People hold a giant Israeli flag at the Western Wall in Jerusalem Old City on the eve of Jerusalem Day, May 25, 2025. (Photo by Chaim Goldberg\/Flash90)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Because this war is not about Bibi. It is about Israel\u2019s survival. And the Jewish people, especially American Jews, must not let personality distract from principle.<\/p>\n
Since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has faced a military, moral and psychological assault of unprecedented complexity. Hamas\u2019s slaughter of 1,200 people and the kidnapping of 250, including children, the elderly and entire families, was not just a \u201cbattle.\u201d It was a pogrom, fueled by genocidal ideology and celebrated openly by its perpetrators. Yet today, Israel is the one on trial in the court of public opinion, not the murderers who triggered the war.<\/p>\n
What Israel faces in Gaza is not a conventional war or even a typical counterterrorism campaign. It is asymmetric warfare against a terrorist organization that intentionally uses its own civilians as tools of war. Hamas stores weapons in schools, digs tunnels under hospitals and launches rockets from densely populated neighborhoods. It steals food aid from the population. This is not incidental; it is strategy.<\/p>\n
Hamas leaders have made this explicit. In 2008, Fathi Hammad, then Hamas\u2019s interior minister, declared: \u201cFor the Palestinian people, death has become an industry. \u2026 This is why they have formed human shields of the women, the children, the elderly and the mujahideen.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added proudly: \u201cWe desire death like you desire life.\u201d<\/p>\n
What sane person would say that?<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not rhetoric; it\u2019s policy. Hamas relies on images of dead civilians, especially children, to inflame world opinion and pressure Israel into submission. Tragically, too many in the West, including some Jewish voices, fall for this manipulative theater. They call for ceasefires, condemn Israeli \u201cdisproportionality\u201d and wring their hands at the humanitarian crisis, while ignoring how Hamas engineers that crisis.<\/p>\n
But put this in perspective. During the U.S.-led assault on ISIS in Mosul from 2016 to 2017, between 9,000 and 11,000 civilians were estimated to have died, according to The New York Times<\/em>. That battle, fought by Western militaries with advanced precision weaponry, still resulted in tens of thousands of casualties. No one accused the United States of genocide. No one proposed sanctions.<\/p>\nYet Israel, which goes to unprecedented lengths to warn civilians, including dropping leaflets, making phone calls and pausing operations to allow evacuations, is treated like a rogue state.<\/p>\n
The moral asymmetry here is staggering. Hamas celebrates death. Israel mourns it, even when forced to cause it to protect its own people.<\/p>\n
And yet, Western diplomats\u2014many from countries that have never faced a single rocket attack\u2014dare to lecture Israel on restraint. The European Union, Canada and even the United States have called for a \u201cceasefire,\u201d as if peace can be restored by papering over mass murder.<\/p>\n
Some American Jews have joined that chorus, distancing themselves from Israel out of discomfort with its current government. That\u2019s not just misguided. It\u2019s dangerous.<\/p>\n
Hamas doesn\u2019t hate Israel because of the policies of Netanyahu and his government. It hates Israel because it exists. Article 13 of the Hamas Charter states: \u201cThere is no solution for the Palestinian question except through jihad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diplomacy, negotiation, peace-building? \u201cAll are a waste of time,\u201d the document says.<\/p>\n
This is the enemy Israel is fighting. An enemy backed by Iran and Qatar, supplied by global jihad networks and committed\u2014openly, unapologetically\u2014to the eradication of the Jewish state.<\/p>\n
To our fellow Jews in the Diaspora, especially in America: This war is about you, too. Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran don\u2019t care whether you vote Likud or Labor, whether you\u2019re Orthodox, Conservative, Reform or unsure. On Oct. 7, Hamas murdered Thai farm workers and Israeli Bedouin alongside Jews. Their hatred is not nuanced. It is total.<\/p>\n
And as antisemitism, let\u2019s call it what it is\u2014Jew-hatred\u2014surges on campuses, in public squares, and online, it\u2019s clear that Hamas\u2019s war against Israel is fueling a broader war against Jews everywhere. This is not just a political crisis but a civilizational one.<\/p>\n
So, what is the role of American Jews?<\/p>\n
It is to stand with Israel\u2014not conditionally, not reluctantly and not just when it\u2019s easy. It is to reject the moral fog that equates a democratic state defending its citizens with a terrorist group that hides behind children. It is to recognize that you can critique Israeli policy at another time, but right now, we must remain united.<\/p>\n
To those who are hesitant, ask yourself this: Would you demand moral perfection from any other country under siege? Would you have told Britain in 1940 to cease fire until Winston Churchill stepped down?<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s democracy will sort out its leadership in due time. However, today, it needs our solidarity. Our advocacy. Our unapologetic defense in the face of global slander.<\/p>\n
As the Psalmist wrote: \u201cHe who watches over Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.\u201d But Israel still needs us to stay awake\u2014and to stand up.
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