peace and security will eventually come.

The Threat Assessment Against Israeli Democracy

31 Tuesday Dec 2024

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Orly Erez-Likhovski, the Director of the Israeli Religious Action Center (IRAC – the social justice arm of Israel’s Reform Jewish Movement), several weeks ago offered a power-point threat assessment on Israeli democracy by the most extreme right-wing Israeli government in the history of the state. Orly spoke to those of us on the International Advisory Council for the Israel Movement for Reform Judaism and gave me permission to post what she said. I added language only for the purpose of clarification.

Orly is a brilliant Israeli and American lawyer who has brought about significant legal achievements in Israel including making illegal gender segregation on public transportation, ending the Orthodox monopoly on state-funded salaries to rabbis, filing (and winning) the first ever class action suit regarding exclusion of and humiliating practices against women in Israeli society, and disqualifying racist candidates from running for seats in Israel’s Knesset (Parliament).

Orly cited the important work of Kim Lane Scheppele, an American scholar of law and politics at Princeton University, who describes 8 means to dismantle liberal democracies from within and cement authoritarian rule. Scheppele has studied Turkey, Hungary, and the United States (see her essay – “Autocratic Legalism” in The University of Chicago Law Review – https://lawreview.uchicago.edu/print-archive/autocratic-legalism). Orly suggests that Scheppele’s analysis is applicable to what is taking place in Israel today:

  1. Winning democratic elections followed by an attack against democratic institutions (e.g. the judiciary, the media, the prosecutor’s office, the tax authority, and the election commission);
  2. Dismantling the mechanisms that restrict the ruling government;
  3. Controlling the Parliament through intimidation of its members thereby turning it to irrelevance as an independent government branch;
  4. Subordinating the courts to the government through so-called “reforms”;
  5. Gaining control over media outlets and spreading “fake news”;
  6. Placing loyalists in key positions throughout the government and in the media; 
  7. Delegitimizing opponents of the government by calling them traitors;
  8. Changing election laws to ensure future victory.

Introductory notes:

Understanding Israeli politics, political parties, and Israel’s “parliamentary democratic government” is challenging because there is no rigid constitution in Israel, though there have been continuous efforts to write one since the earliest years of the state. Many laws still on the books are founded upon Ottoman and British Mandate law that were in use before the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. To take the place of a written constitution, Israel passed since 1950 fourteen “Basic Laws” (i.e.  laws which are supposed to be of a higher status than regular laws but in fact can be enacted and changed like any other law). Most of these laws deal with the various branches of government. Two basic laws constitute Israel’s “Bill of Rights” but again – they can be changed by a simple majority in the Knesset. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Laws_of_Israel).

Here is Orly’s power-point presentation:

Israeli democracy is already weak and vulnerable:

  • There are no checks on the power of the Israeli government, except by the courts.
  • Israel’s separation of powers is thin since the government controls the Knesset through its coalition majority (i.e. the current extreme right-wing government has 68 Members out of a total of 120 MKs (57 percent).

There are no democratic mechanisms of checks and balances in Israel that exist in other democratic countries:

  • No 2 houses of parliament;
  • No regional elections;
  • No federal system;
  • No presidential veto power;
  • No international courts that the government must adhere to.

The right-wing Israeli government’s narrative and the assault on the courts:

  • The current right-wing government advocates against the independence of the Supreme Court claiming the Supreme Court is too active in striking down laws and government decisions, thereby preventing the elected government from implementing the will of the people.
  • The reality is that only 24 laws have been struck down by Israel’s Supreme Court in the past 30 years. The Supreme court is exceptionally cautious and will intervene only in exceptional circumstances.
  • The claim that the courts do not allow the government to implement the will of the majority disregards 2 critical characteristics of a democracy: the separation of powers and the protection of human rights, especially minority rights.

2023 – The “Judicial Coup”:

  • In December 2022, the government, led by PM Benjamin Netanyahu, took power.
  • In January 2023, the government’s Justice Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Yariv Levin announced the intention of passing a series of laws dramatically weakening Israel’s democracy, especially in limiting the government’s Judicial Review in the following ways:
  1. Taking away the Supreme Court’s ability to strike down Basic Laws that conflict with Israel’s democratic principles (meaning, any law could be shielded from judicial review simply by giving it the title “Basic Law”).
  2. Severely limiting the Supreme Court’s ability to strike down “regular” laws.
  3. Giving the Knesset the power to override a court decision and reenact a law that previously had been struck down by the Supreme Court.

Changing the process of nominating judges:

  • Today, to assure non-partisan balance, new judges are nominated by a committee comprised of 3 Supreme Court Justices, 2 Government Ministers, 2 Members of Knesset, and 2 lawyers. 7 of the 9 members of the committee are required to nominate a Supreme Court Justice. The Chief Justice of the Supreme court is nominated by a majority of the above and traditionally the most senior justice has been chosen to be Chief Justice.
  • However, the “Judicial Coup” aims to give the ruling coalition complete control over the judicial selection committee that would include 3 politically appointed ministers, 3 government coalition MKs, 3 justices, 2 opposition MKs, and for any nomination, 6 out of 11 majority would suffice.

The Attorney General (AG) and Legal Advisors of Government Ministries:

  • Currently, the AG is nominated by a professional selection committee. The AG is the ultimate authority regarding the legality of governmental actions. The AG’s opinion about the legality of the government’s actions binds the government. The AG represents the government in the courts. The same is true about legal advisors to the government ministries who are all subordinated to the AG and not to government ministers.
  • The “Judicial Coup” would allow the government to disregard the legal opinions of the AG and of legal advisors altogether and to choose a private lawyer to represent the government in court.

The “Reasonableness Doctrine”:

  • The Supreme Court can intervene in administrative decisions judged “unreasonable” (i.e. arbitrary, capricious, having bias, and showing conflict of interest). The Supreme Court rarely rules that a government decision is “unreasonable” (averaging only 1.6 times/year since 1995).
  • The “Judicial Coup” intended to prevent the Supreme Court from declaring any governmental or ministerial decision “unreasonable”.

What happened to the “Judicial Coup” legislation?

  • Before October 7, 2023, due to the unprecedented nearly year-long public protests of hundreds of thousands of Israelis across political parties and religious streams, all but one of the components of the “Judicial Coup” legislation failed to become law. The only component of the “Judicial Coup” legislation that the Knesset approved (in July 2023) is abolishing the “Reasonableness Doctrine”.
  • However, in January 2024, the Supreme Court struck down this law that abolished the “Reasonableness Doctrine” (sitting for the first time in Israel’s history in a full panel of 15 judges – suggesting how important the Supreme Court Justices understood this government action to be). This was also the first time the Supreme Court ever struck down a Basic Law. It did so on the grounds that the government’s action contradicts fundamental values in Israeli democracy (i.e. separation of powers and the rule of law).

The current government continues to promote a “Judicial/Regime Coup” post-October 7 – Why change the law if we can ignore it?

  • Court packing – Since October 2023, 3 liberal justices (of the total of 15 Supreme Court Justices) retired at the mandatory retirement age of 70. The right-wing Justice Minister Yariv Levin refuses to convene the judicial selection committee to nominate 3 new justices because he does not have the votes to appoint the right-wing judges that he wants.
  • Chief Justice of the Supreme Court – Justice Minister Levin refuses to follow the seniority rule and to obey court orders that have called for the appointment of a new Chief Justice, for the same reason above. The most senior judge who would become Chief Justice is a liberal, and Levin, consequently, has refused to act. For the first time in Israeli history, Israel has an interim Chief Justice.
  • Ethics of Judges – There is an attempt to have the Knesset nominate a Commissioner in charge of judges’ ethics, thus providing for the political removal of judges.

