Israel must not let Gaza's people starve - opinion

On Tuesday, March 19, a front-page article in The Jerusalem Post reported that extreme food shortages in parts of the Gaza Strip exceeded famine levels. Mass death by starvation was imminent unless there was a surge of food to areas cut off by fighting. This assessment was issued by the Integrated Food-Security Phase Classification (IPC), a worldwide monitor of the food situation whose reports are generally relied on by United Nations agencies.

The Post has carried stories with warnings of imminent famine but also reported IDF responses that the state of food deprivation was not as reported and that famine was not imminent. The March 19 article carried no response from the IDF and no denial from any Israeli authority. Therefore, although the report is from a UN-accepted source and the United Nations is notoriously hostile to Israel and often unfair in its reports on the Jewish state, we must assume that the shocking report is substantially true.

The only official Israeli response to the information in the article was to a statement by European Union foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell that “Starvation is used as a weapon. Israel is provoking famine.” Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz responded that Borrell “should stop attacking Israel and recognize our right to self-defense against Hamas’s crimes.”

This article is written by an oleh (new immigrant) and committed Zionist who actively supports Israel’s war of self-defense. I have published articles that Israel is living up to the highest standards of law and morality in warfare. This is proven by such facts as that in the Gaza War, the ratio of civilian deaths to fighters killed is only 1.5 civilians to 1 fighter.

This is a historically unprecedented low ratio, much better than the ratios achieved by Allied forces fighting in Afghanistan or Iraq and certainly much lower than the ratios reached in World War II by the Allies. However, inflicting mass starvation on a civilian population is not a legitimate act of self-defense.

It makes no difference that, as Katz said, Israel allowed “extensive humanitarian aid into Gaza by land, air and sea for anyone willing to help” but that the aid was “violently disturbed” by Hamas operatives with “collaboration” by the UN’s aid agency, UNRWA. 

Hamas seizing food and fuel 

We know that Hamas has seized food and fuel going into Gaza and used them for its own fighters while denying the Palestinian civilians of Gaza their desperately needed aid. We also know that Hamas fires on and kills Palestinians gathering to receive aid in order to prevent others from delivering food and thus keep its monopoly on food distribution. But Hamas’s cruel and heartless behaviors, condemning Gazans to suffering and death, do not get Israel off the hook.

Since the coming famine situation was made possible by Israel’s legitimate war on Gaza, Israel must take action to prevent mass starvation. If this requires a temporary ceasefire and Israel delivering and distributing the food, then so be it. If such actions handicap Israel and weaken its ability to finish off Hamas now, then this is the sad but necessary action that must be taken. After the famine is averted, Israel can resume its legitimate war to eradicate Hamas and end its threat to the lives of Israel and Jews.

Mass starvation of human beings violates the moral code in military activities which Israel has upheld in the seventy-five years of its existence. The Jewish state has maintained the highest standards of moral behaviors in war – despite being attacked by enemies denying its right to exist and who, in some cases, openly professed their desire to commit genocide against Israelis. The present government has no right to betray Israel’s national ethical code because of its internal political dynamic and desire to hold onto power.

Causing unavoidable civilian casualties is a tragic but inescapable and morally defensible tactic in Israel’s current existential war of self-defense. But mass starvation does not target Hamas’ fighters. They will take any food that is in Gaza for themselves. Mass starvation attacks the civilian population primarily, and mostly kills the weak, the impoverished and the vulnerable people who cannot fend for themselves, especially children. As a Jewish and democratic state, Israel cannot allow this to happen even if this means fighting Hamas with one hand tied behind its back (at least temporarily).

It is particularly disturbing to hear that the internal pressure exacted by religious voters-based parties (such as Religious Zionist Party and Otzma Yehudit) are pushing the government to inflict more damage on Palestinians and to hold back humanitarian aid. Allowing this tragedy to occur would leave an indelible historic stain on Jewish religion. 

The Talmud speaks of certain acts/policies that are unforgivable because they are a chillul Hashem, a desecration of God’s name i.e. of our religion. It defines such an act as one in which people who hear of it would say “I want to have nothing to do with a God or a religion that allows such behaviors.” This is exactly what decent people will say if they hear that Israel, by action or inaction, starved thousands of Palestinians to death. This sin will be worse than desecration of the Divine name because it would bring shame and an evil reputation on the Jewish people as well.

Allowing such a cruel fate to be inflicted on Palestinians also would be a particular violation of Jewish ethics based on memory of Jewish history. The Torah instructs us to be particularly caring of strangers’ lives and of vulnerable people because we were oppressed as outsiders and vulnerable people in the land of Egypt. In the past century, Jews were tortured and murdered through mass starvation during the Holocaust. We should be doubly sensitive and proactive to assure that “never again” is this fate inflicted on any people – however we may be angry and harmed by them or their governing group.

This issue is more than a moral one. Throughout the world – and in the United States in particular – there is widespread support for Israel because of its humanistic practices and its democratic values, and because it has always occupied the moral high ground. Mass starvation of Palestinians could turn millions of people against the Jewish state. This loss of support could undermine the security of Israel and threaten its existential support among Western powers.

To complain that Israel is being demanded to live by a higher standard than other nations or to urge that it defy world opinion because it is unfair or biased against us, would be no consolation – or help – in the face of a catastrophic fall in legitimacy and in upholding Israel’s right to exist.

Even if this prediction of mass starvation turns out to be another UN-aided false defamation of Israel, the government of Israel must act decisively now to turn it into a false prophecy of doom. Jewish life and Jewish honor are at stake. This is no time for bystanding or half measures.

The writer is a theologian and ethicist and the author of The Triumph of Life: A Narrative History of Jews and Judaism (Jewish Publication Society, forthcoming).