The following piece is an op-ed by Gay Rosenblum-Kumar, a supporter of Unarmed Civilian Protection in Palestine (UCPIP).

When will Israeli citizens realize that what their government is doing is wrong?

I read the New York Times, listen to BBC World Service, subscribe to Ha’aretz, follow Al Jazeera because, truth be told, I am obsessed. I am obsessed and distraught because of the death and destruction Israel continues to cause in Gaza and the damage and fracturing it is causing in Israeli society.

I can speak only as a middle-class American Jew who does not know what it feels like to be Israeli.  I imbibed the benign version of Israel’s creation story – after the Holocaust Jews came to the (empty) desert and worked immensely hard to make the desert bloom.  My father recounted the Zionist tale that Israel is the only safe place for Jews and, no matter what, we have to stand with Israel, right or wrong.  I can no longer ask my father, whose unveiling took place on Oct 8, 2023, what he would think today. But knowing that the scales of justice ruled his life as a lawyer of the people, I think even he would reject that view now. 

It is said that stories, not numbers, make people wake up and see.  Fifty thousand killed in Gaza and daily televised crimes against humanity, but it seems few even blink. The news tells us that Israelis want the war to end so that the hostages come home, but not so that innocent Palestinian lives are not lost. The rage behind their bombs is unquenchable and will never end. Every day is a nightmare for everyone.  A population in Gaza starving. A nightmare in Israel for hostages and for those who have not been able to heal from Oct 7th.

And yet it continues to get worse. It seems that no person, group, or country can or will do anything.  It must come from inside. From Israelis themselves. What more will it take?  It is of note that Hamas does not slay the remaining hostages to increase pressure, and thankfully many have returned. They know such murderous actions would be counter to a ceasefire. Israel’s actions show no understanding of that logic and are moving the situation toward a breaking point.  It is breaking all of us.  Is one Israeli life worth so much more than the nearly 100 Palestinians killed almost every day this week?

And now there is pediatrician and mother, Dr.  Alaa al-Najjar, who was working at the hospital saving other children when nine of her own were blown up, her husband and one remaining child in critical condition. How do you stand up after that?  How do you breathe?  How do you eat or sleep or walk or live?  As a mother, I ask Israeli mothers and fathers, to look at this and look at themselves, even those who have suffered unfathomable losses on or since Oct 7th, should this still be done in anyone’s name? How much retribution can be justified? How can we keep making mothers suffer like this?   When will we realize that Israel and Israelis are losing their soul, repeating the inhumane acts that were perpetrated against it.

When George Floyd was murdered five years ago in Minneapolis, USA, a majority of Americans were horrified enough to finally confront difficult questions about themselves and their culture.  We were shocked into confronting our creation story and many of us are making efforts to address the racism and injustice still embedded in U.S. society.

Will Israelis look at the face of Dr. Alaa al-Najjar, mother of nine dead children between the ages of twelve and six months, and finally ask themselves such questions?

No conscious person can stay blind to this. This is not an unfortunate incident, a casualty of war.  It is a crime and it must be stopped. Not only to protect innocent lives, but to stop Israel from losing its standing in the world, its consciousness, its soul, if it is not already too late.

I was reminded today of what President Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Instagram on July 10, 2024:  “The moment our son was born. The moment I officially became a mom. The best moment of my life.  It’s true when they say there’s nothing comparable to the love you feel for your child. My heart has grown bigger than I ever imagined possible. Babies are the ultimate blessing and I’m bursting with gratitude for our beautiful, happy, healthy boy.”

Karoline and all mothers, especially those in Israel and among my community of American Jews, please put yourself in Alaa’s place, like we did when that policeman’s boot inconceivably stepped on George Floyd’s neck taking his last breath away.  Someone needs to change Israeli policy.  Israel’s announced new offensive in Gaza is inconceivable and must be stopped. Rise up for the real values and principles of Judaism and insist on a different way than this war.  Until we mothers can understand the desperate need for change, the world will not. We can be the arbiters of empathy. The soul of this generation, not just in Israel, lies in our hands.