The Attorney General (AG):

  • The government wants to disregard the AG’s opinions. For example, ignoring the Supreme Court ruling regarding the draft requirement of Ultra-Orthodox Jews to serve in the army or the illegality of providing State subsidies to Ultra-Orthodox men who avoid army service.
  • The government employs a private attorney to represent it in the courts thereby side-lining the AG altogether.
  • There has been intensive incitement and threats against the AG (Gali Baharav-Miara), who was appointed in 2022 by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Gideon Saar. She has been summoned by extremists in the current government to a government “hearing” and there are numerous right-wing calls for her to be fired simply for doing her job and upholding the law (although the government lacks the authority to do so).
  • The current government passed a law to force senior legal advisors to government ministries to retire, thus enabling it to appoint legal advisors who will act as “yes-men”.

Politicization of the Police:

  • National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir is a racist follower of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane. In a democracy, there should be a high wall between government ministers and the professional operation of the police. Ben Gvir has crashed that wall, and he intervenes regularly in police work (e.g. investigations, arrests, and nominations that include promoting violent officers).
  • There is selective enforcement of laws – harsh treatment of anti-government protesters as opposed to lenient treatment of extreme right-wing violence against Palestinians.
  • There is a petition pending before the Supreme Court challenging the law that allows the minister to intervene in police investigations.

Attack on Academia:

  • A bill is being presented to the Knesset that would force universities to fire professors based on expressions of “supporting terror,” but without due process, thus enabling political persecution without having to bring evidence or secure a conviction.
  • Universities that fail to fire such professors will be denied state funding.
  • A similar law regarding teachers in schools was already approved.
  • The person in charge of enforcing this law would be the government’s right-wing Education Minister Yoav Kisch, thereby dramatically restricting free speech.

Attack on the Media:

  • The right-wing government is presenting favorable regulation of pro-government TV stations such as Channel 14 (Israel’s equivalent of America’s “Fox News”).
  • The government strives to weaken media outlets critical of the government (e.g. the Public Broadcast Authority, Haaretz, and Galei Tzahal – the official radio station of Israel’s army).
  • The government is striving to turn regional radio stations (most privately owned by moguls connected to the government) into state-wide stations as a favor to owners.
  • The government is striving to change the rating system of media stations (as implemented by an independent, not-for-profit organization that measures viewership data to determine ratings for television channels and programs) to be controlled by the government.
  • After October 7, 2023, the government passed a law allowing the government’s Communications Minister to shut down media outlets – Al Jazeera was shut down in April 2024.
  • A new bill will grant the government more sweeping powers – allowing the government to shut down internet sites.

Bills against Palestinian Citizens of Israel:

  • A law is being proposed that will make it easier to disqualify Arab Political Parties and Arab candidates from running in elections for the Knesset thus ensuring a majority for the current right-wing government in future elections. Twenty percent of Israel’s total population is Palestinian-Israeli citizens. Only once was an Arab Political Party (Ra’am) part of a ruling Israeli government coalition (in 2021-2022). Eliminating Arab Parties from the Knesset would tip the balance of the total 120 Knesset members to right-wing control of the government. Israeli law requires that much evidence must be presented to support disqualifying a political party or a candidate on the basis of terrorism. This new law would only require bringing “one case” or “one statement” to disqualify said party or candidate, while in order to disqualify racist right-wing parties one would need to present a heavy case of evidence.
  • The government is striving to abolish the need for the state attorney’s approval of police investigations on incitement offenses. It is certainly legitimate to investigate support for Hamas’s attack against Israel on October 7, but it is another matter to investigate someone who publicly expresses concern for Palestinian well-being in Gaza as a consequence of the war. This law would have a chilling effect on Palestinian free speech in Israel. There is already selective enforcement for incitement offenses against Palestinians since October 7, 2023 and this would make the situation worse.
  • Efforts are being made to prevent the General Security Service from using administrative custody towards Jews accused of terrorism and allowing it only to be used against Palestinians accused of terrorism.

Additional Dangers:

  • Civil Service – changing the way the non-partisan Commissioner of Civil Service is nominated to gain governmental control over the nomination.
  • Bar Association – weakening the Israeli Bar Association in order to influence its representatives on the committee nominating judges.
  • Rabbis’ Law – adding hundreds of state paid rabbis, all of whom are Orthodox men chosen by the government, thereby deepening the Orthodox monopoly and discrimination against other non-Orthodox religious streams (e.g. Conservative, Reform, etc.).
  • Rabbinical Courts – promoting a bill that will give rabbinical courts jurisdiction over civil matters (currently they have jurisdiction only over matters of marriage and divorce), thereby promoting a theocracy over Israel’s democracy.
  • Military Draft – promoting a bill that will grant exemption from the military draft to Ultra-Orthodox Jews, contrary to Supreme Court decisions.
  • Settler Violence against Palestinians – extreme Jewish settlers’ violence against Palestinians under occupation in the West Bank which is not treated in an equivalent manner to Palestinian violence against Jewish settlers.
  • West Bank Status – the civil responsibility for the West Bank is being transferred from military officers to people affiliated with the extreme right-wing Finance Minster Betzalel Smotrich thus paving the way for de jure annexation of the West Bank into Israel.

What is IRAC (the Reform Movement’s Israel Religious Action Center) doing in the face of such dangers?

  • In the Knesset, our lawyers are attending committee meetings, filing position papers, and opposing dangerous bills that would harm Israeli democracy.
  • Our Israeli Reform movement is participating in public campaigns to raise awareness to all the above dangers.
  • We are working in cooperation with other Israeli NGOs and human rights organizations to create a stronger impact and effective messaging against all threats to Israel’s democracy.
  • We are protesting alongside hundreds of thousands of Israelis from across the religious streams and political parties who regard seriously the dangers posed against Israeli democracy by the current extremist government and refuse to be silent.
  • In appropriate cases we are challenging all the dangerous policies and laws in court.

We must remember the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people, but the silence over that by the good people.”

We will not be silent but act to preserve Israel as a Jewish and democratic State.

Want to learn more? Sign up for IRAC’s weekly newsletter – the Pluralist!

 

UPHOLDING US LAW TO HOLD NETANYAHU ACCOUNTABLE IS PRO-ISRAEL

08 Sunday Dec 2024

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This blog was posted by J Street on Friday, December 6

By Rabbi John Rosove and Sam Berkman

We wish we weren’t here. We wish October 7 had never happened. We wish all the hostages were home and that all had survived. We wish thousands of Palestinians had not fallen victim in this terrible war. We wish the fighting would stop and Israelis and Palestinians could know freedom and security–peace. But that’s not where we are today.

As this devastating war rages on, it’s time to confront a hard truth: Supporting Israel doesn’t always mean unquestioning endorsement of its government’s actions or the automatic provision of foreign aid. True support sometimes requires breaking from convention. Simply supplying military assistance – without tackling the root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – may temporarily mask the symptoms for Israelis, but it won’t deliver lasting peace and security. 

Ignoring those deeper issues undermines the US-Israel relationship and risks the lives of Israelis and Palestinians alike—a reality we’ve seen tragically play out over the past year.

