[ ]J Street[ ]
Friends,

I’m deeply disturbed by the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

As reported in the New York Times, Israeli military officials warned their
superiors already days ago that “immediate steps were needed” to ensure
aid can be delivered “fast enough to prevent starvation.”

The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification report indicates
that 470,000 people in Gaza are now facing catastrophic hunger as the
entire population is grappling with acute food insecurity.

As the images and reports from Gaza grow increasingly dire, the moral
outrage in our community is growing. Anger is building at the Netanyahu
government for blocking all food, medicine and other necessities under the
false pretense that this advances the security of the Jewish State.

Reports that the Israeli government may soon change course offer some
hope, but such action must be significant and immediate to meet the scale
of this man-made crisis.

As President of the Union for Reform Judaism Rabbi Rick Jacobs wrote in
the Washington Post this week, “Israel must not help Hamas by sacrificing
its own morality.”

As Jews and as Americans, we know there can be no moral or strategic
justification for blocking humanitarian supplies from millions of
desperate civilians. Our people’s history and our values compel us to
speak out.

This cannot be what the Jewish State comes to stand for in the 21st
century.

The generations that follow us will be right to ask where we were as Gaza
was leveled, why we did not speak out and why we did not do what we could
to stop it.

This is first and foremost a human tragedy for families in Gaza of
unfathomable proportions. It’s also a moral and strategic tragedy for
Israel.

Security experts are united in their belief that a policy of deprivation
does nothing to end the war or free the hostages. Only a negotiated
agreement to end the war will bring the remaining hostages home and ensure
that necessary aid flows to Gaza.

It is also painfully clear that not only is this unethical course of
action not making Israel any safer, it is increasing its isolation
globally and costing Israel the support of ever-growing numbers of Jews
around the world who cannot fathom how using starvation as a weapon of war
can be justified in modern times.

As I wrote in my [ [link removed] ]Substack this weekend, flattening Gaza and displacing
more than two million people will be a moral stain not just on the State
of Israel but on the Jewish people. A stain that will not be easily
erased.

We stand with Israeli hostage families, ceasefire advocates and former
security officials in speaking out against this appalling policy. We urge
current security officials, who have acknowledged the catastrophic risks
privately in background conversations, to increase internal pressure and
to speak out publicly.

There is still time to prevent this man-made catastrophe from growing
worse.

Yours in hope,

Jeremy Ben Ami
President, J Street


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J Street is the political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy
Americans who want Israel to be secure, democratic and the national home of the
Jewish people. Working in American politics and the Jewish community, we
advocate policies that advance shared US and Israeli interests as well as Jewish
and democratic values, leading to a two-state solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.



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