Despite an increasingly divided Israel at war, the State of Israel is still worth celebrating

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Israel, news, palestine, politics, zionism

Introductory Note: I spoke earlier this week on Israeli Independence Day in Washington, D.C. to members of the Adas Israel Congregation. I was invited by the synagogue’s rabbis, on the occasion of the publication of my Memoirs, to reflect about how Israel and Zionism have changed since my childhood and where I believe we liberal Zionists and lovers of Israel are today, especially since October 7. I will announce here in the coming days when my Memoirs become available through Amazon and/or the publisher.

The following is what I said to the Adas Israel Congregation, a large Conservative Synagogue in the nation’s capital:

Today is the 221^st day of the war against Hamas. Many Israelis are saying יש יום העצמאות אבל כולנו עוד בסוכות – “This is Israel Independence day, but we’re all still in Sukkot.” It will remain so until, I suspect, the surviving hostages in Gaza are all home – May that day come as soon as possible.

So much has changed since October 7 in the Jewish world as our people are pondering the meaning of this painful inflection point in Israeli history. I think that at the very least, what’s required of us all is to revisit what it means for us to be part of the larger Jewish family that encompasses both Israelis and Diaspora Jews.

Despite the many questions we likely carry in the midst of this longest war in Israeli history, I believe that celebrating this day of Yom Haatzmaut is still a necessity for our people, for the story of the Jewish people and the founding of the State of Israel are unique in world history. I say this despite the fact that Israel is increasingly divided between what Haaretz’s columnist Alon Pinkus describes as a

“…high-tech, secular, outward-looking, imperfect but liberal state – and the Kingdom of Judea, a Jewish-supremacist, ultra-nationalist theocracy with messianic, antidemocratic tendencies that encourage isolation. Never in the proud 76 years of Israel’s sovereign existence has there been a sadder, more somber, depressing and acrimonious Independence Day than this year. On a day that usually highlights and extols Israel’s major achievements, the country will instead be solemnly introspective, despondent, angry and devastated by the catastrophe of October 7, 2023.”

So much has changed about Israel since I was young growing up in the 1950s. I was raised to understand Zionism and Israel in romantic idealistic terms and that our people, long-persecuted, had transformed the narrative of Jewish Diaspora identity from that of being a powerless and victimized religious community into a free, independent, strong and empowered people by virtue of returning to our national home and establishing for the first time in 2000 years a Jewish and democratic state.

I spent my first year of rabbinic studies in Jerusalem beginning in the summer of 1973, only a few months before the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War. In the months following that transformative event, the atmosphere in Israel dramatically changed, not unlike what has occurred this past year since October 7. A dark pall of gloom and grief settled over the country. Gone were the ebullient years following the ‘67 war. Gone was a sense of can-do optimism. Gone was the feeling that the ’67 lightning Israeli victory against Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan would deter future Arab attempts to destroy the Jewish state. The ‘73 war shook the nation and transformed Israelis’ self-image from that of David battling Goliath to a far more vulnerable country. Israelis were reminded that antisemites still wished the Jewish people harm. Nothing had so shaken Israel since 1948 as the Yom Kippur War, until October 7.

In my lifetime, Israelis and the Jewish world have not been as stunned, convulsed with fear, grief and outrage as by the Hamas attack that reminded us of our Jewish vulnerability and of Israel being situated in a dangerous neighborhood.

For decades leading up to October 7, in addition to the internal changes described so accurately by Alon Pinkus, I believe that both Israelis and Zionists abroad didn’t take seriously enough that the international ground was being prepared by Israel’s enemies over many decades to transform our Zionist narrative as one of longing to be new kinds of Jews – strong, independent and resilient in our ancient Homeland – into the image of a foreign colonial transplant thrust into the heart of the Arab Muslim world, an usurper of Palestinian land and homes, an oppressor over the oppressed, an occupier and victimizer of the indigenous Palestinian people.

Accentuating this change internationally of the image of Israel as a racist oppressor state is the rise of the intersectional movement in America. Intersectionalism is defined as “the complex, cumulative way in which the effects of multiple forms of discrimination (such as racism, sexism, and classism) combine, overlap, and intersect in the experiences of marginalized people and groups” thereby forming alliances by oppressed groups against oppressors. Intersectionalism eventually conflated the blacks under Apartheid in South Africa with Palestinian Arabs living under Israeli occupation. Israel is now hated as the despised “other” by too many vulnerable far-left black and brown progressives who actually have nothing personally to do with the Middle East, who have little knowledge of the history of and nature of the Zionist movement or the State of Israel and its multiple contributions to the world, its democratic and pluralistic character. Those anti-Israel far-left people of color do not know, I suspect, that the majority of Israel’s population are non-white former immigrants from the Arab world, North Africa, Ethiopia, Latin America, and Asia. Nor do they understand the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the multiple times Israel was prepared to exchange land for peace in a two states for two peoples resolution of that long conflict.

Since October 7, I’ve worried about a great many things, the most prominent being the security of the State of Israel, the well-being of the Israeli hostages and their families, and the shattered families of those murdered on that day, two of whom, young sisters ages 25 and 20, who grew up in my synagogue’s elementary school and lost their lives at the Nova concert.

I worry also about the lives of every Israeli soldier in Gaza today, the more than 750 families of soldiers who lost their lives fighting in this war, and the masses of innocent civilian Palestinian families who’ve lost their loved ones and homes and are in dire need of more adequate humanitarian assistance.

I’ve worried whether Israel would step over the line and fight this war according to international standards of war. I’ve wondered, for example, about the justification of Israel’s use of massive numbers of 2000-pound “dumb-bombs” intended to take out Hamas commanders and destroy Hamas tunnels, military command posts and arms stockpiles, but have killed thousands of innocent Palestinians. And I’ve worried about Israel’s use of artificial intelligence to bomb Hamas sites without due consideration for the number of civilian casualties that each strike would cause.

I know, even with these worries, that when Israel began attacking Hamas targets it dropped hundreds of thousands of leaflets over Palestinian neighborhoods, sent hundreds of thousands of text messages and hundreds of thousands of robocalls to warn Palestinian civilians to leave certain buildings and areas before Israel attacked them as Hamas targets. I know that Israel opened up safe passage highways for Palestinian civilians to escape before Israel bombed its targets. I am well aware that Hamas embedded everywhere in and under Gaza’s homes, apartment buildings, schools, community centers, mosques, and hospitals and that it blocked the escape of so many Palestinian civilians, callously and cruelly fired upon its own fleeing people with the aim of deliberately increasing the death toll in its international delegitimization effort against Israel.

It’s remarkable to me that so much of the world so quickly has forgotten what started this war, Hamas’ murder of 1200 Israelis and the taking of 250 hostages, the gang rape of dozens upon dozens of young Israeli women and the wanton killing of seniors, babies and children.

