On a recent visit to Kibbutz Givat Brenner – a place that I called home for twelve years – I sat with my sister-in-law watching an investigative report on IDF regional defense units in the West Bank that had just aired on Kan, Israel’s public broadcasting network.
This was one of the best essays I have seen. I lived in Israel back in the 70's and it was home to me. What Natenyahu's government has done in our name is a holocaust for the Palestinians. I cannot understand how our people after what we went through in World War 2; can do the same thing to another group of people. I so appreciate your perspective. Thank you.
Thank you, Adina, for your passionate and thought-provoking essay. Unfortunately, the essay underscores the very problem you address. You're preaching to the choir. Liberal Zionists have to vigorously broadcast this message to a larger audience. That's got to be the next challenge for JStreet: how to get these essays into the NYT and WSJ.
Thank you for this. I share your concern that democracies are endangered when armed groups operate without accountability, and I agree that those of us who love Israel have an obligation to confront realities that are uncomfortable rather than avert our eyes from them.
What resonated most with me was your central theme: the unseen. Democracies depend upon citizens who are willing to look honestly at what is being done in their name, especially when doing so is politically inconvenient or emotionally painful.
At the same time, I found myself reflecting on another category of the unseen. Many Israelis who have grown skeptical of the peace process did not arrive there because they are indifferent to Palestinian suffering. They arrived there through the Second Intifada, decades of terrorism, rockets, October 7, and the persistent reality of Hamas, Iran, and other actors who have rejected coexistence. For them, security concerns are not abstractions or slogans. They are lived experiences.
That does not negate the realities you describe. But it does suggest that the challenge before us is broader than any one blind spot. Just as Israelis and American Jews must be willing to see Palestinian suffering, settlement expansion, and threats to democratic norms, critics of Israel must also be willing to see the history and experiences that have left so many Israelis fearful, hardened, and distrustful of promised solutions.
Perhaps the deepest lesson of your essay is that moral clarity does not come from choosing which realities to acknowledge. It comes from refusing to make any of them invisible.
The future will belong to those willing to see the village and the kibbutz, the Palestinian child and the Israeli hostage, the dangers of occupation and the dangers that gave rise to it. None of these truths cancels the others. All of them are part of the story.
Your points are well taken, Brad, and I wholeheartedly agree with them. And I condemn the depravity of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran in the absolute strongest of terms.
But Hamas and Hezbollah exist largely because of the suffering Israel has inflicted and keeps inflicting on Palestinians. Usually with American weapons of origin that were given and sent to Israel at the expense of the American taxpayers after the United States Congress was aggressively pressured and lobbied to support doing this by a political lobby consisting primarily of subversives who many times claim to speak for all American Jews.
The atrocities that Israel is perpetrating against Palestinians and the citizens of Lebanon, besides an unforgivable affront to Jewish values in and of themselves, are making Israel one of the most dangerous places in the world for Jews. And they are making it far more unsafe for Jews in the diaspora as well, due to the antisemitism they inflame.
Also, in no way it is in the national interest of the United States of America to finance and facilitate Israel’s egregious human rights violations.
Hence, J Street needs to endorse polices that make it so that the any weapons manufactured in the U.S. can’t be sent to Israel except those that are strictly defensive, like the Iron Dome missile interceptors, for example. The two amendments to a piece of legislation offered by Senator Bennie Sanders last month and the Block the Bombs Act in the House, which it took J Street over a year to endorse after it was first introduced in 2025, don’t go far enough any longer.
With the MICs of Israel and the United States about to merge, which will be nearly impossible to reverse once they do, the only way to do this is for the entire international community, including the United States, to impose crippling economic sanctions on Israel so that Israel cannot afford to purchase any weapons.
Also, very sadly, most Israeli Jews, due to how radicalized and dug in they have become, are going to have to experience extreme financial pain before they ever decide to mend ways and turn over a new leaf. Very similar to how Trump’s idiotic, insane, and immoral economic policies are leading many of his own 2024 voters to recognize the error of their ways, reassess their values somewhat, and turn on him.
David, thank you for such a thoughtful reply. I genuinely appreciate both the seriousness of your moral concerns and your willingness to engage in good faith.
I agree with much of what you write. Palestinian suffering is real. Occupation carries profound moral and political costs. Settler violence deserves condemnation. And democracies, including Israel, have an obligation to examine honestly what is done in their name.
Where I continue to wrestle is with the question of causation.