This was the context for the US Senate’s vote last month on a series of resolutions to disapprove certain arms sales to Israel—measures that were largely symbolic, as the deadline to block the sales had already passed. While the resolutions failed, as expected, the vote sent a clear message of dissent of how the Netanyahu government has conducted the war in Gaza, its disregard for US laws, and the Biden administration’s handling of the conflict.

Nearly 14 months into this war, over 100 hostages remain in Gaza. Israeli security experts – including Israel’s recently ousted Defense Minister – have said that continuing the war in Gaza serves no strategic purpose. Meanwhile, President Biden’s repeated appeals for Netanyahu to take stronger action on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza have largely gone unanswered. 

Israel has had no greater friend over the last year than President Joe Biden, a self-proclaimed Zionist. From visiting Israel during wartime to providing critical military aid and even moving US military personnel and equipment into the region, Biden has consistently demonstrated America’s unwavering support for Israel.

And what has this loyalty yielded? Reports suggest that Netanyahu’s government is closer to advancing plans for rebuilding Israeli settlements in Gaza than securing the return of the hostages. Even most Israelis believe it is more important to secure a hostage deal now than continue the war.

So what more can be done? How do we help those Israelis who desperately want to break the stalemate and end the war, bring home the hostages, stop the suffering in Gaza, and set forth on a path toward regional peace and stability?

The answers do not lie in the empty rhetoric offered by those who opposed the Senate resolutions. Paying lip service to platitudes of peace while giving Netanyahu and his extreme right-wing government carte blanche hardly seems like the course of action a good friend to Israel should take.

Last month’s vote revealed something important: Leveraging US law to promote a shift toward policies that benefit Israel’s long-term security is not anti-Israel—it is profoundly pro-Israel.

Nineteen senators, all pro-Israel, stood up for US law and for their principles in the face of the ongoing war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Among those who voted a symbolic ‘yes’ to disapprove the sales were the second-highest ranking Democrat–the Senate Majority Whip, four Democratic leaders, the incoming ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 vice presidential running mate. Notably, three of these senators are Jewish. 

All 19 senators have long condemned Hamas and the horrific October 7 attack and reaffirmed Israel’s right to defend itself. They have called for the release of all hostages. They have voted for tens of billions of dollars of security aid to Israel throughout their careers. None of them are calling for anything approaching an arms embargo, and all of them endorse continued support for Iron Dome and other defensive systems.

Such resumes do not reflect an anti-Israel fringe. These are serious lawmakers who represent mainstream positions, including those within the American Jewish community– a recent poll of Jewish American voters found that 62 percent support withholding certain offensive arms to press for a ceasefire and hostage deal.

The positions taken by these courageous senators, which were couched in the spirit of supporting Israel, challenge traditional thinking in American politics and within the American Jewish community. But it is precisely this strategy we must embrace if we are committed to a future where Israel remains secure, vibrant, democratic, and Jewish, living in peace with its neighbors. 

We applaud these legislators, and we will continue to push for an Israel that reflects our highest Jewish and democratic values—and for US policies that champion this vision.

Doing this is many things: It’s American. It’s democratic. It’s Jewish. It’s pro-Palestinian. It’s pro-peace. It’s pro-Israel.

Upholding US Law to Hold Netanyahu Accountable is Pro-Israel

Thoughts in the Pews

06 Sunday Oct 2024

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This Rosh Hashanah I spent much of my time in synagogue thinking about this past awful year in the life of the Jewish people and the State of Israel – the October 7 Hamas massacre, the hostage-taking, the ensuing war, the destruction in Gaza, the 18,000 missiles launched by Hezbollah against Israel, Iran’s April attack, the extremist Iran-based Houthi attacks, Israel’s military response against all these Islamic extremist terrorist groups seeking the destruction of Israel, and the dramatic rise in anti-Israel, anti-Zionism and antisemitism in America and around the world. I’ve been weighing and evaluating what this traumatic year will mean for our liberal Jewish and Zionist identity and values and what we might commit to doing in the New Year.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that this has been the most horrific, frightening and sad year in the life of the Jewish people since the end of the Holocaust. The most inspiration I have drawn from the events of this year has been the response of Israel’s civil society in support of the hostage families and the young soldiers and reservists who left their homes, families and businesses and did whatever was asked of them in defense of the Jewish people and State. I’ve been inspired as well by the loving and positive response of world Jewry to our Israeli brothers and sisters, and by President Biden’s and America’s support of Israel’s right to defend itself, and also by his and his administration’s concern for Palestinian civilians who have suffered so severely in Gaza as a consequence of this war.

Haviv Rettig Gur, an Israeli commentator on The Times of Israel Daily Podcast, suggested this past week that Rosh Hashanah this year may well be the inflection point for Israel that we’ve been waiting for, when Israel and its enemies take a turn, find a way to end this current conflict, to the return of the hostages, and to determining the next steps that will lead to greater regional stability and peaceful coexistence with the Palestinian people on a path to a two-state resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and to an expansion of the Arab nations in the Abraham Accords.

He noted that Rosh Hashanah is a holiday unique among all the major holy days in the Jewish calendar year. The other major Jewish festivals of Sukkot, Pesach, and Shavuot begin with a new moon. Rosh Hashanah begins in darkness, without a full moon, beneath a firmament of stars the lights of which come to us from a far earlier era in the history of the Milky Way Galaxy. These High Holidays, beginning in darkness and moving towards an expansion of light as the crescent moon reaches its fullness on Sukkot, call upon the Jewish people to begin again, to seek moral and spiritual enlightenment, to emphasize the sacred character of life, to reaffirm our faith in the best of the human condition and in our innate ability to solve our many personal and societal problems, and in the hope that change and goodness can come in this New Year.

To those amongst our people who have thrown up their hands in disgust by the killing and destruction in Gaza and by the corrupt leadership of the most extreme right wing government in the history of the Jewish State, I understand the rage and despair. I have felt it too. But I ask for caution before you step away from the State of Israel and the Jewish people as some are now doing. The founding and development of Israel is arguably the greatest accomplishment of the Jewish people in the past two thousand years. Yet, this year has been a test for many Jews, and some have turned their backs on Israel and Jewish life. This is not the time to turn away. Since the anti-judicial reform movement that took place during the year before October 7 (and still threatens Israeli democracy as long as this current government rules), Israelis have turned to us Diaspora Jews for our moral and emotional support. After October 7, our solidarity with Israelis has meant much to them. They tell us so in ways I’ve never heard before. Israelis are concerned for us too and our well-being as antisemitism has grown in America and in many European capitals. We Jews there and here are one family, and though there are Israeli Jewish extremists with whom I don’t identify in any way, there are hundreds of thousands of Israelis with whom I do identify very strongly, with love for and pride in who they are and who we are as Jews who share common liberal Jewish and Zionist values.

This is the time for us Diaspora Jews to reinvest in ourselves as Jews, as supporters of Israel, and in who we are as a people. It isn’t enough any longer to be merely so-called “cultural Jews” or “culinary Jews.” Many American Jews have turned away because they don’t believe in the God of Jewish history and tradition. But, Jewish faith in God is only a portion of what characterizes the Jewish people in the modern era. If you don’t believe in God or in the religion of the Jewish people, there is still so much more to what constitutes Judaism and Jewish peoplehood that is appealing and self-affirming – our common history, a shared historic Homeland, an ethical tradition, the Hebrew language and other Jewish languages of Yiddish, Ladino and Aramaic, the Jewish arts of painting, sculpture, film, dance, song, and literature, and the long list of Israeli and Jewish accomplishments and inventions that have enhanced Israeli and modern Jewish life and the world as a whole. In all of that, we have a right to feel a deep sense of pride as Jews – but only if we know what our people has accomplished and what liberal Jewish values characterize us.

