• Op-ed

Is compassion a Jewish value? Too often, we hear from those in Jewish leadership through words and actions –both in Israel and North America – that the display of compassion for Palestinians in Gaza is outside the boundaries of our own sensibilities as Zionists and supporters of Israel. Often times that manifests as a practice that one simply cannot and should not talk about the Palestinians. “The numbers are inflated, and you can’t trust the Hamas-run Gazan Health Ministry to report accurate numbers,” one senior leader told me. That certainly may be the case, and there’s no question that the reported numbers and death toll among the Palestinians include Hamas fighters who waged war on Israel and have been killed in response.  However, the images that have been coming out of Gaza speak to a level of devastation and suffering that most of us cannot comprehend. And here’s the thing: suffering does not need to be a competitive sport. The increased Palestinian death toll and continued starvation will not bring back those barbarically murdered by Hamas, nor will they return the hostages any sooner. They will only continue to cause pain and suffering and continue to tarnish Israel’s image abroad. Some leaders in our Movement have eschewed any mention of the Palestinians out of fear that it will somehow diminish our cause. I hear them, understand them, and would gently push back to say that we no longer have a choice. This past weekend, former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe “Bogey” Ya’alon caused a political storm in Israel and internationally after stating that the military he once commanded is currently engaged in ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza. As a result, Ya’alon, who as a former member of the ruling Likud party, Chief of Staff of the IDF, and a hawk on security issues who no one can accuse of being left-wing by any stretch, was attacked by members of the Netanyahu government for his statement and was accused of causing considerable harm to Israel’s international standing.  Despite my own reservations about using the term ‘ethnic cleansing’ and our own rejection of this week’s Amnesty International report accusing Israel of genocide (which incidentally, even received pushback from its own staff in Israel who were not consulted in the report), we cannot turn a blind eye to what is happening. Do you want to know what is causing considerable harm to Israel’s international standing?  Refraining from talking about the humanitarian catastrophe and disaster going on in Gaza. Israel thinks that it can continue to sweep it under the rug, refusing to show images of starving Palestinians stampeding and shoving each other in lines for a pot of soup or a bowl of flour. That all changed this week when a CNN report and video from earlier this week was shown on Israeli Channel 13. In his program “War Zone,” renowned investigative reporter Raviv Drucker aired the CNN report of Palestinians in Gaza being crushed in food lines, which shocked and horrified the world. “The images demand our attention,” he told the shocked panel members. This was a rare deviance from the up-until-now standard of Israeli TV journalism, which generally avoids showing these disturbing images from Gaza and instead focuses solely on the war efforts and the pain and trauma of Israelis (of which there is no lack). Are Israelis and Zionists around the world simply lacking in compassion and chesed, or is there something more going on? Of course, there are many who simply don’t care. As I have written previously, the ultra-Nationalist camp led by Ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Betzalel Smotrich regard this war as an opportunity to implement their grand agenda of transferring Palestinians out of Gaza, [re]settling Jews there and moving towards a policy of de facto (and then de jure) annexation of the West Bank into Israel. But what about us? How many of our Reform Congregations take seriously the injunction to act with hesed toward those suffering? The Hebrew word חסד/hesed, often translated loosely as “loving-kindness,” can be more completely defined through three components:

1. Choosing to feel and/or hear another person’s pain or hurt;
2. Choosing to act to heal that person’s pain or hurt;
3. Doing the above without any expectation of reward or calculation.

Are we actively choosing not to feel another’s pain? That was somewhat acceptable after the horrific events of October 7. Then, no one could think about anything else. But now, 14 months later, when Israel is working to rebuild the South and the North, and there are still 101 hostages being held in Gaza, it is upon the Jewish People and our organized Jewish community to face the situation in Gaza head-on. We have been making public statements and calls for increased humanitarian aid to Gazans for months now, but the situation is only getting worse. As Jews who stake a claim to being proponents of chesed, can we now choose to act to see and heal the pain of another people? If our moral obligation to fulfill the commandment of גְּמִילוּת חֲסָדִים (doing deeds of loving-kindness) is something we take seriously, then it is upon us to act. As a reminder, we mention the notion of Gemilut asadim in our prayers three times a day, and when we take out the Torah, we often sing that the world is based on three things: Torah, Avodah (worship), and Gemilut asadim. These acts of mercy are done for the sake of another, out of love, compassion, and generosity of heart – not for reward and not out of coercion. Now, we may not feel a great sense of love or generosity towards the Palestinians. Many of them who are not affiliated or connected with Hamas still voted for them and may have signaled that they supported the attacks of October 7. Here, we must invoke the Pottery Barn rule. New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman claims to have coined the term, using the phrase “the pottery store rule” in a February 12, 2003 column. According to the Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell cited the rule in the summer of 2002 when warning President George W. Bush of the consequences of his planned military action in Iraq: “You are going to be the proud owner of 25 million people,” he told the president. “You will own all their hopes, aspirations, and problems. You’ll own it all.” Powell and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage Privately called this the Pottery Barn rule: “You break it, you own it.” Gaza is now broken like it has never been broken before. While no one is debating the clear necessity of responding with a sweeping military force, we (Israel) broke it and until an appropriate and competent force can take over to rule in Gaza – whether that is the PA and/or a multi-national force of actors committed to the rebuilding and deradicalization of Gaza – we own it.  There is no question that Hamas is ultimately complicit, culpable, and responsible for the situation in Gaza, but that does not alleviate Israel from owning it. In response to the massacre of October 7^th, our North American Jewish communities officially raised over $850 million in support of Israel and support for the rebuilding of the Israeli communities destroyed by Hamas. There’s no question that the collective wealth of the Palestinian and Arab diasporas, Gulf States, and the broader world, which have spent more time and energy condemning Israel this year than saying or doing anything productive, could easily come together and raise the billions needed to rebuild Gaza, prevent such horrific food lines, and begin thinking about the future for those in Gaza. In the meantime, Israel owns it. Instead of trying to stifle voices from over the border, and instead of trying to stifle those prominent Israelis who are speaking out, it would do wonders for Israel’s image abroad to acknowledge the dire situation that is current-day Gaza, prevent Jewish extremists in Israel and Palestinian gangs and Hamas in Gaza from hijacking the food supply and aid trucks that go in, and begin to act with hesed. Acting with hesed does not mean one is an anti-Zionist, against the Jewish people, nor an extremist on the political fringes. It means that one is a Jew.