In Israel and Gaza, We Must Make a Different Choice

Words alone won’t end this horror.

On October 7, 2023, the world was shocked and horrified by Hamas’s brutal terrorist attack on Israeli civilians, with more than a thousand killed and hundreds more taken hostage.

More recently, the world has been shocked and horrified by starvation and the scale of death and destruction caused by the Israeli military in Gaza.

Even many staunch supporters of the Netanyahu government profess anguish at the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, but go on to explain that this is all necessary in order to eradicate Hamas and bring security to Israel.

They are wrong, echoing the tragic mistakes made by the Bush administration in prosecuting the war on terror in the wake of 9/11, buying into – and reinforcing – the deadly misconception that intractable disputes can be addressed with brutal violence.

They are wrong according to hundreds of Israeli military personnel and security experts who warn that Netanyahu’s new plan to expand the battlefield and take over Gaza City is reckless and counterproductive.

They are wrong according to families of hostages who fear that Netanyahu’s approach is delaying their loved ones’ return and even further endangering them.

And, most importantly, they are wrong because a nation cannot save itself by destroying its own soul.

When I talk about the soul of the nation of Israel, here’s what that conjures up for me.

I think of my two-year-old mother and her Holocaust-survivor parents coming to a new state in 1948 with nothing, building a new life in a poor, egalitarian society.

I think of the summers I spent with extended family in Israel throughout my childhood in the 1980s and early 90s, occasionally limiting our movement and activities because of terrorist attacks, but more often enjoying social time and meals with relatives and marveling at the stable, thriving lives they’d built out of the ashes of 1945.

And I think of my pregnant first cousin going into reserve duty after October 7, committed to do her part to secure and heal a traumatized nation.

I know that other families have stories that paint a dramatically different picture. The creation of the State of Israel in 1948 was itself a violent trauma for Palestinians. And I have also spent time in the West Bank, decades ago, witnessing first-hand the cruelty of the occupation – and the way, already then, that it warped Israeli attitudes.

Sometimes the simplest things are the truest. Every life is sacred. Every person has a fundamental right to freedom, security, dignity, and self-determination. And both Jews and Palestinians have a deep and fundamentally legitimate claim on this part of the world.

That is why, even as the reality on the ground becomes increasingly dire, the only just vision for the region remains unchanged: two states for two peoples, existing side by side, in peace, security, and self-determination.

In the immediate term, we need a permanent ceasefire, a surge of aid into Gaza, and a return of all the hostages.

And the atrocities perpetrated by the Netanyahu government must end now.

Years of experience have taught us that stern words from allies mean nothing to Netanyahu. To have an effect, the U.S. must immediately stop the transfer of the offensive weapons that facilitate this horror.

We also have learned that nominal U.S. support for a Palestinian state does nothing to stop Netanyahu’s government from undermining that outcome through settlement expansion and other policies. That is why now is the time for the U.S. to officially recognize a Palestinian state.

Doing so would help lay the groundwork for a free and democratic Palestine, with a government that has no place for and provides no material support to Hamas or any other terrorist organization. We must always simultaneously address Palestinians’ right to self-determination and Israel’s legitimate security concerns.

I come to these conclusions as someone who believes passionately in justice and peace, as someone who yearns to see a thriving Palestinian state and a secure Israel.

Let’s not allow generations of tragedy or political timidity to stand in the way of building the future all people deserve. Let us stop lamenting the intractability of this problem and instead commit ourselves to solve it. The starvation of children is not an inevitability. It is a choice, and we must make a different choice.