I encourage everyone to set as one goal in this New Year to read Jewish history, to learn about Zionism and Zionist thought as the national liberation movement of the Jewish people and as our people’s social justice movement. Contemporary Jewry, by and large, does not know nearly enough Jewish history or about the content of our classic religious, theological, and philosophical texts from the Hebrew Bible through the writings of our rabbis, sages, philosophers, mystics, Enlightenment, and Zionist thinkers. Encourage the young people in your families, from post-bar and -bat mitzvah age to university age to take courses on Judaism, Zionism, the history of the State of Israel, and Jewish ethics, history, and tradition. A Jew cannot know his/her path in life without knowing from whence they’ve come as a people and why we are who we are and what we value.

This ten-day period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur has the capacity to restore and reinvigorate our sense of our Jewish identity, to realign our Jewish moral compass, to refocus and renew our support for our Israeli brothers and sisters, and to gird ourselves for more uncertainty in the Middle East and in America.

As we come together on Yom Kippur this coming week, I hope for the end of this war, the immediate return of the hostages to their families, the safety of Israel’s soldiers and innocent Palestinians too, for the victory of the IDF against Israel’s enemies, for our strength in standing against antisemites on the left and the right in America, and for peace with security for all peoples at war not only in the Middle East but in Ukraine and everywhere around the world.

Gmar tov u-l’shanah tovah u-m’tukah.

May we be sealed in the Book of Life and be graced with a good and sweet New Year.

Kamala Harris’ Superb Nuanced Statement About the Necessity of Ending the Israel-Hamas War Now

26 Friday Jul 2024

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Introduction: I could not have hoped for a better, more nuanced, comprehensive, and urgent statement from Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris about this awful Israel-Hamas War. If you did not hear her give it in her masterful verbal presentation, here it is (click onto the blue below to see her actually deliver her statement):

I just had a frank and constructive meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu. I told him that I will always ensure that Israel is able to defend itself, including from Iran and Iran backed-militias such as Hamas and Hezbollah. From when I was a young girl collecting funds to plant trees for Israel to my time in the United States Senate, and now at the White House, I have had an unwavering commitment to the existence of the State of Israel, to its security and to the people of Israel. I’ve said it many times, but it bears repeating. Israel has a right to defend itself and how it does so matters. Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization. On October 7th Hamas triggered this war when it massacred 1200 innocent people including 44 Americans. Hamas has committed horrific acts of sexual violence and it took 250 hostages. There are American citizens who remain captive in Gaza – Sagi Deo Hen Hirsch Goldberg, Poland Idan, Alexander Keith Siegal Omer Neutra and the remains of American citizens, Judy Weinstein, God Haggai and Itai Hen are still being held in Gaza. I have met with the families of these American hostages multiple times now, and I’ve told them each time they are not alone and I stand with them, and President Biden and I are working every day to bring them home. I also expressed with the Prime Minister my serious concern about the scale of human suffering in Gaza, including the death of far too many innocent civilians. And I made clear my serious concern about the dire humanitarian situation there with over 2 million people facing high levels of food insecurity and half a million people facing catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity. What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating. The images of dead children and desperate hungry people fleeing for safety sometimes displaced for the 2nd, 3rd, or fourth time. We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering, and I will not be silent. Thanks to the leadership of our President Joe Biden, there is a deal on the table for a ceasefire and a hostage deal and it is important that we recall what the deal involves. The first phase of the deal would bring about a full ceasefire including a withdrawal of the Israeli military from population centers in Gaza. In the second phase, the Israeli military would withdraw from Gaza entirely, and it would lead to a permanent end to the hostilities. It is time for this war to end and end in a way where Israel is secure, all the hostages are released, the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can exercise their right to freedom, dignity and self-determination. There has been hopeful movement in the talks to secure an agreement on this deal; and as I just told Prime Minister Netanyahu it is time to get this deal done. So to everyone who has been calling for a ceasefire and to everyone who yearns for peace, I see you and I hear you. Let’s get the deal done so we can get a ceasefire to end the war. Let’s bring the hostages home and let’s provide much needed relief to the Palestinian people. Ultimately, I remain committed to a path forward that can lead to a two-state solution. I know right now it is hard to conceive of that prospect; but a two-state solution is the only path that ensures Israel remains a secure Jewish and democratic state, and one that ensures Palestinians can finally realize the freedom, security and prosperity that they rightly deserve.  I will close with this. It is important for the American people to remember the war in Gaza is not a binary issue. However, too often the conversation is binary when the reality is anything but; so I ask my fellow Americans to help encourage efforts to acknowledge the complexity, the nuance and the history of the region. Let us all condemn terrorism and violence. Let us all do what we can to prevent the suffering of innocent civilians, and let us condemn antisemitism, Islamophobia and hate of any kind, and let us work to unite our country. I thank you.

“There is No Warrant to Israel ‘Genocide’ Claim”

01 Wednesday May 2024

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A Jerusalem Post Op-Ed written by the ethicist Rabbi Dr. Eugene Korn (April 27) persuasively dispels the slanderous charge of “genocide” against the State of Israel in its war against Hamas (see Op-Ed below). Dr. Korn notes that Raphael Lemkin (1900-1959), a Polish Jewish lawyer who coined the term “genocide” and who campaigned for the establishment of the UN Genocide Convention in 1951, described “genocide” as a particularly heinous crime distinguishable from all other war crimes. Lemkin defined genocide as “the intent to destroy a human group as such, directed at individuals only because they belong to that group.” Encyclopedia Britannica is more specific and defines “genocide” as “the deliberate systematic destruction of a group of people because of their ethnicity, nationality, religion, or race.” 

The key requirement in determining whether genocide has been committed is a nation at war’s “deliberate intent” to murder a group of people in whole or in part. Consequently, the charge of “genocide” leveled in The Hague by South Africa against the State of Israel and presently under consideration in The Hague does not apply because the war Israel is waging is against Hamas and is NOT against the Palestinian people, though they are the ones who are suffering.

Hamas is a terrorist military organization that seeks the destruction of the State of Israel and the murder of all Israelis and Jews. That Israel was called to answer the charge of genocide and that this unique charge has been repeated so cavalierly by many contemporary American college protesters, Palestinian resistance groups and the media does not make it so. That’s not to say that the death of any civilian is a tragedy. It is, and in this just war thrust upon Israel after Hamas’ brutal attack against thousands of innocent Israeli civilians on October 7, the resulting death of innocent Palestinians is an awful tragedy.

No nation, however, would stand by and not respond militarily to Hamas’ attack. Hamas leadership has been clear about its intent in this war; to draw Israel out to attack Gaza and cause as much civilian death and injury as possible, and then to disseminate the images of destruction and death day after day, week after week and month after month in its de-legitimization campaign against the State of Israel. Hamas’ military and political leadership promised to continue attacking Israel as it did on October 7 over and over again.  