It’s been my position since about the 100^th day of the war that Israel should have done everything possible to get the full return of the hostages even if it meant ending the war. A majority of Israelis now put the lives of the remaining hostages as Israel’s first priority, even over destroying Hamas’ remaining military capability. Israel could have claimed victory then with the understanding that Hamas’ ability to govern and rule over Gaza was already dramatically diminished. Had Israel planned for the “day after” the fighting, worked with the United States to create a coalition of western-aligned Arab nations including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Qatar, the Emirates, and the Palestinian Authority to take charge of Gaza then (and now) and begin to rebuild it, the disaster caused in this war might have been more limited. I know, however, that Hamas is uncompromising and brutal towards its own people, and that it has wanted to continue the war to increase the numbers of Palestinian dead civilians in its delegitimization effort against Israel. But, a coalition of nations might have had a positive effect then. The world might well have been more sympathetic to Israel in its effort to help create a new Gaza without Hamas than it does now. The formation of a coalition governing power would not have left Gaza so vulnerable to Hamas resurrecting itself in Northern Gaza, as it so clearly now is doing.

There are those in Israel who justify continuing this war saying that “the only time we’ll have security is when we keep the sword on our enemy’s neck,” enter Rafiach and finish off Hamas once and for all, though most Israeli and American military and intelligence experts believe that Hamas cannot be completely destroyed. But other voices warn that “when we act like every other people, we become like them.”

Yesterday was Yom HaZikaron (May 13), the day Israel mourns the 25,000 fallen soldiers and victims of terror who have died since 1860. Today, on Yom Haatzmaut (May 14), we celebrate our people’s sovereignty and independence. Despite this traumatic year of war; despite the rule of the most right-wing extremist and racist government in the history of the state; despite the growing gap within Israeli society; despite the dramatic rise in antisemitism, anti-Zionism and anti-Israel sentiment around America and the world, Israel’s 76^th anniversary is still an occasion to celebrate the Jewish state as the greatest accomplishment of the Jewish people in the last 2000 years.

It’s a remarkable accomplishment that the Zionist movement facilitated the immigration of millions of Jewish refugees and that the State of Israel absorbed them as citizens.

It’s remarkable that ancient Hebrew has been resurrected into a modern language that flows naturally through the lips of little children and is the language of celebrated poets, songwriters and literary figures.

It’s remarkable that Israel remains a democracy (inside the Green Line – the 1949 disengagement lines) despite multiple wars and ongoing terrorism.

It’s remarkable that Israel has become a world class leader in agriculture, biotech, medicine, communication, cyber, climate, water desalinization, higher education, archaeology, and the arts, and is second only to the United States in the number of new patents every year.

It’s remarkable that there are 15,000 active NGOs in Israel, most not politically aligned, that promote universal moral values, human rights, democracy, religious pluralism, the environment, and a shared society between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arab citizens. Though racism and hostility between Arab and Jew exists, and far too often violence breaks out with deadly results (especially in the West Bank), if we visit any Israeli hospital in the country, we’ll see Arabs and Jews receiving compassionate care and treatment together on the same wards delivered by both Arab and Jewish physicians and nurses.

Thirty years ago there was a taboo against homosexuality in the Jewish state. Now, 250,000 people march in Tel Aviv’s annual Gay Pride Parade and there are estimated to be 750,000 LGBTQ individuals in Israel, many coming from the orthodox and Arab-Israeli sectors, though both communities shun homosexuality. The modern State of Israel accepts and welcomes them.

Israel faces many existential challenges from within that impact Israelis negatively and us Diaspora Jews too whose identity, pride and security as Jews and Zionists depend upon the vitality of Israeli democracy and its aspirations for peace with the Palestinian people and Israel’s surrounding neighbors.

I hope that when the dust of this war settles, the hostages are home, new leadership takes over Israel and the Palestinian Authority, a new Gaza begins to emerge from the rubble of war, and the antisemitism and anti-Zionism subside, that our young liberal and progressive Jews in particular, and many of us older American Jews as well who may feel alienated from Israel because of this war and on account of the divisions within Israeli society will be able to lift our collective eyes from the barrage of dark news, tragedy and conflict and be able to see that Isaiah’s vision for the Jewish people to be an אור לגוים – a light to the nations – still is manifesting itself in Israel.

May those days come soon and may there be peace in Jerusalem. Amen!

How BDS is Part of the Problem

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Israel, news, palestine, politics, west-bank

I have been asked by parents of university and college students since the protest movement began several weeks ago about the nature of the Boycott, Divestiture and Sanctions movement (BDS) given the parents’ confusion about what it stands for and what it intends in the long term. Many of their college-age children find BDS appealing and their parents are worried. They asked me not only about BDS but what I recommended they should say to their children. On this matter, I believe that the relationship between parents and their children ought to be their first priority. If it means that parents simply listen and support their kids’ passion and their anger and grief over the tragic loss of life and injury in Gaza (and October 7 in southern Israeli villages), then I recommend that they simply listen and hold their thoughts to themselves.

As a college student myself during the Vietnam era, my mother never argued with me if she disagreed because she understood how passionately I was against American involvement in Vietnam and about my fear of being drafted and sent to fight there. She supported me and often I never knew what she really thought about the issue, though I knew generally that she was against the war too. In time, I came to appreciate the way she handled this difficult interaction between us and I love her for it to this day long after she died.

However, here in this blog I want to clarify what BDS is and what it is not. If parents choose to share this with their college age children, fine – but they should do so only if they think their kids will receive it well and parents won’t alienate their children. Young people change and evolve through the years, as do their parents, and as the dust settles from this awful war, the hostages are returned to their families, the killing stops, massive humanitarian aid flows into Gaza, and the healing begins, perhaps more content-based conversations within families can take place, as it should.

What is BDS and why am I categorically opposed to it?

There is, arguably, only one good thing about BDS, and that is that it purports to be a non-violent pro-Palestinian movement. Beyond that strategy of non-violence, however, it is anti-Israel and I believe antisemitic. To understand why, knowing the historical context in which BDS emerged is necessary.

BDS was founded in 2005 by Omar Barghouti, a Palestinian-American, who recognized after the failure of the Oslo Accords, subsequent Palestinian suicide bombings and the murderous 2^nd Palestinian Intifada (2000-2005), western sensibilities were deeply offended and he recognized that there was a void in the struggle for Palestinian statehood that needed to be filled with a non-violent alternative to war and terrorism.

BDS is modeled after the anti-Apartheid movement and conflates the Palestinian plight to that of South African blacks. BDS’s positions call for a withdrawal from the occupied territories, the removal of the Israeli separation barrier in the West Bank, full equality for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel, the right of return of Palestinians to their homes, divestiture of international companies from doing business with Israel, boycotts of Israeli manufactured goods, and the cessation of formal relationships between American and Israeli colleges and universities.

Those strategic goals need to be unpacked, but first, more historical context is necessary.

In 1947, the United Nations proposed in the British Mandate over Palestine a partition plan for two states, one Jewish and one Arab, as a solution to the Jewish-Arab conflict. The Zionist movement accepted the proposal and the Arabs rejected it. The violence between Jews, Arabs and the British had intensified to such an extent that Great Britain, the Mandatory power that had taken control of Palestine from the Ottomans after the close of World War I, decided to withdraw entirely from the region and leave it to be fought over between the Jews and the Arabs.

