A few days ago, the Spy published a letter by Dan Watson expressing his opposition to what the Israeli government is doing in Gaza. Most who wrote to reply agreed with Mr. Watson, although a couple of people disagreed.
This issue is extremely difficult and painful to confront for every American. There is a terrible wrong on both sides of this war. Hamas has operated as a terrorist organization trying to destroy Israel for many years. However, Israel’s response to the 2023 attack on Israel has destroyed much of Gaza and caused the deaths of many innocent people who do not support Hamas. The Trump administration, while occasionally opposing what Prime Minister Netanyahu is doing, continues to provide military support to Israel. That makes us complicit in what is happening to people in Gaza.
Recently, American economist Robert Reich published an essay by Orit Kamir, an Israeli Jew who is the son of a Holocaust survivor. Mr. Kamir’s essay is entitled “A Betrayal of the Victims of the Holocaust.” If anyone has the moral authority to decry what is happening in Gaza, it is Mr. Kamir, who is horrified by what his government is doing in his name.
I think his viewpoint is important to take into account as all of us consider what we think about this issue. It was originally published in Hebrew in Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper. Mr. Kamir gave Professor Reich permission to reprint it in English. For those who would like to read it, here is a link to Professor Reich’s column and Mr. Kamir’s essay.
If you agree with Mr. Kamir, you should contact your congressional representatives to express your views.
Linda and Steve Cades
Easton
Bob Kopec says
Trump is. Netanyahu is. I’ve read that the International Criminal Court has started an investigation of genocide against these 2 ‘leaders’.
Kent Robertson says
Of course it is horrendous. And I empathize with the innocents.
How do you propose that the Israelis protect themselves from Hamas and other zealots bent on their destruction? I see no other way than to destroy their enemies. When they use civilians as shields, and commandeer food donations to feed themselves, how can you blame Israel for these deaths? The Israelis have tried since 1948 to live in peace with their neighbors, only to be attacked again and again by those whose mantra is genocide of all infidels.
What do you propose as a lasting solution? It has to take into account that Hamas will not negotiate in good faith.
Linda and Steve Cades says
Thank you for writing, Kent,
I understand your position, and that is clearly what many Israelis think. Here are my additional thoughts.
If you ask AI how long there has been conflict in the Middle East, here’s the answer you get: “the region has been a site of significant conflict throughout its recorded history.” The war between Israel and Hamas is just the most recent of wars going back centuries.
If there were an easy solution to this conflict and those that preceded it, someone would have found it because the suffering of those living there, in Israel and in Gaza, has been too great to allow it to continue.
The problem is that for both sides, this is perceived as a zero-sum game. If one side wins, the other loses. When losing means the extinction of your people, you cannot accept losing. That’s why negotiation between the warring parties alone cannot work.
World leaders must step in to stop the carnage as they have in other situations. Collectively, they must demand an unconditional ceasefire and back that up with enough peace-keeping troops to stop the fighting. The dream of those who founded first the League of Nations and then the United Nations was that those organizations would be able to stop wars and find peaceful solutions to the world’s inevitable conflicts.
Can the UN or some other coalition of powerful nations do that this time? I don’t know, but I think they must try. It is clear that Israel will not stop what it is doing, nor will whatever remains of Hamas. With every innocent person killed on either side, two more terrorists are born, determined to annihilate the other side, extending the conflict forever. It has to stop.
The world, which means all of us, have to demand that our leaders, all of them, find a way to a solution that will allow innocent people, who only want to go about their lives, to do that safely. Neither side can get everything it wants. That’s the nature of compromise. Whatever Israel or the Palestinians have to give up to stop the war is better than allowing this war to continue.
Linda and Steve Cades
Mickey Terrone says
The horrendous attack on Israel by Hamas certainly deserved a powerful response by Israel. Clearly, Hamas knew Israel would have to attack civilians to respond. Yet, it requires a blind, nearly mindless attitude to fail to acknowledge the nearly genocidal overreaction by Netanyahu. Clearly, any honest evaluation of Israel’s response must recognize Netanyahu’s tenuous political position and acknowledge his scheme of maintaining popularity by punishing (and murdering, and now, starving) hundreds of thousands of civilians while killing many Hamas leaders and fighters. Attacking Hezbollah in Beirut, Lebanon and bombing raids into Syria while demolishing Iran’s nuclear site can be seen as Netanyahu’s personal political agenda as much as protecting Israel. Numerous Iranian military chiefs were killed after having been targeted by Israeli intelligence services.