To the charge of genocide, from the beginning of this war, it needs to be recognized that Israel sent hundreds of thousands of text messages, robocalls, and leaflets throughout Gaza to warn Palestinian civilians to leave specific targets that Israeli intelligence concluded were sites occupied by Hamas commanders and fighters, military strong-holds, missile sites, and weapons depots. Hamas had embedded itself everywhere above ground in homes, apartment buildings, community centers, schools, mosques, and hospitals, and below ground in its 400 miles of tunnels. Many thousands of Palestinians, however, did not leave those targets for a variety of reasons. Some understandably did not want to leave their homes. Others were threatened by Hamas if they tried to leave and were shot at if they did. Hamas wanted Palestinians to become the victims of Israeli bombing. The visuals of the destruction are mind-numbing and terrifying, and that is exactly what Hamas wanted the world to see. One Hamas commander said in an interview that Hamas would be happy if even 100,000 Palestinian civilians die in this war.

Yes, Israel likely has made mistakes, and some targeting may have crossed red lines resulting in the death of innocent civilians. I have questioned the massive use of 2000-pound “dumb bombs” that have destroyed entire apartment buildings with the intent to take out Hamas commanders and deeply embedded tunnels beneath the buildings because of the resulting civilian deaths. Though it is ghoulish to talk about the numbers of casualties, Dr. Korn does so by comparison in his Op-Ed below. Israel’s record, even using Hamas statistics, is far better in its civilian-Hamas death ratio than in any war in the 20th and 21st centuries by any other nation in the world. No one really knows, by the way, how many civilians have been killed and injured because Hamas’ figures are all part of its de-legitimization campaign against Israel. Israel estimates that between 13,000 and 14,000 Hamas fighters have been killed.

Those protesting Israel’s war against Hamas on college campuses who proclaim “We are Hamas” and “Free Palestine from the River to the Sea” are wittingly or unwittingly calling for the destruction of Israel. They may know what they are saying, and if so, their morality is to be condemned as genocidal by definition. If they don’t know what they are saying, or what these slogans really mean, or if they deny and/or refuse to acknowledge what Hamas did to Israeli civilians on October 7, or if they refuse to acknowledge Hamas’ history of reactionary and repressive policies towards its own people (Hamas’ first act after its violent coup de ’etat against the Palestinian Authority in 2007 in Gaza was to march PA leaders to the top floors of the highest buildings and throw them to their deaths), or they don’t realize that Hamas executes LGBTQ individuals and women who resist Hamas’ authority, they ought to study the real history of the Middle East conflict and ask themselves who is really on the right side of history in this war.

I understand well as a Jew, a Zionist and a humanitarian the moral position of those who are against all wars. I struggled during the Vietnam War about whether I was a pacifist or not because I was so against America’s involvement in that war and was of draft age. I decided that since I would have fought against the Nazis in World War II and on the side of Israel in the 1967 and 1973 wars, I was not a pacifist, though throughout my adult life I have been a peace activist especially between Israel and the Palestinian people. I respect those who on principle are opposed to all wars, and I especially respect the peace-makers. When this war ends, I hope that Israel and the Palestinians will find a pathway to resolve their conflict for the sake of both peoples’ security, independence and dignity. Hamas and its extremist Islamic allies (e.g. Iran, Hezbollah, etc.), however, are not legitimate partners to peace as they are maximalist and uncompromising terror organizations with the clearly articulated intent to destroy the State of Israel, to murder every Israeli and every Jew on its way to establishing an extremist Muslim caliphate over all of Palestine “from the river to the sea.”

It is one thing for college and university students to want this war to end, who yearn for the killing to stop, for the hostages to be returned to their families, and to want justice for the Palestinian people and a Palestinian state on part of historic Palestine – I want all of that too – but it is another thing to side with Hamas and Islamic extremists who want the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews and then in ignorance or with hubris charge Israel with genocide.

Though I believe in the right of students to peacefully demonstrate on college and university campuses on behalf of moral and just issues as an expression of their American First Amendment rights, I believe that there is a tremendous lack of understanding and knowledge about Hamas and the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict amongst many of those currently demonstrating against this war.

I have written since the 100th day that Israel should sue for peace and get back all its hostages as soon as possible, to stop the fighting to avoid more death, injury and destruction to Gazan civilian life and to the lives of young Israeli soldiers, and to pour massive amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza. Thankfully, due to President Biden’s strong pressure on PM Netanyahu, approximately 350 trucks filled with food, water, and medical supplies are now coming into Gaza daily over newly opened crossings from Israel into Gaza and the US humanitarian pier is about to be completed and operating.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and many Israeli army and intelligence leaders have said that Israel’s continuing the war to root out Hamas in Rafah is NOT worth the cost in human life, and that Israel should stop the fighting now, declare victory and sue for peace and the return of the hostages. Those are all positions worthy of college and university students.

I hope that reasonable students will pause from the demonstrations and study seriously the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from both sides, step away from those demonstrators who call for the destruction of the State of Israel, and refuse to be ensnared by their maximalist anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric that charges Israel with the slander of genocide. (See my last blog “Confronting Antisemitism on College Campuses” in which I described what antisemitism is and isn’t, and what it means to be anti-Zionist and anti-Israel).

Here is Dr. Korn’s Op-Ed

“Since October 7, ‘genocide’ has rolled effortlessly off our tongues. To Israelis, Hamas’s murder, rape, and kidnapping of more than 1,400 people prove that Hamas is committed to its goals of making Palestine Judenrein through violent jihad and exterminating Jews. 

To many on campus, social media, and in the partisan halls of the United Nations, Israel’s response to Hamas’s orgy of death is self-evident genocide. This rhetoric is awash in certainty, even though factual analyses yield little evidence of actual genocide.

Raphael Lemkin coined the term “genocide” after reflecting on the mass slaughter of civilians in World War II. He understood genocide as a particularly heinous crime distinguishable from other war crimes, defining it as “the intent to destroy a human group as such, directed at individuals only because they belong to that group.” 

Encyclopedia Britannica currently defines genocide as “the deliberate systematic destruction of a group of people because of their ethnicity, nationality, religion, or race.” 

In 1951, the crime of genocide gained legal force when the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was ratified by more than 130 countries.

What constitutes genocide?

Mass killing by itself does not constitute genocide, and World Wars I and II demonstrate the distinction. The Carnegie Institute estimates the number of World War I war-related deaths at 16-17 million, yet only the Ottoman murders of Armenians (1-1.5 million), Assyrians (750,000), and ethnic Greeks (348,000) were genocidal. World War II was far more lethal. 

Estimates run from 70 to 85 million people killed, but deaths from systematic group extermination comprised but a small fraction of these: Jews (5.9 million), ethnic Slavs (2-2.5 million), Roma (250,000), Freemasons (80,000-200,000), disabled persons (250,000-300,000), and homosexuals (10,000-15,000). Thus, only 16% of World War I and 10-13% of World War II deaths were the result of genocide.

Many point to the large number of deaths in Gaza as proof of Israeli genocide. As of April 6, the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health claimed that 33,137 Gazans had been killed in the war, while Israel maintains that more than 13,000 of those deaths were Hamas combatants. If we accept these unconfirmed figures, approximately 20,000 Gazan civilians have died.

To determine whether these deaths constitute genocide, compare the Gaza war to other modern wars:

The percentages of Gazans killed (1.52%) and civilians killed out of the total population (0.92%) are all dramatically lower than their corresponding categories in other major wars. During World War I, 3.8% of all Russians died, while 8.57% of its civilians were killed. In World War II, 6.1% of German citizens died and 1.13% of German civilians were killed, while 10.5% of all Russians and 4.1% of Russian civilians were killed. In the Korean War, 12-15% of North Koreans were killed, while 10.2% of North Korean civilians died.