On May 14, 1948, Britain left Mandatory Palestine. David Ben Gurion, the leader of the Zionist Executive and World Zionist Organization (the pre-statehood national institutions of governance over Jewish affairs in Palestine and linkage to the international Zionist movement) declared Jewish statehood. The following day, eight Arab countries’ armies attacked the infant Jewish state with the intention to destroy it and “push the Jews into the sea.” When the fighting ended in 1949, an armistice agreement was signed and the new State of Israel’s borders were expanded far beyond the UN Partition plan of 1947. Jordan took control of East Jerusalem, the Old City and the West Bank of the Jordan River. Egypt controlled the Gaza Strip and the Sinai desert. Syria controlled the Golan Heights. Israel took control of the heavily Jewish population centers along the coast and in the Galilee, the Negev desert, and West Jerusalem. The young State of Israel then went about establishing a Jewish and democratic state that included the remaining Arabs as citizens (though treated as 2nd class citizens), absorbing hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees from the Holocaust and the Arab world who fled antisemitic persecution in their host countries after the establishment of Israel and left behind virtually all their property.

The Arab world did not accept the legitimacy of the Jewish state nor peace. Rather, it regarded Israel as a colonial foreign element and an oppressor of indigent Palestinian Arabs. The Arab world remained committed to the destruction of Israel. Six hundred thousand Palestinian Arabs fled into neighboring Arab countries and settled in refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and the Gaza Strip as well as in countries around the world. The same number of Jews were forced to flee their home Arab countries. Most came to Israel as new immigrants and were absorbed and granted citizenship.

In 1967, the surrounding Arab nations tried again in war to destroy Israel but failed in six days of fighting. At the end of the battles, Israel’s borders had expanded dramatically to include East Jerusalem, the Old City, the West Bank of the Jordan River, the Golan Heights, a strip in southern Lebanon, and the Sinai Peninsula.

Between 1967 and 1973, Arab Fedayeen from the Gaza Strip, where many Palestinians had fled after the 1948 and 1967 wars, attacked Israeli southern kibbutzim, towns and villages in what is called the “War of Attrition.”

In 1973, Egypt and Syria attacked Israel on Yom Kippur attempting “to drive the Jews into the sea,” but after 20 days of fighting, Israel was successful in battle again and expanded its borders further to include a strip of land on the western side of the Suez Canal and a parcel of land in Syria. In a separation agreement negotiated by US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Israel withdrew from Egypt and from Syria to the post 1967 borders.

Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat decided following the 1973 war that enough was enough, and with the United States as his ally, he led Egypt to forge a peace agreement with the State of Israel in 1978. Israel returned the entire Sinai Peninsula with its oil fields and Israel military bases to Egypt in a land for a “cold” peace agreement that has held ever since. Peace followed in 1994 between Jordan and Israel. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), led by Chairman Yasser Arafat, agreed to enter into peace negotiations with Israel that began the Oslo Peace Process in 1993, but the march towards an agreement was up-ended when a right-wing orthodox Jew assassinated PM Yitzhak Rabin in 1995. Following Rabin’s death, Hamas and other extremist Muslim Palestinian groups took advantage of Israel’s vulnerability and sent suicide bombers from the West Bank and Gaza into Israeli villages, towns and cities to murder hundreds of Israeli civilians.

US President Bill Clinton attempted to revive the Oslo peace process at Camp David in 2000, but Arafat insisted that Palestinians had the “individual right of return” to their former houses and villages and he refused to sign an agreement claiming that the deal was weighted against the Palestinians. This, despite Israeli PM Ehud Barak (the most decorated soldier in Israeli history at the time) offered the most generous terms any Israeli Prime Minister and government in Israeli history had ever offered the Palestinians before. With the failure of this effort, the 2^nd Intifada (“uprising”) began and continued until 2005.

Two more serious efforts to arrive at a two-state solution were made in 2007 between Israeli PM Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas in 37 secret negotiating sessions, and again in 2014 led by US Secretary of State John Kerry. Each effort was unsuccessful, the second of which did not succeed because PM Benjamin Netanyahu was against two states for two peoples and consistently torpedoed all progress to an agreement.

In 2004, as a consequence of Palestinian violence against Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip and Hamas suicide bombers exploding themselves and murdering hundreds of Israeli civilians in Israeli cities, Israeli PM Ariel Sharon unilaterally withdrew all Israel troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip leaving the Strip entirely under Palestinian Authority control, to be taken violently in 2007 by the Islamic extremist organization Hamas in a military coup de etat against the Palestinian Authority. All PA leaders were executed by Hamas.

With the overwhelming support of Israeli citizens, PM Sharon ordered the construction of a security fence built roughly along the 1949 armistice lines with the sole purpose of preventing suicide bombers from entering into Israel and murdering Israelis. The fence has been largely successful in that not one suicide bomber successfully infiltrated Israel from the West Bank or Gaza Strip since the construction of the fence, until October 7^th.

That’s an overview of the background necessary to contextualize the demands and purpose of BDS.

BDS is part of an international delegitimization campaign against Israel that has replaced the Arab wars meant to destroy the Jewish state. BDS’s call for the end of the occupation is not just intended for those lands taken by Israel in war after 1967, but after the 1948 War as well. BDS considers all the land from the “river to the sea” to be “occupied” by Israel – that is, the entire State of Israel.

The “right of return” is not intended only to the future Palestinian State. BDS intends the right of return to be to all of Palestine including the State of Israel. That demand is impractical because so many of the Palestinian homes and villages no longer exist and the Palestinians who once lived in those homes and villages are no longer alive to reclaim them. The Oslo Accords, the Clinton parameters, the Olmert-Abbas and John Kerry negotiations all recognized the right of the Palestinians to return to the future State of Palestine, not to Israel with perhaps a limited number of Palestinians permitted to live in Israel in the interest of family reunion.

BDS frames the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a colonizer-colonized, oppressor-oppressed, and a racial conflict between foreign white European Zionists and Middle Eastern Palestinian Arabs. It denies the national rights of the Jewish people to a state anywhere “between the river and the sea.” Though BDS calls Zionism a white European colonial movement, there is massive literary and archaeological evidence that proves the existence of Jews in the Land of the Bible consistently from antiquity. The majority of Jewish Israelis today come not only from Arab lands, but from Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Though there is racism in elements of Israel’s population, including in the current Israeli government amongst the right-wing super-nationalist supremacist settler movement, Israel is not a racist nation as was the former Apartheid South Africa. Nor is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict really about race at all. It’s about territory and national rights. In the case of Hamas, it’s also about Iranian centered Islamic extremism against Israel and western liberal civilization. The tragedy of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is that two peoples claim the same territory as their national home.

Since 1967, Israel consistently has been willing to compromise land for peace, except during the years of PM Netanyahu’s leadership. Yair Lapid, the current leader of the opposition party in the Israeli government, stated publicly that he supports a two-state solution as do many former top intelligence and military leaders and currently a sizable minority of the Israeli population that recognizes that the only just solution to the conflict is the creation of a demilitarized Palestinian state next to Israel.

