Issue 88: Enough
This is not time for excuses. It is time to declare a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.
It was a beautiful day in Jerusalem. The summer sun was softened by a light breeze, and from my balcony I could hear the sounds of children playing in a pool next door.
What I could not hear were the sounds of Palestinian children in Gaza. The walls between us are too high and too thick. Even the collective cry of millions likely wouldn’t pierce the psychological fortress Israel has built to shield us from the truth. And the difficult truth is this: whatever “preferred nouns” one chooses to describe the events in Gaza over the past 22 months, they have amounted to what is undeniably a strategic and moral failure.
Strategic failure, because Israel has yet to achieve either of the two objectives it declared after October 7th: dismantling Hamas and returning the hostages.
Moral failure, because in pursuit of those objectives, Israel has rendered Gaza uninhabitable and failed to provide basic needs for the countless displaced Palestinians now effectively under its authority.
I hesitate to use more forceful language. I’ve written and deleted versions of these sentences for the better part of an hour, unsure whether they truly convey the gravity of what I feel.
About the fading hopes for the remaining hostages.
About the heavy toll on Israeli soldiers in the field.
About the limited, often obstructed, pathways for delivering desperately needed humanitarian aid to innocent people.
And the way we have grown numb to the suffering around us - so numb that denial now feels easier than reckoning with the consequences of war.
In this fractured land, there’s a tendency to stay in the comfort of one’s little bubble. To counter that, I make a point of regularly consuming content across the political spectrum, trying to understand the distance between my own views and those of others. This week, a mainstream Israeli podcaster convened a panel to address the increasingly alarming reports of famine in Gaza and what Israel should do.
The first guest - a prominent social activist - condemned the Netanyahu government’s “failure to explain to the world” that Hamas was responsible for the food shortages. “As usual,” he said, “the Palestinians fired their weapons and immediately started crying.” Later, he conceded that the IDF had failed operationally to ensure food reached Palestinian civilians. Still, he concluded, the issue was not blame, but responsibility moving forward.
The second guest added that Hamas has weaponized humanitarian aid to strengthen its position both among Gazans and in the broader conflict with Israel. However, she insisted, Israel must maintain a higher ethical and moral standard than a terrorist organization.
The third guest dismissed the question altogether: “Release the hostages and the suffering will end. I don’t care about what happens there [in Gaza].”
These are representative voices in Israel today, though I don’t want to dismiss the small but vocal minority that has, almost from Day One, advocated for a more humanitarian-oriented approach to the war. Many Israelis remain unmoved because the victims are Palestinians, and therefore, in their eyes, not victims at all. And even for those who are disturbed by the images now circulating both in international and increasingly Israeli media, the initial reaction is often to deflect blame or bemoan Israel’s failed public diplomacy…as if the problem lies not in Israel’s policies, rather how it explains them to the world.
What’s missing from the public discourse, and what I want to articulate as clearly as I can, is that the war in Gaza is both a strategic and a moral failure.
The strategic failure in Gaza today is part of the much broader failure that led up to October 7th. How so? Because the same hubris that led Israel’s political and security leadership to believe Hamas could be contained - and that the IDF’s military superiority would deter future attacks - also left the country unprepared in the aftermath of a catastrophic military failure. There was no contingency plan for a full-scale reoccupation of Gaza. No clear strategy to separate the civilian population from Hamas, who unsurprisingly used civilians as human shields. No plan to provide basic services to civilians in the event that separation occurred. No discussions about the Day After the war. And the plans eventually put forward relied on a flawed understanding of what battlefield success looks like.
This lack of foresight on the part of Israel’s leadership has directly contributed to the high number of civilian casualties, high number of IDF casualties, and a disastrous humanitarian policy. Tragically, these outcomes were predictable - and predicted. Israel’s breathtaking military achievements in other arenas, like Lebanon and Iran, only underscore the totality of its failures in Gaza.
And we must not overlook the moral failure.
The IDF’s Code of Ethics states: “The IDF and our soldiers are obligated to protect human dignity. Every individual is of inherent value, regardless of their ethnicity, religion, nationality, gender or status.” If this principle was guiding the Israeli government, every tank and APC entering Gaza would have carried water, rations, and medicine for civilians. The Israeli government would have worked hand in hand with aid organizations to ensure that food and medical supplies - which can only be delivered to civilian populations in Gaza with Israel’s prior approval and screening - reached those populations in need. The war would have been framed as an operation to “liberate” Palestinians from Hamas’ reign.
None of this happened.
On October 9, two days after the attacks, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared a “complete siege” of Gaza. Israel cut off electricity, food, and fuel. Israel did begin to let amounts of aid into Gaza, largely in response to international condemnations and pressure from the Biden administration. But in March 2025, Israel reimposed a total blockade in a renewed effort to squeeze Hamas. In response to mounting international outrage, the U.S. helped Israel establish the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in an attempt to bypass Hamas in the aid distribution process. This too has been plagued by dysfunction: looting, violent mobs, and the absence of independent monitoring to verify that aid is reaching Gaza’s most vulnerable. As innocent people died, Israel, GHF, and the UN traded accusations.