None of those campaigns were categorized as genocide since they reflect only the lethal nature of these wars. If those vastly more lethal campaigns were not genocide, it is difficult to see how the Israeli campaign in Gaza, with its immensely lower percentages of population and civilians killed, could qualify as genocide.

We can also analyze how 1.52% of Gazans killed compares to the corresponding percentages of the actual genocides against the Armenians in World War I (80%), the Jews (67%) and Roma (25-33%) in World War II, and the Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994 (85%).

The percentage of Gazans killed relative to the group population is at least 15 times lower than the percentages of the populations killed in the above genocides. The discrepancy is even greater if we consider all Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, over which Israel has substantial military control. In that case, the percentage of Palestinian people killed (0.66%) is more than 39 times lower than the percentages killed in any of the genocides. Again, the results of the Israeli campaign bear no statistical similarities to actual genocides.

Another important indicator of genocide is the ratio of civilian casualties to enemy combatant deaths. If the intent is the destruction of a group, qua group, then civilians will represent a high casualty ratio relative to combatants. Conversely, a low ratio of civilian-to-combatant deaths augurs for general lethality, not genocide.

In the non-genocidal campaigns of World War II, the civilian-to-combatant death ratio was approximately 2:1; in the Korean War, it was 3:1; in the Persian Gulf War, it was 9:1; and in the Iraq War, it was 2:1. In the present Gaza war, it is 20,000/13,000 or 1.54:1.The low 1.54:1 Gaza ratio is notable because the war is being fought in dense urban areas where civilians have little protection, while Hamas fighters are protected in underground tunnels.

Moreover, Hamas has positioned its military assets in and under schools, hospitals, and residential buildings. 

The Gaza fighting is comparable to the 2016-2017 international campaign against ISIS in Mosul, which was also fought in dense urban areas. The Mosul civilian-to-combatant death ratio was 9:1, as is the UN’s estimated ratio for urban warfare, so the civilian-to-combatant death ratio in Gaza is approximately six times lower than that of standard urban warfare.

In sum, the Gaza deaths resemble the pattern of general warfare and are manifestly dissimilar to instances of actual genocide. There is no statistical warrant to justify the claim that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

No person who values life can remain insensitive to the immense tragedy in Gaza. William Tecumseh Sherman was correct: War is hell. However, lethal war by itself is not genocide. Unfortunately, fact-based analyses will not stop many from uncritically insisting that genocide is occurring in Gaza. 

Emotional recoil easily overcomes careful thinking. More pointedly, there is great political value for some in describing Israel’s actions as genocide: it condemns Israel of the most heinous of crimes, thereby strengthening the radical argument to dismantle the Jewish state.

THERE ARE also moral and historical consequences to this error. As the false claim goes viral, genocide becomes conflated with the general hellishness of war and loses its unique descriptive and prescriptive meaning. 

If the war in Gaza constitutes genocide, then so do World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and all conflicts with horrific lethality.

This logic’s trajectory denies legitimacy to any middle ground between peace and genocide, rejecting any moral position between pacifism and all-out conflict unbridled by moral rules. 

The Nazi extermination campaigns against Jews, Roma, ethnic Slavs, and homosexuals, qua peoples, become no worse than any bloody war.

Should this occur, genocide as a distinctive concept of extreme evil will have died, as will our conviction to prevent its recurrence. “Never Again” will become “Again” in history, perhaps in our lifetime.”

Dr. Eugene Korn is an ethicist living in Jerusalem.

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-798738

Confronting Antisemitism on College Campuses

28 Sunday Apr 2024

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The American Jewish community has rightly responded with alarm at the dramatic rise in antisemitic incidents in America in recent years, especially since October 7, 2023 when Hamas terrorists viciously attacked Israeli civilians in southern Israel. We are also feeling stung by the dramatic surge of anti-Israeli protest demonstrations on college campuses. University presidents are struggling to address this sudden increase of protesters while striving to preserve free speech and condemning antisemitic intimidation and rhetoric that can lead to violence against Jewish students and supporters of Israel. Many colleges and universities, struck by the speed and intensity with which the demonstrations have arisen and grown, have canceled classes for the remainder of the semester and graduation ceremonies altogether. The metastasizing effect of antisemitism is stunning, though not surprising at a time in which ignorance of Israeli and Middle East history, Judaism and Zionism, compounded by the media’s repetitive focus on the tragedy that has unfolded in Gaza and engulfed the 2-million mostly innocent Palestinian civilians, and in light of the widening cultural and political polarization and upheaval that has taken hold in American culture that began with the presidency of Donald Trump.

What do we do about all of this? First, it’s important for everyone, and especially young college and university demonstrators, to consider what antisemitism really is, what it isn’t, and what constitutes legitimate criticism against the policies of the State of Israel.

A short blog does not provide nearly enough space to discuss the age-old phenomenon of antisemitic hate. That said there are a number of modern and classic iterations of antisemitism that are being promulgated by the hard political left and the conservative right in the United States. They include Holocaust denial, offensive stereotypes of Jews as Christ-killers, puppet masters, imposters, and swindlers who manipulate national events for malign purposes. Antisemitism casts Jews as foreigners, controllers of banking, the media, entertainment, politics, and government. It denies the Jewish people’s right to national self-determination and a nation state anywhere in the Biblical Land of Israel based on the false premise that there never was a Jewish presence there despite massive literary and archaeological evidence to the contrary. Antisemitism applies double standards to Jews and the Jewish state not applied to any other people or nation, uses the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism to characterize Israel, Israelis and Jews, draws comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis, and holds Jews collectively responsible for actions of the State of Israel. At its core, antisemitism is self-righteously based in the irrational and in fear and ignorance of Israelis, Jews and Judaism. It is anti-liberal, intolerant, racist, and immoral.

Not all anti-Zionism, however, is antisemitism for there are many anti-Zionists who are proudly self-identifying Jews. To characterize Zionism quickly is also beyond the purview of a blog. But I can say at least the following; that the Zionist movement began in the late 19th century as a political movement to address European antisemitism and to bring oppressed and persecuted Jews to the ancient Homeland of the Jewish people and build the institutions of a future state of the Jewish people. It was also a cultural movement to renew the Hebraic spirit amongst the masses of Jews around the world and in Palestine based upon the teachings of the ancient Prophets of Israel who called for a society based upon justice, compassion and peace. There are many streams of Zionism today that have developed over the years from left-wing to right-wing, political to orthodox to Reform, to secular.

Legitimate criticism of Israeli government policies and freedom of thought, press and assembly are not only intrinsic to Israeli culture but to Diaspora Jewish culture too. Criticism of Israeli policies is therefore not necessarily antisemitic, though some of it is if such criticism is based on the denial of the inherent right of the Jewish people to a state of their own. To be able to judge whether anti-Zionism is also antisemitic, it is necessary to study and understand Jewish, European and Middle East history, how and why the Zionist movement emerged and grew, and the history of the State of Israel and its relationship with its Arab neighbors and the Palestinian people.