BDS does NOT support two-states for two-peoples. It wants one state from the river to the sea, and equal rights for Palestinian Arabs, which spells the end of the Zionist project.

There are many internal challenges facing Israel including how effectively to deal with the growing separatist ultra-Orthodox community, the unfair 2^nd class treatment of Palestinian-Israeli citizens, the often harsh military occupation of the West Bank and mistreatment of Palestinian Arabs living there, the growing settler enterprise in the West Bank among whom are many violent Jewish settlers, and the lack of a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel is not a perfect democracy just as the United States is not a perfect democracy. Each nation’s Declaration of Independence is an aspiration document towards which each society has struggled over the decades to concretize those just aspirations into policies and law.

BDS’s intent is to end the Jewish State of Israel demographically. Its goals are unrealistic and its characterization of Israel as a foreign colonial element in the heart of the Islamic Middle East is wrong on the merits. It has become popular amongst the far progressive left intersectional movement in the United States that brings together vulnerable groups of people into a coalition fighting on behalf of each other’s rights (e.g. feminists, peoples of color, immigrants, LGBTQ individuals, and the poor, etc.). It projects those groups’ antipathy to racism, classism, sexism, and colonialism falsely onto Israel and aligns itself with the Palestinians against the Israelis based upon those false parameters as applied to Israel.

BDS is part of the problem and as it grows beyond its 200 estimated chapters in the United States, it becomes more of a problem for anyone hoping for a negotiated two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. College and university students who unwittingly support BDS without understanding what BDS really stands for and what is its significance as part of the international delegitimization movement against Israel are aligning themselves not only with the anti-Israel movement but with antisemitism too which denies the right of the Jewish people to a state of our own in our historic Homeland.  

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

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gaza, genocide, Human rights, Israel, palestine

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 20^th and 21^st 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 American’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 100^th 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

Tags

antisemitism, gaza, Israel, palestine, zionism

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 19^th 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 13^th. 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.

An Expanded Introduction Following the Iranian attack on Israel on Motzei Shabbat, April 13

Tags

Israel, judaism, palestine, passover, pesach

Note: I posted a few days ago information about the Passover Seder and Hagadah. In light of the Iranian attack against Israel on Motzei Shabbat, April 13, I expanded the introduction to include the following thoughts.

Pesach is a unique opportunity for family and friends to come together and bond with the people of Israel and with humanity as a whole. Since October 7, the people of Israel and the innocent among the Palestinians living in Gaza have suffered deeply. The unprecedented but anticipated attack upon Israel by Iran beginning on the evening of April 13 with hundreds of armed drones and guided missiles following Israel’s attack against an Iranian site in Syria two weeks ago that killed 7 leading Republican Guard commanders exacerbates our people’s worries for the lives and safety of our Israeli brothers and sisters and the threat of a wider war. Such a war would mean not only more death and destruction, but would constitute an existentially expanded threat to the people and State of Israel. Our Seders this year ought to reflect the circumstances in which we and the Jewish people are living today.

Each of us identifies in different ways: as Israelis and/or Diaspora Jews, as non-Jewish individuals who are part of Jewish families, as Zionists and non-Zionists, as political liberals and political conservatives, as universal humanitarians and as tribal loyalists, as part of a wider Jewish family inclusive of Jews in Israel and around the world and as individuals with a primary focus on rational enlightenment thinking, as human rights advocates and as supporters of Jewish and Israeli causes – or as some or all of the above. Whichever it is that we identify with most, there’s a place at the Seder table for everyone and everyone’s voice ought to be heard with respect and civility. The sage Shmuel framed the spirit in which our discussions this Pesach ought to be held when he said אילו ואילו דברי אלהים חיים – Eilu v’eilu divrei Elohim chayim (“These and those are the words of the living God”); if our words are expressed with love for the Jewish people and compassion, empathy, and the desire for justice for all peoples.

Throughout Jewish history, our people has lived with fear first as slaves to the Egyptian masters and then in many lands and eras in which we’ve been powerless and vulnerable to antisemitic attack. We’ve been schooled in the experience of oppression, subjugation, and violence. We know the heart of the stranger and what happens to vulnerable individuals and groups when evil powers oppress them. We’re taught that no one is secure if anyone lives in fear. No one is free until everyone is free.

One of the unique characteristics of Pesach is that in one event – the Exodus – the particular and the universal, the tribal and the humanitarian are experienced together. Consequently, the Jewish people understands that in history we have been both a people living apart and a people linked to the whole of humanity. Our interests and the interests of others necessarily intersect morally, spiritually, culturally, ethnically, nationally, and politically.

Hopefully, our Seders this year will give us an opportunity to reflect about the meaning of October 7, the Israel-Hamas war, the Iranian attack against Israel on April 13, the dramatic rise in antisemitism, anti-Zionism, and anti-Israel sentiment in our country and around the world, the right of our people to defend ourselves and live securely in our Homeland, and the right of the Palestinian people to live securely in their Homeland too and free from the yoke of a cruel Hamas, the brutality of radical extremist Islam, and free from Israeli occupation in the West Bank.

I pray for peace and the security of all peoples in the Middle East and everywhere in our tortured, polarized, and violent world.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

Facts, Insights, and Information You Always Wanted To Know About Passover But Were Afraid To Ask!

Tags

Faith, judaism, passover, pesach, religion

Written and compiled by Rabbi John L. Rosove

Pesach is a unique opportunity for family and friends to come together and bond with the people of Israel and with humanity as a whole. Since October 7, the people of Israel and the innocent among the Palestinians living in Gaza have suffered deeply. Our Seders this year ought to reflect the circumstances in which we and the Jewish people are living today.

Throughout Jewish history, our people has lived with fear first as slaves to the Egyptian masters and then in many lands and eras in which we’ve been powerless and vulnerable to antisemitic attack. We’ve been schooled in the experience of oppression, subjugation, and violence. We know the heart of the stranger and what happens to vulnerable individuals and groups when evil powers oppress them. We’re taught that no one is secure if anyone lives in fear. No one is free until everyone is free.

One of the unique characteristics of Pesach is that in one event – the Exodus – the particular and the universal, the tribal and the humanitarian are experienced together. Consequently, the Jewish people understands that in history we have been both a people living apart and a people linked to the whole of humanity. Our interests and the interests of others necessarily intersect morally, spiritually, and politically.

Hopefully, our Seders this year will give us an opportunity to reflect about the meaning of October 7, the Israel-Hamas war, the dramatic rise in antisemitism, anti-Zionism, and anti-Israel sentiment in our country and around the world, the right of our people to defend ourselves and live securely in our Homeland, and the right of the Palestinian people to live securely in their Homeland too and free from the yoke of a cruel Hamas, the brutality of radical extremist Islam, and free from Israeli occupation in the West Bank.