Now, an ever more intense animosity has been born that will ensure increased danger to the entire Middle East region for years to come.
Cutting off food to Gaza completely from March into May claiming (without evidence) that Hamas was intercepting the food shipments while allowing miniscule amounts to hundreds of thousands starving adults and children, is unconscionable. While some food has likely been taken by Hamas fighters to feed themselves, that percentage is a tiny portion of the food needed by 2 million Gazans.
What were Israel’s alternatives to mass slaughter? For one, the high-tech attack that killed 32 Hezbollah leaders was a classic, relatively precise campaign that crippled Hezbollah’s leadership with far less collateral damage than Gaza received is prime example of Israel’s ability to decapitate opponents. And while Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and numerous other entities are inalterably opposed to a prosperous Israeli state, with US help, Israel has been able to survive and prosper for 75+ years. Precision air strikes on various targets in Iran’s missile launching facilities, its underground nuclear development site and Internal Security HQ. Israel’s intelligence services are thoroughly effective (other than the 2024 Hamas attack). This is how Israel has continued to protect itself. Its US-backed air force and military forces are formidable.
Yet, Israel’s overreaction in killing 60,000 and wounding another 150,000 Palestinians in Gaza has now created a new generation of hatred against Israel – and not without some realistic motivations.
Further, Trump’s utterly hypocritical position of supporting Israel must be seen in the context of his own abetting a fellow strongman (also desperately seeking to avoid criminal prosecution) – even as he referred to the aryan white supremacist rally in Charlottesville where he referred to his passionate political base, American fascists, who shouted “We will not be replaced” (by Jews), as “very good people”.
Laurie Powers says
Thank you for this excellent letter to the editor, with which I agree, and to which I offer a couple of corrections from Robert Reich’s mentioned article (CAPS mine) –
“Orit Kamir is an Israeli professor of law who drafted Israel’s law against sexual harassment and its law prohibiting bullying in the workplace (which was adopted by Israel’s labor courts). SHE is the author of “Betraying Dignity: The Toxic Seduction of Social Media, Shaming, and Radicalization,” published in 2020. I am grateful for HER permission to republish this.”
Ms. Kamir’s poignant article is entitled, “Silence in the Face of Gaza’s Starvation is Absolute Betrayal of Holocaust Victims.” I hope everyone will read it and reflect deeply on what she has written. We said “never again” last time; anyone who remains silent in the face of this forced starvation, wholesale destruction of homes and infrastructure and mass extermination of innocents is complicit this time.
Mickey Terrone says
I suppose its no small irony that our own country is currently betraying our heritage of freedom, however imperfect, to devolving into an authoritarian, fascist state where anyone can be arrested by masked secret police, where the legislative branch abdicates its power to the executive, where the chief executive clearly oversteps his constitutional authority and the Supreme Court allows it and where the Justice Department becomes the chief executive’s personal political weapon. Our country has betrayed the sacrifices made by many thousands of young Americans who gave their lives fighting authoritarian fascism and thus, the Holocaust.
Melanie waxman says
Thank you for keeping this issue in the forefront of our minds! So many hard questions!
After visiting Gaza, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) “an incredible feat.” He toured an aid distribution site with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff to see firsthand how over 1 million meals a day are being delivered — that’s more than 100 million meals in just two months.
Huckabee shared that Hamas opposes GHF because the food actually reaches the people — without being looted. He and Witkoff were briefed by the IDF and spoke directly with people on the ground.
In the middle of so much crisis, it’s encouraging to see aid getting where it’s needed!
The Rt. Rev. Joel Marcus Johnson, Anglican Bishop of The Chesapeake, Ret'd. says
To paraphrase the Rabbi Jesus’ question: How can a man say he loves God when he does not love his neighbor? And, he spoke of the precious character of children, warning of the judgement to those who would abide their harm. So, I refer our gentle readers to The Washington Post’s amazing, prolific roster in Thursday’s edition of the more than 18,500 names of Gaza children who’ve died in this war either by armed conflict or starvation and disease. Messrs. Netanyahu and Trump have a conspicuous absence of love in their hearts either for neighbor or children. But we are complicit with them if we fail to rise up, shaking the moral fists of our character and proclaiming their apostasy!
Rebecca Ellison says
I am reposting this in Spy … it contains the link to the names and personal information of the 18,500 children KILLED in Gaza (to say’died’would not be correct).
Washington Post, July 30, 2025.
60,000 Gazans have been killed. 18,500 were children.
These are their names.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2025/israel-gaza-war-children-death-toll/?itid=hp-top-table-main_p001_f013