For Jewish students and supporters of Israel to fear walking on any college or university campus anywhere in America ought to alarm not just the Jewish community, but people across religious, cultural, racial, ethnic, and gender lines. That there are students at Columbia University and other campuses who chant their approval of Hamas ought to terrify anyone who values freedom and a liberal progressive society. When Hamas took control of Gaza in a violent military coup in 2007, its first action was to march leaders of the rival Palestinian Authority to the highest building in Gaza and throw them to their deaths. LGBTQ individuals are punished severely by Hamas as are women who stand up for their rights. Hamas, an extremist Islamic terror organization that is uncompromising and repressive, does not value human rights nor the lives of its own citizens who Hamas has used consistently as human shields in its many wars against Israel. How American students who profess to be humanitarians and progressives can chant their support of Hamas and the destruction of the democratic liberal state of Israel is confounding.

I have written in former blogs about this Israel-Hamas war, that it is not a war against the Palestinian people but rather an existential struggle against Islamic extremism that seeks the destruction of Israel on any land between the river and the sea and the murder of all Israelis and Jews. I have written as well consistently for the return of the Israeli hostages as a first order of business for Israel and for a massive infusion of humanitarian aid into Gaza for Palestinian civilians. I have supported the hope that when the fighting is over that Gaza ought to be governed by a moderate alliance of Arab states led by a reconstituted Palestinian Authority without Hamas being a part of the next government. And I hope that the Israeli military will not continue its war in Rafah and cause more death and suffering as it continues its mission to root out and kill Hamas, and instead enter into a formal alliance with Saudi Arabia and other moderate western-oriented Arab states along with the United States against Iran and its proxies.

I understand and empathize with those students on American campuses who are deeply pained by the suffering of innocent Palestinians caught up in this awful war initiated by Hamas. I support their outrage and am disgusted for all kinds of reasons by Prime Minister Netanyahu and his failures as a leader of Israel. I am concerned that Israel has used far too many 2000-pound “dumb bombs” to root out Hamas commanders hiding in their 400 miles of deeply dug tunnels everywhere under Gaza and consequently killed too many innocent Palestinians whenever it dropped those bombs. But, I ask those students to weigh their motives that have drawn them to the ramparts of protest against Israel, and to ask themselves whether they are also offended by the suffering of Israelis on October 7 at the hands of Hamas, and whether they are as concerned for those Israelis who have been held as hostages by Hamas as they are for the Palestinians who have suffered for years because of Hamas’ brutal totalitarian rule. And I ask them to search their own hearts and souls and ask if they are propelled by deep-seated antisemitism or not.

This war is not only a war between Hamas and Israel. It is a struggle between western civilization and extremist Islam. That is why the United States, Britain, France, Jordan, Egypt, and some say even Saudi Arabia, joined in shooting down thousands of Iranian drones and missiles aimed at Israel to do extensive damage and killing of Israelis on April 13th. Those countries understand what this conflict is really all about and I would hope that thoughtful university and college students who represent the intellectual cream of American society would understand what is really going on in the Middle East too.

Why Congressional Ban on UNRWA Funding to Palestinian Civilians in Gaza is Wrong-headed

29 Friday Mar 2024

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Introductory notes: In ordinary times, the continued existence of UNRWA is a subject for debate as it is the only UN agency devoted to a specific refugee group in the world – the Palestinians. After reports emerged following October 7 that a dozen or more terrorists were employees of UNRWA (one was caught on camera taking an Israeli body on the road in southern Israel, loading it into his car and taking it as a dead “hostage” into Gaza), calls for nations to stop funding the organization became widespread.

There were roughly 10,000 Palestinian employees of UNRWA in Gaza before October 7, so it stands to reason that some were members of Hamas or were supporters of the terrorist organization. That said, Palestinian civilians are facing an imminent life and death crisis that requires redress, and UNRWA is the only organization able to get massive humanitarian aid to those civilians in desperate need of humanitarian support.

We Jews and lovers of Israel have a Jewish moral obligation to feed the hungry and help save and sustain the lives of innocent men, women and children in Gaza.

The following is a report written by Dr. Debra Shushan, Director of Policy at J Street, in which she reviews the challenges facing Gaza’s civilian population and why UNRWA must be funded. Read her review that follows and her policy report through the link at the end of this blog.

Debra writes:

“With its food insecurity crisis accelerating rapidly, reports show that the Gaza Strip could soon experience over 200 deaths from starvation per day and the most intense famine since World War II. Despite this, Congress passed and President Biden signed into law a major Fiscal Year 2024 spending package that includes a one-year ban on US funding for UNRWA – the UN agency charged with providing essential services to Palestinian refugees. NGOs in Gaza have made clear that UNRWA’s infrastructure and capacity for providing humanitarian aid is irreplaceable. While there is no ideal Plan B, it is imperative that the US government construct and implement the best possible alternative.

In this column, I break down the key elements of US actions to support the life-and-death effort to surge humanitarian aid into Gaza, including:

  • Increasing contributions to other UN agencies and NGOs providing aid in Gaza
  • Encouraging other countries to restore, and increase, their contributions to UNRWA
  • Exploring any remaining avenues for providing US funding to UNRWA
  • Using US leverage to facilitate a massive influx of aid into Gaza
  • Expediting additive options, such as establishing a maritime corridor.

In the interest of Palestinian welfare, Israeli and regional stability, and US leadership and national security interests, the Biden Administration and allies in Congress must work together to implement the best possible Plan B – while gearing up for the fight to restore funding to UNRWA in Fiscal Year 2025 appropriations.

After Congressional Ban on UNRWA Funding, Biden Administration Must Find a Plan B.”

Women Wage Peace

24 Sunday Mar 2024

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The following annual campaign for security, life and peace is in memory of Vivian Silver, a beloved and widely known Canadian-Israeli human rights activist who was murdered by Hamas terrorists on the 7th of October at Kibbutz Be’eri in Southern Israel. Please read and give generously if your heart is so moved.

“We’re not stopping without an agreement. We still mean that. Our commitment to future generations here faced an excruciating test on October 7 when our losses included one of our beloved co-founders, Vivian Silver.

Others we love have been killed in the aftermath or are still captive or are living as innocents trapped in hell. Despite the terrible shadow cast on our efforts, Women Wage Peace is not stopping.

We are working hand-in-hand with our Palestinian sisters, Women of the Sun, for lives that can be lived in peace, dignified by justice and equality.

Recently, the impact of our unwavering determination was confirmed with an official nomination, alongside Women of the Sun, for the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize.

Both movements were also honored when Time Magazine chose its twelve Women of the Year for 2024, among them Dr. Yael Admi, another co-founder of Women Wage Peace, and Reem Hajajre, the founder of Women of the Sun.

The war that erupted after October 7th has deteriorated the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to an unprecedented low, but we are determined to seize this moment as an opportunity for change. The concept of managing the conflict has failed and it is time to act for a political solution.

Your unwavering support, your own determination to believe that peace is possible when women lead, has become more than much-needed fuel for our diverse activities.

It has been a source of strength as we shift from grieving to grasping – grasping this moment as one of profound change. We are seizing this opportunity by mounting an ambitious campaign that continues to widen our connection to more Israeli and Palestinian women as well as to moderate Arab nations and the international community.