What follows are interpretations and insights into this festival of Pesach and into the texts and rituals left to us in the Hagadah. I am grateful especially to my teacher and friend, Rabbi Larry Hoffman (Professor of Liturgy, Worship, and Ritual at the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in New York) who, more than 45 years ago, taught me much about the Hagadah and the significance of this extraordinarily rich liturgy. He called the Hagadah a mirror of the experience of the people of Israel over time, and he noted that when we are sensitive to the people and experiences that gave rise to the texts, midrashim, rituals, songs, and traditions in the Seder, it is as if we are sitting around the Seder table with all who came before us. He was right about that then, and his words and teachings still ring true.

If you find this blog worthwhile before Pesach, consider sharing it with those who will be with you at your Seder.

May your Seders be filled with meaning, joy, and song, with debate and with visions shared of a wholeness that is yet to come.

1. Key Hebrew Terms: Pesach – פסח – Passover; Seder – סדר – “Order” of the Passover ritual; Hagadah – הגדה – The book used during the Seder.

2. The Seder Plate contains the egg (ביצה – beitzah), bone (זרוע – z’ro-a), parsley (כרפס – karpas), bitter herb (מרור – maror), apples/nuts/honey/wine mixture (חרוסת – charoset), lettuce (?). There is a debate among the sages about whether there should be 5 or 6 items. Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534-1572) argued that there should be 6 items because of the mystical resemblance to the Star of David (a symbol of redemption).

3. The Symbolism of the Foods: Egg = birth and rebirth (personal and national); Bone = God’s strong outstretched arm that redeemed the slaves; Parsley = Spring-time (salt water – tears of slavery); Bitter Herb = hardship of slavery; Charoset – חרוסת = mortar that held bricks together; Lettuce = unknown, but possibly represented sacrifice in Temple

4. The 3 Matzot – מצות on the Traditional Platter – Originally they represented the 3 sacrifices brought to the Temple; the Pascal offering – פסח  (lamb), the Tamid – תמיד offering (daily), and the Maaser Sheini – מעשר שיני  (tithing). The number 3 also represents the three classes of Israelites, all of whom are present at the Seder; the Priests (Kohanim – כוהנים), the Vice-Priests (Levi-im – לווים Levites), and the common folks (Yisraelim – ישראלים Israelites).

5. The Matzah – מצה – Sometimes called the “bread of affliction” or the “poor bread” in the Ha Lachma – הא לחמא (Aramaic) section of the Seder, the Matzah is a salvationary substance that points to God’s redeeming power. The midrashim – מדרשים  (rabbinic legends) speak of bread hanging from the trees in the Garden of Eden. The mannah – מנה of the desert is thought to be the food of the hosts of heaven, much as Greek ambrosia was the food of the gods. In any event, the matzah (or bread) not only sustains life, but is directly linked to God’s redemptive power.

6. Afikoman – אפיקומן – The last item eaten in the Seder, the Afikoman is the middle matzah on the ceremonial matzah plate and is broken off and hidden (tzafun – צפון) before the Seder begins to be found by the children/adults at the end of the meal. Since it is impossible to break evenly the Afikoman, the larger half is hidden symbolizing the larger hope the Jewish people hold out for our future. Afikoman is sometimes translated “dessert,” but in all probability it is an Aramaic word originally derived from the Greek “afikomenos,” meaning Ha-ba – הבא, the “Coming one” or Messiah. Breaking the middle matzah symbolizes the broken state of the Jewish people in slavery and the brokenness of the world badly in need of healing. It also symbolizes the Kabalistic idea of the sh’virat ha-keilim – שבירת  הכלים (the breaking of the vessels) and the introduction of the sitra achra – סִטְרָא אַחְרָא (the “other side” of  God, or the dark aspect of the universe, or evil) into the corporeal world. Finding the Afikoman at the end of the Seder, we restore it to the other half symbolizing the redemption of the individual, the people of Israel, the world, and God’s own name (YHVH) that split apart when the creation of the universe began. In effect, the Jewish people is charged with effecting tikun – תיקון (the restoration of the world – the reclaiming of the Garden of Eden – the reunification of God and the restoration of the people of Israel to the Creator/Redeemer). Then all Seder participants eat the Afikoman together. Prizes are given to those who participate in the hunt.

7. The Number 4  – The number 4 is repeated many times in the Seder (e.g. 4 cups of wine, 4 children, 4 sages, 4 questions, the 4-letter Name of God YHVH – the God of “being” that includes God’s imminence and transcendence). Cross-culturally, the number 4 is symbolic of wholeness, integrity, and completion (Hebrew – sh’leimut – שלימות ), a principle goal of Passover and of Jewish life.

8. Elijah the Prophet – is destined to announce the coming of the Messiah – Mashiach – משיח “anointed one.” The Cup of Elijah – Kos Eliyahu – כוס אליהו – entered the Seder in the 15th or 16th century in times of great stress, anxiety, and fear experienced by Jewish communities following the crusades, disputations, blood libel riots, and the Black Plague.

9.  The Open Door – Jewish folklore suggests that at this moment Elijah comes to every Seder bringing his message of hope. Originally, Jews opened the door to show Christian passers-by that nothing cultic or sinister was occurring at Jewish Seders. This tradition began during medieval times when the infamous blood libel, desecration of the “Host” (the wafer in the Catholic Eucharist – symbolizing the body of Christ), and fear of Jews inspired anti-Jewish riots during the Easter season. The most dangerous day of the year for the Jewish community was when Passover and Good Friday coincided.

10. Birth Imagery – The imagery of birth and the important role of women in the Exodus story is prominent and significant throughout the Seder. The holiday of Passover occurs at the spring equinox when the lambing of the flocks took place. Passover celebrates the birth of the Jewish nation out of slavery. The Israelite boys are saved at birth by two Hebrew mid-wives, Shifrah and Puah (Exodus 1:15-21). Yocheved (Moses’ mother) and Miriam (Moses’ older sister) save the future liberator from certain death. Miriam persuades the Egyptian princess, who adopts Moses, to use his own mother, Yocheved, as his wet-nurse to sustain the connection between Moses and the Israelites. Moses grows to manhood and leads the people through the opening of the Sea of Reeds, a metaphor of the opening of the womb into the light. The name of Egypt in Hebrew is Mitzrayim – מצריים (literally, “narrow or constricted places,” like the birth canal). The salt water might suggest the amniotic fluid heralding the beginning of spring. In the end, not only are the Jews born into freedom, but the holiday celebrates newness, rebirth, and birth.

11. The 4 Children – the wise – chacham – חכם; the evil – rasha – רשע; the simple – tam – תם; the one who does not know enough to ask – einu yodea lishol – אינו יודע לשאול . The wise child wants to understand the rituals and the deeper messianic purpose of the Seder and, consequently, the deeper purpose of one’s life as a Jew. He/she/they ask specifically about the meaning of the Afikoman (see above #6). The evil child separates him/herself/themselves from the community. Not participating, standing aloof, being unaccountable, irresponsible, indifferent, and passive leads to the breakdown of community. The rule of law is an essential part of Judaism. To each child we are instructed to teach according to his/her/their circumstances.