I have little difficulty accepting that suffering, displacement, humiliation, and the absence of a political horizon can contribute to radicalization. History gives us many examples. But I am less certain that movements such as Hamas and Hezbollah can be understood primarily through that lens.
Part of my hesitation is that these movements are not only reacting to events; they are also animated by ideas. Iran and its proxies have repeatedly articulated goals that extend beyond opposition to particular Israeli policies and toward the elimination of Israel itself. That does not negate Palestinian grievances, nor does it absolve Israel of responsibility for its own actions. But it suggests that ideology is not merely a consequence of the conflict. It is also one of the forces driving it.
Perhaps this is why so many of us find ourselves stuck in the same moral and strategic quagmire. Some see occupation as the primary cause and extremism as the consequence. Others see extremism as the primary cause and occupation as the consequence. I increasingly suspect the reality is more tangled than either explanation alone can capture.
Many Israelis who have become skeptical, fearful, and hardened are not blind to Palestinian suffering. They are carrying the memory of the Second Intifada, years of terrorism, rockets, and now October 7. Whether one agrees with their conclusions or not, those experiences are part of the story too.
What I value about your comment is that it asks us to see suffering that is too often ignored. My hope is that we can extend that same principle more broadly: to see Palestinian suffering without minimizing Israeli fears, and to understand Israeli fears without minimizing Palestinian suffering.
The challenge, it seems to me, is not determining which reality is true. It is learning how to hold several difficult truths in view at the same time. That may not resolve the conflict, but it feels like a necessary place to begin.
I could not have said it any better, Brad. You are so articulate, far more so than I. Yes, unquestionably, there are some Arabs and others who, even if Israel were complying with every letter of international humanitarian law, would want to see it wiped off the mat and Judenrein. I don’t deny that for a second; antisemitism is the oldest hatred in the world.
However, there would be far fewer of them out there if Israel were to start treating the Palestinians with respect and dignity and begin negotiating with them in good faith to resolve the conflict. Most Israeli Jews have zero interest in doing this. That’s why I proposed what I did, not to be cruel for the sake of being cruel.
David, thank you for this thoughtful exchange. I think we have found some common ground that matters.
There is real wisdom in what you wrote. Dignity matters. Human beings are less likely to embrace hatred when they can envision a future for themselves and their children. To the extent that Israelis and Palestinians can treat one another with greater humanity and engage in genuine good-faith efforts toward peace, I suspect that benefits everyone.
One Jewish principle that has been on my mind throughout this conversation is Pikuach Nefesh—the preservation of human life. Whatever our disagreements, I keep returning to the belief that human life must remain at the center of all of this.
Too many lives have been consumed by this conflict. Too many parents are mourning children. Too many children are growing up amid trauma, fear, and loss.
I suspect that beneath our different analyses lies a shared hope: that Israelis and Palestinians alike may someday live with dignity, security, and the recognition of one another’s humanity.
As the Torah teaches: U’vacharta ba-chayim—Choose life.
Amein Amen Ameen. Btw if you don’t know them the group doing the deepest healing work aligned with all you are saying is roots/shorashim/judur. http://Www.friendsofroots.net When the narrative changes to two indigenous people’s who have traumatized and been traumatized by each other I truly think a better future will emerge. ❤️🩹🙌🏽
Thank you for your kind words, Rachel. I had not heard of Roots before you mentioned it here. Do you know who funds the organization? Is it affiliated with the New Israel Fund?
FWIW, I am a monthly recurring donor to Standing Together, Combatants for Peace, and American Friends of the Parents Circle-Families Forum, three pro-peace organizations, two of which I believe are funded by NIF.
I'm pretty sure Hamas and Hezbollah exist because Islamism cannot countenance Jewish sovereignty in Jerusalem and Israel writ large? That's why there's endless talk about 1948, not 1967.
Surely there's something a little contradictory about saying how unseen these matters are and noting that the investigative report was aired on Israel Public Broadcast station?
This was one of the best essays I have seen. I lived in Israel back in the 70's and it was home to me. What Natenyahu's government has done in our name is a holocaust for the Palestinians. I cannot understand how our people after what we went through in World War 2; can do the same thing to another group of people. I so appreciate your perspective. Thank you.
Thank you, Adina, for your passionate and thought-provoking essay. Unfortunately, the essay underscores the very problem you address. You're preaching to the choir. Liberal Zionists have to vigorously broadcast this message to a larger audience. That's got to be the next challenge for JStreet: how to get these essays into the NYT and WSJ.