Since October 7th, our initiatives have taken different directions; some are ongoing, some will be launched soon: ƒ

1. a daily presence of WWP members in Tel Aviv’s ‘Hostage Square’, alongside tormented family members of the hostages calling for the return of the hostages, which will enable a ceasefire;

2. delivery of humanitarian aid, and a return to negotiations towards a long-term diplomatic solution; ƒ

3. empowering Arab-Israeli women as peace-builders, recognizing their crucial role in building bridges between Jewish and Arab women in Israeli society and between Jewish Israeli women and Palestinian
women; ƒ

4. joining forces with Israeli groups to bring about a courageous, moderate, peace-seeking, egalitarian government; ƒ

5. planning a public campaign to convey the message that security can be achieved only through a diplomatic solution; ƒ

6. preparing to revive our bi-national in-person workshops, once checkpoints are re-opened; ƒ

7. expanding international endorsement of our Mothers’ Call, working for an end to mutual dehumanization and creating an infrastructure to support shared processes of reconciliation; ƒ

8. last but hardly least, launching a large and complex joint project with Women of the Sun, called Women Building Bridges, with a peace-building training program for environmental, religious, and traditional leaders from both sides, supplemented by joint Israeli-Palestinian study tours.

A few of the many actions aided by last year’s crowdfunding campaign include:ƒ

-organizing a bi-national training program for peace activism, with WOS supporting lawful protest against the proposed judicial overhaul, a major threat to peace and women’s participation in decision-makingƒ;

-hosting Reem, the leader of Women of the Sun, in gatherings with hundreds of Israelis to meet our partner movement and to restore hopeƒ;

-convening an all-day event with Women of the Sun on October 4 in Jerusalem and at the Dead Sea, with 1500 Israeli and Palestinian women marching together and calling for negotiations.

Join us as we continue to wage peace. Your contribution is your powerful affirmation that where women lead, peace and justice can more easily follow.

Our Annual Crowdfunding Campaign will be launched on March 18th and continue until March 27th.

Each donation is doubled!

Watch this short video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qRoGPz1JQk

Donate here NOW – https://causematch.com/wwp24-en


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The Democrats Are Right. Being pro-Israel Means Being pro-Palestinian – Haaretz op-ed

20 Wednesday Mar 2024

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Introductory note: This op-ed was posted today at Haaretz – for those with a subscription, here it is

Faced with an increasingly recalcitrant Netanyahu government, Senate Leader Chuck Schumer and his Democratic colleagues are leading a welcome shift in policy. Both Israel and the U.S. have a moral obligation to do better

John Rosove

Elliott Tepperman

March 20, 2024

When we woke up on October 7 to the shocking news of the Hamas terror attack in Israel, we were deeply shaken–as were Jews around the world.

As accounts of Hamas’ barbarism emerged – and as we spoke with loved ones in Israel–the anguish only grew worse. With over 1,200 murdered, well over 200 taken hostage, and hundreds of thousands displaced, the pain of the attack and its aftermath has been enduring for Israelis and Jews around the world alike.

The ensuing war against Hamas in Gaza has brought no end to the grief. Over 30,000 Palestinians have been killed, more than 1 million forced to flee their homes, and the entire population is enduring unimaginable suffering with scarce medical supplies and hundreds of thousands on the brink of starvation.

We’ve watched as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has exacerbated the pain and suffering of Israelis and Palestinians alike, running counter to our Jewish values, to the foundations of the U.S.-Israel relationship, and to Israel’s own national interests.

As Jewish Americans and rabbis who care deeply for our Jewish homeland, our U.S. ally Israel, and its citizens–among whom we count our own friends and family–we understand the moral struggle U.S. lawmakers now face as they wrestle with both how to support Israelis and bring the death and suffering in Gaza to an end.

Rightfully, Capitol Hill has been spending a lot of time on the crisis since October 7, and we have been particularly proud of those U.S. senators leading the way. While so many have struggled to hold the humanity of both Israelis and Palestinians in their hearts, some are showing true, courageous leadership – precisely what this perilous hour demands.

In an unprecedented speech on the Senate floor last week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer opened his remarks saying he spoke for the “silent majority” of Jewish Americans “whose nuanced views … have never been well represented in this country’s discussions about the war in Gaza.”

In a bold but important call, he went on to urge Israelis to hold new elections, noting Netanyahu “has put himself in coalition with far-right extremists like Ministers [Bezalel] Smotrich and [Itamar] Ben-Gvir, and as a result, he has been too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza, which is pushing support for Israel worldwide to historic lows.”

Other signs of understanding that the crisis demands an overdue, different approach came last month when U.S. President Joe Biden issued National Security Memorandum 20–widely reported to have been coordinated with Maryland Democrat Senator Chris Van Hollen and inspired by his amendment to the Senate supplemental aid package. The memorandum stipulates countries receiving U.S. military aid must comply with U.S. and international law and align with our country’s interests and values. In so doing, the memorandum requires Israel to conduct the war in a way that prioritizes the safety of civilians both in its military operations and its facilitation of humanitarian aid delivery.

In a separate move, Van Hollen joined his Democratic Senate colleagues Jeff Merkley, Dick Durbin, Elizabeth Warren, and Peter Welch in calling for a comprehensive approach to immediately mitigate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza–while clearly acknowledging Israel’s right to go after Hamas and reiterating the need to free hostages held in captivity.

Another example of a welcome shift was Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, both Democrats from Georgia, leading 25 Senators in advocating for a “mutual ceasefire” to gain the release of the remaining Israeli hostages and stop the killing of Gazan civilians, simultaneously recognizing Hamas must “be removed from power in Gaza.”

And last week, Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) published an opinion piece in Foreign Policy, stating Israel should take steps to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza and that the United States is “prepared to take more persuasive steps to ensure compliance with U.S. policy on civilian protection and humanitarian assistance.”

Most of these calls occurred in the shadow of the Senate’s passage of the bipartisan national security supplemental package, which, in addition to security aid to Israel, Taiwan, and Ukraine, included humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza. Appallingly, former President Donald Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson have sought to block the bill from a vote in the House for short-term political reasons, even though it is all but certain to pass with bipartisan support.

What is clear to us, as Jewish leaders who care deeply for the safety of Israelis and the country’s future, is that the Democratic lawmakers mentioned have a deep, nuanced understanding of what it means to be pro-Israel. Faced with an increasingly recalcitrant Netanyahu government, it is not enough to spout platitudes or support symbolic resolutions. The U.S.-Israel relationship deserves and is strengthened by a more substantive approach.

These senators realize that to be pro-Israel also means being pro-Palestinian. As October 7 and its aftermath have made clear yet again, the fates of these two peoples–who share a land and a history, and neither of whom is leaving–are inextricably linked.

We in the pro-Israel community would be wise to understand, as these legislators do, that providing Palestinians with stability, security and self-determination while promoting reforms in governance and education will also serve to benefit Israel’s security in the future. Compounding an already-dire humanitarian calamity in Gaza, on Israel’s doorstep, is in nobody’s interests.

We find solace and hope in the efforts of our Congressional representatives to help bring this war to an end, the hostages home, and desperately needed aid to Gaza.

We thank them for the political courage they have displayed in recent months. Schumer himself summed up the welcome, straight-talking new direction, when he noted in his speech that we hope will be a roadmap forward, “We should not let the complexities of this conflict stop us from stating the plain truth: Palestinian civilians do not deserve to suffer for the sins of Hamas, and Israel has a moral obligation to do better. The United States has an obligation to do better.”

Rabbi John L. Rosove is a national co-chair of the J Street Rabbinic and Cantorial Cabinet. He is a past national chair of ARZA, the Association of Reform Zionists of America, and Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Israel of Hollywood.

Rabbi Elliott Tepperman is a national co-chair of the J Street Rabbinic and Cantorial Cabinet. He has been the spiritual leader of Bnai Keshet in Montclair, NJ since 2002, and he is the immediate past president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association. @RavElliott