12. The 4 Sages – warned by a disciple that the morning Sh’ma – שמע was about to be recited in the Temple, these four sages, led by the great Rabbi Akiba (1^st-2^nd century C.E.), were in fact plotting revolution against Rome. The disciple was warning the 4 that informers were coming into the synagogue and that the sages’ absence from Morning Prayer would alarm the Roman authorities. The passage “Arami oved avi” – ארמי אובד אבי (My father is a wandering Aramean – Deuteronomy 26:5) is a disguised attack on Rome. If we switch the letters around and change the vet ב of avi to a mem מ to create ami – my people) and we interchange the hearing-sound of the ayin = ah with the aleph=a, we come up with “Romai oved ami” – רומאי אובד עמי (“Rome is destroying my people”).

13. The Purpose of the Seder – to personally experience and empathize with our people’s historic struggle for liberation; also, for the individual to confront those spiritual and psychological enslavements that prohibit inner growth. The ultimate purpose, spiritually and metaphysically, is for each of us to glimpse wholeness sh’lei-mut – שלימות (i.e. the unity of humankind, the unity of the Jewish people, the unity of God’s holiest Name YHVH – and to become one with God). Passover teaches the Jewish people not to be cruel because we know the heart of the stranger and we understand what happens when a people becomes powerless. Jews are traditionally known as rachmanim b’nai rachmanim – רחמנים בני רחמנים – compassionate children of compassionate parents.

14. The 4 Cups of Wine – recalls the four times (Exodus 6:6) that God tells the people that the Redeemer will liberate them.

15. How is this Night Different? – Mah Nishtanah – מה נשתנה – The 4 questions concern why we eat unleavened bread and the bitter herb, dip the greens twice, and recline at the Seder table. Originally, the Q and A associated with the 4 questions reflected an ancient Greco-Roman tradition of having a feast followed by a philosophical/religious discussion.

16. Leavened Bread – Chometz – חומץ – is forbidden during Passover and the tradition recalls the hasty exit of the Israelites from Egypt. Chometz symbolizes sin, the fomenting of the evil impulse (yeitzer ha-ra – יצר הרע), and the necessity of morally cleansing oneself and physically removing from one’s home chometz during the Passover festival. Technically, matzah that is kosher (permitted) for Passover must be mixed, kneaded, and put in the oven to bake within 18 minutes. Any dough that stands longer than 18 minutes is presumed to be chometz and unfit for Passover consumption.

17. The Search for Chometz – B’dikat Chometz – בדיקת חומץ – A tradition conducted the day before Passover.  All chometz is gathered and either burned publicly (bi-ur chometz – ביעור חומץ), sold, or given away to non-Jews. On the night before, it is a tradition that children take a spoon, feather, and a candle and search the house for chometz crumbs. Five grains are considered chometz during Passover: wheat, spelt, barley, oats, and rye. The following are consequently forbidden to be consumed during Passover: whiskey, beer, and bourbon because of the fomenting process. In some Sephardic homes, rice is permissible during Passover but not so in Ashkenazi homes, because of the principle of mar’it  ayin – מראית עיין (“how a thing appears” – i.e. it may in some form look like leaven).

18. Dayeinu and Hallel – דיינו והלל – are sung just before the meal is eaten. These songs reflect the gratitude of the Jewish people that God redeemed us and will redeem us again. The Hallel is composed of passages from the Book of Psalms and the section is among the most ancient in the Hagadah. 

19. Why Moses in missing from the Hagadah – Moses’ name is never mentioned in the Hagadah. This obvious oversight is a deliberate attempt by the rabbis who developed the Hagadah to remind the people that it was God and God alone Who redeemed the people from slavery. Much of the Hagadah developed in the centuries after Christianity was making inroads into the Jewish community in the first centuries of the Common Era. The rabbis were concerned that Jews not deify any human leader as the Christians had done with Jesus.

20. Wine and Matzah in Christian Tradition – Jesus reportedly said at the Last Supper (thought to be a Seder) while pointing at the matzah and wine: “This is my body and this is my blood.” Christian theologians argued for this doctrine of transubstantiation (concretized in the Eucharist) as a legitimate outgrowth of Judaism in the first century of the Common Era (C.E.). It was, however, a significant theological leap from traditional Judaism. For Jews, the bread was widely understood to represent the lamb of the Pascal offering. For Christians, Jesus replaced the lamb even as the wine symbolized his blood. The anti-Semitic defamation of the “blood libel” is a convoluted distortion of the Eucharist turned against itself and against the Jewish people that had refused to accept the divinity of Jesus as the Christ Messiah.

21.  The 10 Plagues – (blood, frogs, lice, wild beasts, blight, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, death of the first born). Many of these plagues represent an attack on the ancient Egyptian gods in an effort to teach that only YHVH, the God of Israel, is the legitimate deity. Traditionally, we take the index finger and drop a bit of wine on our plates as we recite each plague symbolizing the reduction of our joy (symbolized by wine) even when our enemies suffer. The index finger is used to recall God’s finger. It’s a Syrian and Greek tradition to collect all the wine, pour it into a bowl and dump all of it into the street. The characterization of Judaism as tribal/national and humanitarian/universal is expressed in the same event of the Exodus. The diminishing of the cup of wine with a drop for each plague suggests that we must diminish our joy even when our enemies, also created in the Divine image, suffer and perish. This custom, observed by most Jews today, was first initiated by Isaac Abravanel (1438-1508 – born in Portugal and died in Italy) who fled Portugal during the Spanish Inquisition after 1492. This tradition can be introduced this year in the context of Israel’s war against Hamas and the death and injury of so many Palestinian civilians.

22. Moses’ Family – Yocheved (mother), Miriam (sister), Aaron (brother), Zipporah (wife – daughter of the Midianite priest and possibly of Ethiopian origin).

23.  Blood on the Lintels – The Israelites were instructed to smear the blood of the lamb on the lintels and door posts of their houses so that the angel of death (מלאך המוות – mal’ach ha-mavet) would “pass over” their houses while striking dead all the first born of Egypt. Hence, the English word (“Passover”) for the holiday. The word Pesach, however, refers to the Paschal offering in the Temple in Jerusalem and has nothing to do with the angel of death “passing over” the Israelite community.

24. Fast of the First-Born Son – Traditionally, the first-born son fasts on the day before Passover to recall with gratitude God’s saving the first-born sons through the Hebrew mid-wives Shifrah and Puah. In Sephardic homes, the first-born son eats the egg last to recall this personal redemption.

25. Sections of the Seder – Kadesh – urchatz – karpas – yachatz – maggid – rachtzah – motzi/matzah – maror – korech – shulchan orech – tzafun – barech – hallel – nirtzah. At the beginning of the Seder, Sephardim (Jews originally coming from Spain) pass the Seder plate over the heads of the guests symbolizing the passing of the angel of death over the Israelite homes thus sparing the damage caused by the angel of death. While the plate is passed, the sections of the Seder are sung.