Now I know what some of you are thinking: why aren’t you pointing the finger at Hamas, who orchestrated October 7th, intentionally used its own population as human shields, and leveraged its position within the Gaza Strip to periodically control access to humanitarian aid? Aren’t they really the ones to blame here? Israel didn’t start this war. To this I say the following: Yes, Hamas’ preferred path was one where morality is abandoned for the sake of victory. Israel knew this. Still, Israel's humanitarian obligations as an occupying force were never contingent on Hamas's capitulation. We needed to have chosen a different course.
This began as a just war. But it has descended into a humanitarian catastrophe, undermining Israel’s once-legitimate war aims, planting the seeds of hate for the next generation. This moral failure makes the strategic failure even more profound.
I recognize my words, much like the humanitarian aid, are arriving late. The Israeli governments’s decision to reopen humanitarian corridors and begin airdrops on the evening of July 26, 2025 - an admission that its plan has produced catastrophic results - means I am simply joining the growing chorus of voices demanding a change in policy. But as a veteran, as a Zionist, as a human being, and as someone who believes that there remains a narrow pathway to reverse the cycle of death and build the region anew, I refuse to allow this government’s actions to speak on my behalf nor am I satisfied with these emergency measures.
It is time to declare a unilateral humanitarian ceasefire.
It is time to flood Gaza with humanitarian aid.
It is time to reach a comprehensive hostages-for-prisoners agreement.
It is time to end the war.
Gabbi,
Your advocacy for Israel's immediate withdrawal from Gaza in concern for the "humanitarian crisis" suffered by “innocent” Gazan adults trapped in this war, is wrongheaded. The stark reality is that there are no "innocent" adults in Gaza while Hamas continues its campaign of terror and intimidation through murder and rape and baby killings and the taking, and the keeping, of the truly innocent - the hostages. The absolute silence of the adult Gazan population in the face of this evil, is not merely a byproduct of fear; it is an extreme moral failing that cannot be overlooked. And by the way, all war, is a "humanitarian crisis".
Gabbi, "Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless.” This truth resonates deeply in this context.
Why are there no voices of the Gazan adults demanding the release of the hostages? Where are the protests against Hamas’s actions which bring on the endless "humanitarian crisis" of Israel's forced response - war? There is not one credible report of the population in Gaza rising up to challenge, in any way, the evil Hamas terrorists who hold truly innocent lives captive and torture and murder the truly innocent and bring on the collateral damage of death within their own population. The absence of this voice and action speaks volumes. This total silence in the face of clear indisputable evil against innocents makes Gazans complicit.
Every adult in Gaza has a responsibility to stand against the tyranny of Hamas that has resulted in the utter destruction of their entire community. Their inaction and scilence allows this terrorist organization to thrive, perpetuating a cycle of violence that endangers their own lives and the lives of countless others, holding the entire world hostage, leaving the entire region in disarray. By failing to demand accountability and justice, they are completely complicit in the suffering and the murder of these hostages and their families; as well as the ongoing brutality inflicted upon their own people by this war and Hamas itself. They are NOT innocent.
As Golda Meir poignantly said, “We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.” This powerful statement underscores the tragic reality we face. The adults in Gaza must prioritize the lives of all children over the hatred that fuels this conflict and the terrorist tactics of Hamas. If they truly wish for peace, they must rise against the evil regime that sacrifices their children for its own agenda. They don't. They are NOT innocent.
Advocating for an Israeli withdrawal without demanding accountability and surrender from Hamas is a misguided approach that only prolongs the suffering of all involved. It fuels this forever war as it avoids a conclusion that is inevitable. There must finally be a surrender, a peace treaty, and END to this war, NOT a ceasefire.
It is vital that we push for a society that actively rejects violence and terror, one where the voices of the oppressed rise up against their oppressors. One in which evil is finally defeated, not just pushed back and given time to revive. Hamas must be required to surrender. Hamas must be removed from Gaza, never to return. Anything less than that will be taken as the victory of a clear evil and will encourage this truly forever war. That, would be the greatest humanitarian crisis.
Let us be clear: the world cannot afford to ignore the moral responsibility of those living under Hamas’ rule. We must hold Hamas accountable for its actions and hold Gazans responsible for their silence and inaction. If we are to seek a path toward peace and justice, it must start with a collective outcry against tyranny and a demand for the release of all of the hostages - NOW! Collective includes Gaza's populous. Collective means demanding surrender and Israel's victory.
"This is not the time for excuses." It is time to end the horror perpetuated by endless cycles of releasing murderous terrorists in exchange for the truly innocent—the hostages they take. The adult citizens of Gaza must act, and they must do so now. Then and only then, can they claim innocence.
Mark