It is Time for All of Us to Speak Out

On Monday, the IDF fired an artillery shell at a camera situated on a balcony of the Nasser Hospital in Gaza’s Khan Younis, the only functioning hospital left in southern Gaza. Then, in a military move known as a “double tap,” they hit it again. That second hit killed the medical teams who had come to rescue the wounded and at least five journalists reporting on the strike. According to NIF grantee Breaking the Silence, this was not a unique incident. The IDF has bombed 34 hospitals during this war. What was unique, said Breaking the Silence, was that “this one was broadcast live, and the world saw it unfold.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu called it a “tragic mishap.” Thomas Freidman called it “the inevitable byproduct of his policy of stringing out the war in Gaza in order to stay in power, to avoid his criminal trials and to avoid any Israeli inquiry commission into his profound complicity in the failure to prevent the surprise attack by Hamas on Oct. 7.” Needless to say, I agree with Freidman. 

Freidman wrote an article titled “Israel’s Gaza Campaign Is Making It a Pariah State” arguing that the current Israeli government was, by its continued onslaught on Gaza, putting Israel and Jews around the world in an impossible position. The war, he said, is

Destroying Israel’s standing in the world, it is killing Gazan civilians with seemingly no regard for innocent human life, and it is tearing apart Israeli society and world Jewry, between those Jews who want to still stand with Israel no matter what and those who can no longer tolerate, explain or justify where this Israeli government is taking the Jewish state and now want to distance themselves from it.

A few months ago, I also wrote about Israel becoming a pariah state. But I added a line after so the title read as follows: “Israel is becoming a pariah state. Here’s what American Jews must do.” As Israel slides into pariah status, what is clear is that America’s largest Jewish communal organizations are simply not sounding the alarms. Now, I understand that most of these institutions were simply not built to oppose the policies of an Israeli government. To the contrary, they were built in no small part to defend the decisions of a given Israeli government—to justify whatever the State of Israel decides to do. 

But this is enabling catastrophe for Palestinians, Israelis, and Jews around the world.

Now, everyone can see that the emperor has no clothes—that Prime Minister Netanyahu, by refusing to end this war, is simply holding on to his own power, with the good of no one else—not the hostages, not Israeli soldiers, and certainly not innocents in Gaza—in mind. And so it’s time for American Jews—and Israeli Jews— to make different choices. To stand up and say no to the extremism, violence, and retribution that this Israeli government has shown us, time and time again, that it stands for. 

It is not the time to defend the indefensible. It is the time to stand with Israelis demanding an end to this madness, a halt to what even former Israeli top military, intelligence, and government leaders say has become a senseless and unjustifiable war. 

But criticizing your country, calling out your tribe—or even your communal institutions—isn’t easy. It is often scary and painful. But it is absolutely necessary. As Michael Sfard wrote in an op-ed in Haaretz this week, “Together we must fight our family by every non-violent means. Follow the path of Abraham, who, according to midrash, smashed the idols his father worshiped; of Moses, who rebelled against his adoptive Egyptian family to lead a people of slaves to freedom; and of all the prophets who rebuked the sinful people and the criminal kings.”

If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a million times: Israelis are not their government. And American Jews are not their communal institutions. And, increasingly, both are standing up and speaking out. They are choosing to follow the path of Abraham. 

Yesterday, Israeli activists demonstrated in Jerusalem to end the war and release the hostages. On Tuesday, hundreds of reservists announced that they will not show up for duty and be party to this war. Brave human rights organizations are reporting on what is being done in their name. Courageous Palestinian and Jewish Israelis are standing together and saying: not in our name. 

Let us all take courage from their example. Let us stand with  those activists in Israel who, for the better part of two years, have been exhorting their fellow citizens: Look at Gaza. See the starvation. Grasp the destruction. And then demand a different, more equal, more just path forward.