26. The Biblical Story of the Exodus – Found in the Book of Exodus, the Israelites had settled in the land of Goshen after a severe famine in the land of Canaan. Joseph brought his father and the 12 sons and 1 daughter to Goshen. But then there “arose a Pharaoh in Egypt who knew not Joseph” (Exodus 1:8) and put all the Hebrews into slavery and hard labor to build his cities. The story is believed to have taken place around the year 1250 B.C.E.  Jews did not build the pyramids, which date from the middle of the 2nd millennium B.C.E. Though the Biblical story says our people were slaves for 400 years, it is likely that they were slaves for a generation (perhaps 40 years). The Bible also says that over 600,000 were freed from slavery (Exodus 1:11). An unruly number, it is more likely that between 10,000 and 15,000 Hebrews and others (i.e. a mixed multitude) came out of Egypt. A people used to slavery, they would be condemned to wander for 40 years (a generation) until the generation of slaves died. Moses himself never entered the land of Israel primarily because of his defiance of God at the incident of M’ribah – מריבה (Exodus 17:2) – Moses was disgusted by the Israelites’ complaining in the desert for a lack of water. God commanded Moses to “speak” to the rock and water would gush forth. However, Moses struck the rock out of anger and his defiance of God’s instruction. He paid the ultimate price for a failure to at once respect God’s command and the failure of leadership of the people to behave peaceably and with compassion as their leader. The Exodus story is completed by the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19 and 20), thereby establishing a covenant between God and the people. Following this most important event in the history of Judaism, the people were instructed under the leadership of the architect/artist B’tzalel to build the Tabernacle (Exodus 31:1-6) so that God may dwell amongst the people. The people wandered for 40 years in the desert and they entered and settled the Land of Israel (ארץ ישראל – Eretz Yisrael) (circa 1200 B.C.E.). They ultimately built the First Temple in Jerusalem. For Jews, freedom, responsibility, accountability, engagement with community, and ethical living are part of the Covenant with God.

27. The Very First Seder – The first Seder was held in Egypt at night before the Exodus itself.  Consequently, the Seder is not a celebration of redemption because the redeeming event had not yet taken place. Rather, the Seder is an expression of faith that there will be redemption in the future, that the world is not yet perfected and that there is to be a better more peaceful and more just order of human affairs.

28. The Seder as a Night-time Ritual – The Seder is the only ritual in Judaism that customarily occurs during the dark of night. This is the only time that the Hallel is said at night, and is the only full ritual conducted in the home. Rabbi Levi Meier z’l (1946-2008) suggested that whereas in daylight everything is public, during the nighttime our higher selves are evoked. When Jacob wrestled with divine beings at the river Jabok (Genesis 32) we learn that following the struggle that Yaakov shalem – יעקב שלם (Jacob became whole). This night-time ritual provokes us towards wholeness and integration – i.e. the unification of body, mind, heart, and soul with God. Note that Rabbi Meier was trained as a Jungian therapist.

29. The Miracle of the Sea – Rabbi Lawrence Kushner (b. 1943) wrote: “All of Pesach is concealed within one self-contradictory verse: בתוך הים ביבשה – B’toch haYam b’yabashah — And the children of Israel went ‘into the midst of the sea on dry ground.’ (Exodus 14:22) The miracle, you see, was not that the waters parted but that we all drowned and were reborn free on the other side. You want to be reborn? You must be willing to walk into the midst of the sea on dry ground and risk it all.” 

30. Jews in Every Era – The Hagadah includes elements that were introduced in every period in Jewish history including the Bible, Greek, Roman, Arab-Muslim, Ottoman, Christian Europe, 19th Century Enlightenment, Zionism, the State of Israel, the Holocaust, the establishment of the State of Israel, post Shoah, modern Diaspora, and Israel. We are instructed that every Jew must see him/hers/themselves as if each of us personally went free from Egypt and from our individual “constricted places.” Consequently, when we sit down at the Seder table, if we are sensitive to the history and subtleties of the Seder and the context of the different customs, when and why they were introduced, Jews of every age join us and we link ourselves with them across time and place.

31. The Messiah and Next Year in Jerusalem – The hope of the Jewish people is for a world redeemed of its pain and at peace. The coming of the Messiah symbolizes that dream, and our people’s historic yearning for Jerusalem is a sign of the end of days. Freedom, therefore, involves not only freedom from oppression by dictators, but spiritual freedom from enslavements of our own making. Traditionally, at the conclusion of the Seder all say together לשנה הבאה בירושלים – L’shanah ha-ba-ah biY’rushalayim – Next year in Jerusalem. A new Israeli Reform Hagadah changes the final ending to: לשנה הבאה של שלום – L’shanah ha-ba-ah shel Shalom – May the next year be one of Peace.

32. Contemporary Traditions and Suggestions to Add Depth and Meaning to your Seder:

1. Include an orange on the Seder plate – an idea introduced by Dr. Susanna Heschel (b. 1956). She asked everyone to take a segment of the orange, make the blessing over fruit (Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech ha-olam borei p’ree ha-eitz) and eat it as a gesture of solidarity with Jewish LGBTQ individuals and others who are marginalized within the Jewish community, including widows, in particular. This tradition was changed, as Dr. Heschel explains, by homophobic men and/or women, who felt they could not celebrate and include homosexuals at their Seders. Instead, someone came up with the statement that in response to women becoming rabbis: “That is as appropriate as having an orange on a Seder plate.”
2. Include Olives on the Seder Plate – olives are grown plentifully in the land of Israel and placing olives on our Seder plates connects us with Israelis and our people living in our historic Homeland.
3. Place a Kos Miryam – כוס מרים next to the כוס אליהו – Kos Eliyahu – In honor of the matriarch Miriam and older sister of Moses we remember the role women played in the Exodus story and throughout Jewish history by having a glass of water next to the Cup of Elijah. This tradition reminds us of Miriam’s Well believed (in the Midrash) to have sustained the people throughout the period of wandering until Miriam’s death when the wells dried up (Numbers 20:1-2).
4. Introduce Poetry – Ask members of your family/friends to bring poetry on the themes of freedom, change, redemption, and salvation, and intersperse this poetry (original or from established poets) throughout the Seder.
5. Invite Personal Testimonies – Ask individuals to share transitional experiences from this past year that enabled them to escape from constricted places – מצריים – of their own making. Ask participants to bring a concrete item that represents a liberating experience from the last year and share throughout the Seder.
6. Invite Personal Memories – Ask individuals to share the most meaningful Seder they ever attended and why it was so meaningful and transformative.

Notes on the Number “32” – I deliberately stopped at 32 items. The Hebrew for 32 is Lamed-Bet לב and spells lev (meaning “heart”). Number symbolism in Judaism is a long-standing tradition and is found in the Talmudic literature. The mystical tradition of Kabbalah teaches that there are 32 pathways to the heart. 22 is the number of letters in the Hebrew aleph-bet – א-ב. The Hebrew aleph-bet are regarded as the building blocks of creation – we are the people of “The Book” and words are holy. 10 represents the 10 Words (or commandments) – 22 + 10 = 32 (Lev).

May this Passover season be one of liberation for the Israeli hostages languishing in Gaza, and may there be rejoicing, rebirth, and renewal for you and your dear ones. May our people in the State of Israel and around the world experience peace with security in the coming year. We hope for the security and peace for the innocent among the Palestinians caught up in the Hamas-Israel War, and for those living in Ukraine, Africa, Latin America, and every place where violence threatens life and well-being, especially of the innocent.

