Message From The Rabbi

Rabbi Spike Anderson

Dear Temple Emanu-El,

Like many of you, the news coming from Gaza, and how this situation is being covered, bothers me to the extreme.  It is hard to navigate agendas to find what is actually happening.   It is even harder to see a way through this awful situation.

A few things that seem to be true:

1. Food insecurity is a very real thing in Gaza, and for many, it is at a dangerous level.
2. Hamas has weaponized ‘hunger’ as a weapon in its asymmetric warfare.
3. The numbers that are reported from the ‘Palestinian Health Ministry’ are numbers that literally are from Hamas.  They have a long history of exaggerating and lying for media consumption.
4. The optics for Israel (and by proxy, Jews) are heart-wrenching.
5. New methods, including compromises that go against the long-term Israeli objectives for the Gaza war, are being considered.  This includes more ‘airdrops’ for food, which experts suspect will just continue Hamas’ practice of taking it for themselves at gunpoint.

Here are a few things to consider:

1. There are tons of food on the Israeli border in trucks ready to be distributed, but the mechanics of how to do this without Hamas taking it, or crowds presenting danger to the distributors and each other, presents a quagmire.  This does not seem to be an issue of ‘try harder’, but rather, ‘how can this be done’ without re-empowering Hamas? 
2. The United Nations continues to be useless (if not an obstacle) in this situation.
3. The same Hamas that is eager to put the lives of their non-combatants on the line (i.e.-firing rockets from schools/hospitals) has even less compunction for using Gazans through starvation.  This should not surprise anyone.  Starvation (at some level) is happening, but it is caused by (and benefited from) Hamas.  Not Israel. 
4. There are negotiations that revolve around hostage return and a cease-fire, which are influenced by the manipulation of these stories.  ‘Spin’ is not ‘truth’, and when we view Israel, and our Jewish selves, we need to keep this very much in mind.

Recently, there has been significant talk in Israeli society that the parties that will be challenging Netanyahu in the next elections need to have a platform that goes beyond ‘anyone but Bibi’.  In the zeitgeist are propositions that this is the right time (while society is in flux) to talk about major educational reform within Israeli society.  The push-back, at first, is ‘how can we talk about anything while Gaza is still unfolding?’  The answer seems to be that Israel (and us) need to start thinking about the future, even while simultaneously trying to figure out Gaza.  This is a very Jewish approach: in the midst of crisis, make sure to really plan for better days in the near future. 

Gaza will not solve itself.   I do not have the answers.  I do know that re-empowering Hamas would be extremely bad for Israel and catastrophic for the Palestinians.  Raising our eyes to see the possibility of the days (may they be soon) when we are past this tough time is a form of prayer, and perhaps of defiance.  As bad as things may be, we will not be shackled to any moment in time, or news cycle, malicious agenda, or even tragedy.   We have been through too much...  

May the resilience and ingenuity of the Israeli public, and the Jewish people, help us withstand the heaviness of the moment and lift us towards a hopeful future.

Kayn yehiyeh ratzone/May it be God’s will.