Wednesday, November 19, 2025
We’d spent a lovely evening with old family friends — the
kind of people who’ve been part of your life for so long that conversation
feels natural, no matter how many years have passed. I think we could have
talked forever and never run out of things to say. So we talked for hours about
our memories from a different time and place, about the people we’d loved and
lost, and about what it means to revisit a world that lives now only in the
stories we share.
But as we walked back toward our car, I had a sudden flash of inspiration. Up until now, the
conversation had been about our shared past, but here beside me was a Reform
rabbi in the flesh. I wasn't going to miss the opportunity to learn how Reform Jewry felt about Israel in relation to Gaza and the war.
“How does the Reform community view the war in Gaza? Do they
think it’s a genocide?”
He looked down and gave a small, quizzical smile — the kind
people get when they’re about to explain something to you. “You have to
understand. The Palestinian people are oppressed.”
Somehow, the conversation had shifted. I was told that
Israel had withheld aid from Gaza. I asked if he knew that since October 7, Israel
has facilitated the delivery of over
two million tons of aid, including 1.3 million tons of food. I asked if he
knew of any other country that supplies aid to the enemy in wartime.
He was unimpressed. Jews, in his view, are supposed to be
different.
It didn’t matter to him that historically, the enemy is
never fed in wartime, let alone sent massive amounts of aid. His answer was
that we’re supposed to be fighting Hamas, not the Gazan people. “Do you think
all of Gaza is Hamas?” he asked.
“Actually, yes,” I told him.
His face lit up. He thought I’d just proven his point. To
him, my answer meant I was a hater, that the war was all about hate, and that
Israel was punishing the Gazan
people for what Hamas did.
But it’s nonsense, of course. The people of Gaza are with
Hamas all the way, and the latest poll from the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and
Survey Research back me up. As the New York Post reported this week,
Hamas’ popularity has surged:
— 51% of Gazans now approve of Hamas’ performance, in
spite of its violent “crackdowns” that amount to public executions.
— A year ago, Hamas’ approval was just 39%, and Gazans were protesting
in the streets, calling on the terrorists to give up power.
There’s no way around it. The trend is clear: support for
Hamas is not shrinking — it’s growing.
And let’s not forget: the people of Gaza overwhelmingly voted
Hamas into power in democratic elections overseen by the UN. I asked the rabbi
if he knew that not everyone who killed, burned, raped, and beheaded Israelis
on October 7 was a Hamas operative. Had he seen the footage of the crowds
spitting on and kicking the bodies of murdered Jews dragged into Gaza?
“Yes, yes,” he said. “I’ve seen all that.”
The implication being that even so, not all Gazans are
Hamas.
But it doesn’t matter if they’ve signed a pledge or worn a uniform. It’s all
the same — they drink in Jew-hatred with their mothers’ milk. Little girls sing
antisemitic jump-rope rhymes. And the so-called “regular people of Gaza” didn’t
just celebrate the massacre on October 7. They took hostages into their homes.
They held them, hid them, used them. They made them cook and clean. They helped
keep them captive. They gave terrorists cover and stored weapons for them under
baby cribs.
One of the things our rabbi friend said to me was that Bibi
says one thing in English and another in Hebrew. “I’ve heard him,” he said.
I wasn’t sure what he meant, and I didn’t much care. But the
irony was hard to miss: it’s the enemy, people like Abu Mazen who talks about
peace in English and killing “Jew
dogs” in Arabic.
I asked him where he gets his news. “Everywhere from Al
Jazeera to the Jerusalem Post,” he said, as if those two outlets
covered the entire gamut of views on Israel and Gaza. I must have smiled,
because quickly expanded his list: “Israel National News.”
I asked him if he’d seen the New York Times article with the skeletal child who turned out not to be starving at all. “I know about that,” he said — he knew it had been a manipulated, false report. So I asked, “But when you first saw it, did you believe it?”
He looked down, a little sheepish. “Sure, there’s some
misreporting,” he said. “But it’s undeniable that people in Gaza were
starving.”
“Uh huh,” I told him. “That’s because Hamas steals the aid — they even ate it in front of the hostages.”
I asked if he’d scanned the QR code* Bibi wore during his address to the UN.
He said he hadn’t watched the speech.
So I explained that Bibi had worn a badge on his lapel with
a QR code, inviting the audience to zoom in with their phones and see the
footage and still photos of the October 7 carnage for themselves — to finally
understand why we went to war, and why Hamas has to be destroyed.
Within 24 hours, the QR code had been scanned over a million times,
with roughly 30 percent of the scans coming from Iran and Gaza.
Our rabbi friend said he wouldn’t have looked at the photos
or videos anyway. He doesn’t need see these things to understand what happened,
that there would be no value for him in looking at the gruesome images. He
knows what happened.
I knew I was blowing up the evening a bit, and I felt bad
about that. I’d genuinely wanted to know what the Reform community thinks, not
pick a fight with him. I told him so, and I thanked him.
But on the way home I kept thinking: here was a Reform rabbi who is unaware
that the Gazan people support Hamas even now and that Israel has sent in
massive amounts of aid nonetheless. His concept is that Gazans are oppressed.
That Israel withheld allow aid from Gaza. That Bibi says one thing in English
and another in Hebrew. And anyone who believes that all of Gaza is aligned with
Hamas is, by definition, a hater.
I don’t mind that designation at all, because I hate evil and I especially hate
Amalek. Take that as you will.
I left with the sense that the rabbi was trying to sound
more reasonable than the people who openly accuse Israel of genocide. And I
appreciate that. I know he believes the Gazans are oppressed, and that Israel is
oppressing an oppressed people by “withholding” aid — which seemed to be a quiet
way of suggesting deliberate starvation. He won’t say the word genocide, but
the implication is there. If indeed, this reflects the views of the wider
Reform Jewish community, I think it is very sad.
There was a time when American Jews reflexively stood with
Israel. Now, too many are eager to criticize Israel. They think this is a virtue, a kind of healthy introspection. And it's obvious they want to blend in with wider society, especially within the progressive movement. But they don’t even have the facts.
*Note that Israelis are blocked from seeing this content, because it’s too difficult for us to bear. Some do it anyway, accessing the website through a VPN. And then they are sorry. I saw the following comment on Facebook from an Israeli who succumbed to the temptation: “I used a VPN...you don't want to see it.”
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"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024) PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022) |
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