חג פסח שמח

Happy Pesach

Spring in Poetry and Images

“…Spring-time is here! / And what is this in it and from it? / The grass of spring covers the prairies, / With the fresh sweet herbage under foot, / And the pale green leaves of the trees prolific, / The arbutus under foot, the willow’s yellow-green, the blossoming plum and cherry.

… Here I sit long and long, envelop’d in the perpetual rich mellow bumble-bee symphony, / Gathering these hints, the preludes, the blue sky, the grass, the morning drops of dew, / The lilac-scent, the bushes with dark green heart-shaped leaves, / Wood-violets, the little delicate pale blossoms called innocence, / Samples and sorts not for themselves alone, but for their atmosphere, / To grace the bush I love—to sing with the birds.”

The foregoing are two stanzas from Walt Whitman’s longer poem called Spring.

Virginia Woolf said once what I increasingly feel: “I enjoy the spring more than the autumn now. One does, I think, as one gets older.”

Here are some images I photographed in my neighborhood last spring (it’s still a bit early this year for all this blooming) but, anticipating the reawakening of the trees, flowers and grass fills me with a sense of renewal. Hopefully, in these times of harsh storms, earthquakes, war and massive suffering, spreading autocracy, racism, antisemitism, hate and polarizing politics, these images offer a measure of hope.

Rabbi Nachman of Breslov said: “Never despair! Never! It is forbidden to give up hope.” And Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey reminds us: “Hope is the active conviction that despair does not have the last word.”

Enjoy the images!

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

Tags

gaza, Israel, news, palestine, unrwa

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.”

Current Thoughts on the Israel-Hamas War

Tags

Israel, middle-east, news, palestine, politics

So much has been said in the United States, the United Nations, Israel, college campuses and cities around the world about this awful war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas. It needs to be emphasized that this is a war not between Israel and the Palestinian people. It is therefore a gross mischaracterization to say that Israel is committing “genocide.” Genocide requires the intent to destroy another people. Israel’s war is against Hamas’ capacity to rule Gaza and threaten Israel, and is not about destroying the Palestinian people. The war has, of course, brought about massive tragedy in death and injury of large numbers of innocent Palestinian civilians, estimated at 20,000 of the more than 32,000+ killed (including Hamas fighters – figures provided by Hamas).

I agree with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert who said this past week in an international webinar that Israel should not carry forward its war into Rafah in Southern Gaza where an estimated 1.25 million Palestinians are encamped. He worried about the large additional number of Palestinian civilians likely to die as Israel pursues and destroys the remainder of Hamas’ command structure and fighters. Continuing this war, he said, is not worth the cost in human life. Further, he argued that there is no guarantee that continuing the war will bring the remaining 132 Israeli and American hostages home (30 are thought to have been murdered in captivity). Freeing the hostages and bringing them home, he said, must be Israel’s first priority not only for their lives’ sake, but for the sake of restoring Israel’s governmental social contract with Israeli citizens.

It is debatable how much of Hamas’ infrastructure and command have been destroyed on this 174^th day since October 7. Many in the Israeli military and intelligence services do not believe that Hamas can be destroyed ultimately. What they hope for is that Hamas will be de-fanged enough and prevented for a number of years of ever attempting to launch another October 7 attack, which its leaders have promised to do over and over again.

PM Olmert noted that had the Israeli government and IDF done its job on October 6 in interpreting correctly the intelligence they had from Gaza that Hamas was planning a major operation against Israel, this attack would have been prevented. He lays the responsibility for the Hamas massacre of 1200 Israeli civilians and abduction of 240 hostages on October 7 directly at the feet of the leaders of the IDF and Israeli intelligence services, the leaders of which have all accepted responsibility, and at the feet of PM Netanyahu who has not accepted any responsibility whatsoever. That alone ought to disqualify Netanyahu from continuing as Israel’s Prime Minister. PM Olmert believes that Netanyahu should resign immediately and new elections called.

Olmert and others are arguing now that a ceasefire that includes the immediate return of the hostages and plans for the day after the war, including a pathway towards the establishment of a demilitarized Palestinian state alongside Israel, must be the top priority for Israel not only for the sake of saving the lives of the hostages, the lives of Israeli soldiers fighting in this war and the lives of innocent Palestinian civilians, but for Israel’s own enlightened self-interest and the restoration of its international standing.

Israelis support still, in overwhelming numbers, this war as necessary to continue as a war of self-defense. PM Olmert acknowledged that not enough Israelis agree with him that the war has to end now.

One can make the case legitimately that huge mistakes were made by Israel in its massive bombing and use of 2000-pound “dumb bombs” to destroy tunnels and Hamas command structures, and that too many Palestinian civilians have died as a consequence. However, we in the west have to remember (the international media doesn’t emphasize this point enough) that Hamas deliberately embedded itself for years everywhere in Gaza, in apartment buildings and homes, community centers and mosques, schools and hospitals, and in more than 400 miles of tunnels. While the world blames Israel for the death and destruction without mentioning Hamas’ duplicity and criminality, Hamas deliberately uses Palestinian civilians as shields and cares little for the lives and well-being of its own people. Hamas could have ended this war months ago but refused to release hostages, a war crime.

Those in the liberal and progressive left in America who support Hamas are victims of moral blindness. Hamas is an autocratic ruler that executes those who have spoken out against it. It prohibits free speech, freedom of religion, LGBTQ individuals and a woman’s right to choose. It is misogynistic, sexist, homophobic, antisemitic and brutal. In this war it has refused to allow any innocent Palestinians to hide from the bombardment of Gaza in its massive expanse of tunnels, and it hoards food, water and fuel for itself and shares none of it with Palestinian civilians. It is hardly a liberal movement that those in the intersectional western community support against a democratic Israel.

One more thing. Though the world has forgotten who and what instigated this war and the international media shows repeatedly only the the death and destruction in Gaza and no longer the Hamas atrocities on October 7 against innocent Israelis, we in the west cannot forget that October 7 was the most deadly day in Jewish history since the Holocaust. The world has shifted its attention to the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza (a morally legitimate concern), but it seems to have forgotten the plight of Israelis in this war. This is not an either-or situation, though I believe that the two enemies are not morally equivalent in any way. To claim the moral high ground, all of us have to be able to hold at once the suffering of everyone (Palestinian and Israeli) in our minds, hearts and consciences.

I pray for an immediate end to this war, a return of Israeli and American hostages to their families and homes, the distribution of a massive amount of food, water, fuel and medicine to the people in Gaza, and the beginning of planning for an eventual new Middle East that rejects extremism and mollifies hate. I hope as well for an international effort to rebuild Gaza under the authority of a reconstituted Palestinian Authority, the Arab League, the United States, European Union, Israel,and even the United Nations that continues to harbor an anti-Israel animus far in excess of any other nation in the world. And I hope that the alliances begun in the Abraham Accords expand to include other western oriented Arab nations in league with Israel against an emboldened Iran and its Islamic extremist proxies.

Women Wage Peace

Tags

gaza, Israel, palestine, peace, politics

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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