Day: May 28, 2025
Israel in Gaza: illegal, immoral, unwise
So many have written so much about Gaza that I’ve hesitated. What is there to say that adds value or insight? But the situation requires at least a brief remark.
Illegal
Israel is withholding humanitarian aid, attacking civilians, and rendering the entire Strip uninhabitable. These are war crimes. It is arguable that they amount to genocide, but that is a legal question. I’ll wait for the International Criminal Court to decide. Others have argued the case better than I can. In the meanwhile, it is clear Israel is violating well-established laws of war.
But, some will object, what about October 7? What about Hamas? The laws of war do not allow reciprocity for illegal acts. Hamas conducted its horrific attack in ways that unquestionably violated the respect due to civilians in wartime. The taking of hostages is also illegal. But none of that can justify wanton destruction and targeted killing of civilians.
Immoral
Treating strangers properly–welcoming them, providing for them, helping them–is a fundamental doctrine in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim morality. It doesn’t preclude defending yourself if attacked, but it does limit that defense to what is necessary. Israel has gone far beyond that limit. It is displacing the Gaza population, starving its children, and destroying any possibility of return to its homes.
Israel is doing everything possible not just to prevent a resurgence of Hamas but to make Gaza uninhabitable. Its current government wants the Palestinians to leave. Prime Minister Netanyahu even says this is to pursue President Trump’s vision of rebuilding it as a resort. Another Israeli minister says he wants another Nakba. That means repetition of the expulsion of Arabs during Isreal’s war for independence.
The Prime Minister’s motives in continuing the war on Gaza are particularly heinous. He is using wartime to avoid a political reckoning. He hopes battlefield success will erase his own responsibility for Israel’s failures to anticipate and defend against the Hamas attack.
Unwise
How will any of these excesses benefit Israel or Jews in general? If Palestinians leave Gaza, some will settle in Sinai, which already harbors Muslim extremists. Is the border of Israel with Sinai any better protected than the border of Gaza with Israel before October 7? Will increasing the Palestinian population in Egypt really help Israel? The Palestinians who left during the Nakba are still a problem for Israel, more than 75 years later. If there are Hamasees left in Gaza, will spreading them around the world reduce the threat to Israelis and Jews?
Trump’s Gaza-a-Lago proposition is particularly unwise. Let’s suppose it happens. Trump resorts are built up and down the Gaza coast, which is really beautiful. Yes, I’ve been there and seen it. How safe would the resort be from the Hamasees who have been spread around the world? For that matter, how safe would any Trump resort be?
What’s the alternative?
Jews and Palestinians have no alternative to sharing the Holy Land. Israelis have demonstrated that is possible within their internationally recognized borders. Palestinians there do not have the equal rights and privileges they are entitled to. But most days they share a society with the more privileged Jews and strive for equal treatment and conditions nonviolently. I am a Jew who supports that effort. I am not alone. My religion tells me that is what I should be doing. As does my understanding of what it means to be an American.
That is what is needed in Gaza and the West Bank. The Israeli effort to remove the Palestinians is delusional. They need equal rights, which in Gaza and the West Bank means a Palestinian state. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas says he wants one without a military. That state need not be anti-Israeli. But what Israel has done in Gaza is making two states living securely side-by-side much more difficult. Law, morality, and wisdom suggest that is a big mistake.
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