Thank you for this. I share your concern that democracies are endangered when armed groups operate without accountability, and I agree that those of us who love Israel have an obligation to confront realities that are uncomfortable rather than avert our eyes from them.
What resonated most with me was your central theme: the unseen. Democracies depend upon citizens who are willing to look honestly at what is being done in their name, especially when doing so is politically inconvenient or emotionally painful.
At the same time, I found myself reflecting on another category of the unseen. Many Israelis who have grown skeptical of the peace process did not arrive there because they are indifferent to Palestinian suffering. They arrived there through the Second Intifada, decades of terrorism, rockets, October 7, and the persistent reality of Hamas, Iran, and other actors who have rejected coexistence. For them, security concerns are not abstractions or slogans. They are lived experiences.
That does not negate the realities you describe. But it does suggest that the challenge before us is broader than any one blind spot. Just as Israelis and American Jews must be willing to see Palestinian suffering, settlement expansion, and threats to democratic norms, critics of Israel must also be willing to see the history and experiences that have left so many Israelis fearful, hardened, and distrustful of promised solutions.
Perhaps the deepest lesson of your essay is that moral clarity does not come from choosing which realities to acknowledge. It comes from refusing to make any of them invisible.
The future will belong to those willing to see the village and the kibbutz, the Palestinian child and the Israeli hostage, the dangers of occupation and the dangers that gave rise to it. None of these truths cancels the others. All of them are part of the story.
Your points are well taken, Brad, and I wholeheartedly agree with them. And I condemn the depravity of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran in the absolute strongest of terms.
But Hamas and Hezbollah exist largely because of the suffering Israel has inflicted and keeps inflicting on Palestinians. Usually with American weapons of origin that were given and sent to Israel at the expense of the American taxpayers after the United States Congress was aggressively pressured and lobbied to support doing this by a political lobby consisting primarily of subversives who many times claim to speak for all American Jews.
The atrocities that Israel is perpetrating against Palestinians and the citizens of Lebanon, besides an unforgivable affront to Jewish values in and of themselves, are making Israel one of the most dangerous places in the world for Jews. And they are making it far more unsafe for Jews in the diaspora as well, due to the antisemitism they inflame.
Also, in no way it is in the national interest of the United States of America to finance and facilitate Israel’s egregious human rights violations.
Hence, J Street needs to endorse polices that make it so that the any weapons manufactured in the U.S. can’t be sent to Israel except those that are strictly defensive, like the Iron Dome missile interceptors, for example. The two amendments to a piece of legislation offered by Senator Bennie Sanders last month and the Block the Bombs Act in the House, which it took J Street over a year to endorse after it was first introduced in 2025, don’t go far enough any longer.
With the MICs of Israel and the United States about to merge, which will be nearly impossible to reverse once they do, the only way to do this is for the entire international community, including the United States, to impose crippling economic sanctions on Israel so that Israel cannot afford to purchase any weapons.
Also, very sadly, most Israeli Jews, due to how radicalized and dug in they have become, are going to have to experience extreme financial pain before they ever decide to mend ways and turn over a new leaf. Very similar to how Trump’s idiotic, insane, and immoral economic policies are leading many of his own 2024 voters to recognize the error of their ways, reassess their values somewhat, and turn on him.
I rest my case, and I yield the floor.
David, thank you for such a thoughtful reply. I genuinely appreciate both the seriousness of your moral concerns and your willingness to engage in good faith.
I agree with much of what you write. Palestinian suffering is real. Occupation carries profound moral and political costs. Settler violence deserves condemnation. And democracies, including Israel, have an obligation to examine honestly what is done in their name.
Where I continue to wrestle is with the question of causation.
I have little difficulty accepting that suffering, displacement, humiliation, and the absence of a political horizon can contribute to radicalization. History gives us many examples. But I am less certain that movements such as Hamas and Hezbollah can be understood primarily through that lens.
Part of my hesitation is that these movements are not only reacting to events; they are also animated by ideas. Iran and its proxies have repeatedly articulated goals that extend beyond opposition to particular Israeli policies and toward the elimination of Israel itself. That does not negate Palestinian grievances, nor does it absolve Israel of responsibility for its own actions. But it suggests that ideology is not merely a consequence of the conflict. It is also one of the forces driving it.
Perhaps this is why so many of us find ourselves stuck in the same moral and strategic quagmire. Some see occupation as the primary cause and extremism as the consequence. Others see extremism as the primary cause and occupation as the consequence. I increasingly suspect the reality is more tangled than either explanation alone can capture.
Many Israelis who have become skeptical, fearful, and hardened are not blind to Palestinian suffering. They are carrying the memory of the Second Intifada, years of terrorism, rockets, and now October 7. Whether one agrees with their conclusions or not, those experiences are part of the story too.
What I value about your comment is that it asks us to see suffering that is too often ignored. My hope is that we can extend that same principle more broadly: to see Palestinian suffering without minimizing Israeli fears, and to understand Israeli fears without minimizing Palestinian suffering.
The challenge, it seems to me, is not determining which reality is true. It is learning how to hold several difficult truths in view at the same time. That may not resolve the conflict, but it feels like a necessary place to begin.
I could not have said it any better, Brad. You are so articulate, far more so than I. Yes, unquestionably, there are some Arabs and others who, even if Israel were complying with every letter of international humanitarian law, would want to see it wiped off the mat and Judenrein. I don’t deny that for a second; antisemitism is the oldest hatred in the world.
However, there would be far fewer of them out there if Israel were to start treating the Palestinians with respect and dignity and begin negotiating with them in good faith to resolve the conflict. Most Israeli Jews have zero interest in doing this. That’s why I proposed what I did, not to be cruel for the sake of being cruel.
Shavua Tov,
David Hurwitz
Chicago, IL
David, thank you for this thoughtful exchange. I think we have found some common ground that matters.
There is real wisdom in what you wrote. Dignity matters. Human beings are less likely to embrace hatred when they can envision a future for themselves and their children. To the extent that Israelis and Palestinians can treat one another with greater humanity and engage in genuine good-faith efforts toward peace, I suspect that benefits everyone.
One Jewish principle that has been on my mind throughout this conversation is Pikuach Nefesh—the preservation of human life. Whatever our disagreements, I keep returning to the belief that human life must remain at the center of all of this.
Too many lives have been consumed by this conflict. Too many parents are mourning children. Too many children are growing up amid trauma, fear, and loss.
I suspect that beneath our different analyses lies a shared hope: that Israelis and Palestinians alike may someday live with dignity, security, and the recognition of one another’s humanity.
As the Torah teaches: U’vacharta ba-chayim—Choose life.
Shavua Tov.
Amein Amen Ameen. Btw if you don’t know them the group doing the deepest healing work aligned with all you are saying is roots/shorashim/judur. http://Www.friendsofroots.net When the narrative changes to two indigenous people’s who have traumatized and been traumatized by each other I truly think a better future will emerge. ❤️🩹🙌🏽
Thank you for your kind words, Rachel. I had not heard of Roots before you mentioned it here. Do you know who funds the organization? Is it affiliated with the New Israel Fund?
FWIW, I am a monthly recurring donor to Standing Together, Combatants for Peace, and American Friends of the Parents Circle-Families Forum, three pro-peace organizations, two of which I believe are funded by NIF.
L’Shalom,
David
So well said. 1000% agree with it all. 💔🙏
I'm pretty sure Hamas and Hezbollah exist because Islamism cannot countenance Jewish sovereignty in Jerusalem and Israel writ large? That's why there's endless talk about 1948, not 1967.
Thank you Adina. A powerful message to all who remain silent for fear of creating division in our communities
The only comment I have is that I don’t know enough to comment.
As of now, I don’t really know what’s going on there
All the news seems to lean right or left
I’m well read ( I think)but I’m an old man and I really don’t know shit. I have opinions but that “ don’t mean nothin.”
I love the music of Beethoven and others but I’m sure that millions of people think that it’s crap. Nu, what can ya do?
The heartbreaking reality we must all see. Thank you for witnessing and posting. 💔🙌🏽
Surely there's something a little contradictory about saying how unseen these matters are and noting that the investigative report was aired on Israel Public Broadcast station?
Adina, I’ve never been to Israel. This is a very informative essay. I don’t understand WHY your sister said, “Most Israelis will never see
This documentary,” (which you said you were
Glad was in Hebrew). Could you please explain, WHY?? Do they not watch this TV
Channel? Do they not listen to news?? I don’t
Get it!
Thank you.
What a well written and powerful piece. Thanks for sharing your boots on the ground knowledge and wisdom.
Censorship here is off-the-wall. The truth will prevail!.
See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2015/12/31/is-israel-doomed/