We represent a diverse group of Israelis and Israeli-Americans from all walks of life, living in the Seattle area. We are writing to ask you, our local friends and neighbors, for your support in ending the war in Gaza.
As Israelis, we have an ear to the ground for the current mood in Israel: we speak and listen to our friends and family there, read the analyses and op-eds in Israeli newspapers, and participate in Israeli social media. As Seattleites, we have our other ear attuned to the mood here. We think that you are underestimating your power to stop the horrific loss of life in Gaza. A stronger, broader call from Americans for a ceasefire is necessary and overdue.
We were horrified, outraged, and saddened by the acts of Hamas and other militants on October 7, sadistically butchering hundreds of civilians, abducting over 200 people, and wiping out entire communities inside Israel. Many of our Seattle friends and neighbors have extended messages of sympathy to us. Their response is drawn from the humanity of October 7’s victims, not from their religions or nationalities; from the principle that all lives are precious. The US-supported Israeli response to the massacre should have been rooted in these values.
Instead, the Israeli operation in Gaza has turned into a bloodbath. The corrupt Israeli government, led by Benjamin Netanyahu and dominated by extremists, has exploited the war to distract Israelis from its failures in protecting border communities. Over 1% of Gaza’s total population has been killed, the vast majority of them women and children. As the war continues, nearly 200 more Gazans are killed every day. Over 10,000 children have died already, and thousands more have been maimed or orphaned.
A large proportion of the Gaza Strip’s buildings have been damaged and destroyed, including all its university campuses. The health system is shattered. Gaza’s residents have been forced to live without electricity and clean water for nearly four months. The vast majority are internally displaced, crammed into tinier and tinier areas, and subsisting on insufficient food.
Israel’s government claims that it is not intentionally causing this horrific level of death, suffering, and destruction, but this is incompatible with the results on the ground, and it contradicts numerous atrocious statements by senior Israeli leaders. This has led the International Court of Justice to decide with an overwhelming majority that Gaza’s population is at genuine risk of genocide and must be protected.
The Israeli public is now showing some potential for stopping the bloodshed. In recent weeks there has been growing protest and outrage against the government. These protests are driven mostly by concern for Israeli hostages: months of intense military action have not only failed to release the hostages, but actually killed quite a few. Mothers of soldiers, seeing their loved ones placed in harm’s way for dubious aims, have also organized in protest. Some Israelis have bravely broken ranks and spoken out directly against the slaughter of Gazans. They include relatives of UW graduate Dr. Hayim Katsman, murdered on October 7.
Although the vast majority of Israelis hold Prime Minister Netanyahu responsible for the failures of October 7 and expect him to resign eventually, many are willing to wait until after the war. The government now operates under a perverse incentive to prolong the war, buying Netanyahu time to salvage his political career, and creating opportunities for his Jewish-supremacist coalition partners to implement their ethnic cleansing plans.
Past Israeli military adventures have ended mostly because of pressure from the United States on the Israeli government. However, this war has seen an unprecedented duration and intensity of US support. Some of it has been heartwarming, such as Biden’s personal October visit to Israel. But most has been disheartening and damaging: The massive shipment of weapons and ammunition despite civilian carnage in Gaza, the shameful parroting of Israeli propaganda talking points later exposed as false, the meaningless lip-service and sometimes even callousness towards Palestinian civilian lives, the diplomatic stonewalling and watering-down of international action followed by a refusal to hold Israel accountable to even the most watered-down decisions, such as safe corridors and increasing humanitarian aid. More than ever before, in this war the US has been complicit, and it is seen internationally as culpable for Israel’s actions.
In our experience, President Biden’s overall domestic and international policy track record until this war had been relatively enlightened and positive. This makes his Administration’s Gaza war actions even more troubling. What has happened?
We are worried that the high-stakes 2024 election may be clouding the Administration’s judgment and dissuading it from taking effective steps to stop the bloodshed. While the Administration might worry about losing pro-Israel voters to the right, its infuriating behavior is bleeding support from a growing pro-Palestinian contingent and from young voters—both increasingly crucial Democratic voter blocs. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, it is high time that President Biden simply do the right thing: stop this war and make sure it does not resume.
Israel still has other means to resolve its struggle with Hamas. They should absolutely not include destroying the Gaza Strip and pushing its residents to the brink of annihilation. There is now talk of a second hostage-release deal with an associated pause in fighting. The US must not let the bloodshed continue as negotiations drag out–and must not allow the bloodshed and destruction to resume after a brief lull, as had happened in December. Despite rhetoric to the contrary, the US does retain substantial leverage over Israel, if only due to the rate at which the latter is using up its ammunition.
Our duty does not end there: as UN Secretary António Guterres has said, this war is not happening in a vacuum. For two generations we have forced a racist occupation regime upon Palestinians–Israel directly, and the US as chief enabler. In particular, Gaza’s entire population has been living in an open-air prison for nearly 20 years. This was never a recipe for security; it has always been a travesty waiting to turn into catastrophe. The occupation regime must end, once and for all.
A loud and clear demand from ordinary Americans can be a crucial wake-up call, which will help to untie the Biden Administration’s hands and push for an end to the indiscriminate violence. A complete stop to the war is imperative before many more civilians are killed and before this war explodes into a full-blown regional conflict.
We ask you to tell the White House, our US Senators, and other key officials, that the slaughter of civilians in Gaza is an intolerable abomination that must immediately stop, together with a safe return of all hostages. Please also put our leaders on notice that you expect the US to engage fully in persistent diplomatic efforts towards a just peace and an end to the occupation. Please encourage friends and relatives elsewhere in the US to do the same. Please channel the energies, civic involvement, and the organizing skills this region’s citizenry is renowned for to help chart a different future for Israel-Palestine.
Yoni Kallay, a local software developer, was born in Jerusalem and raised in Bellevue.
Zehava Chen-Levy is a clinical chemist and UW Medical School faculty emerita. Born and raised in Israel, she received her PhD from the Weizmann Institute and was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University.
Gad Levy is a Seattle resident, born and raised in Israel. An I.D.F. veteran, he has been active, founding member and coordinator of several human rights and Israeli-Palestinian dialogue groups.
Hadar Iron is an architect and ceramicist. Her Master’s thesis was about the borderline between Israel and Palestine, expanding the Line into a mediating crossing Zone. After working at Frank Gehry in LA and architecture firms in Seattle, she founded InFerment Ceramic Studio.
Ra’anan David grew up in Israel, moved to Seattle in 1986 after mandatory military service, was active in some local and national groups, and is urging themselves and others to resume activism.
Assaf Oron is a health statistician at UW. Raised in Jerusalem, he was sent to Gaza numerous times as an Occupation infantry soldier. In 2001 he pledged to refuse to serve the Occupation.
Yes, Hamas should immediately cease-fire, release all hostages, and evacuate all military resources from inside/underneath civilian infrastructure in Gaza.
As the US Congress and President cannot directly compel Hamas to take these actions, they should pressure international police and banking regulators to throttle the flow of weapons and money to Hamas. When foreign nationals are found sending arms and money to Hamas, the U.S. and allies should seek extradition and prosecution of these individuals, and meantime refuse to accept their passports for entry. In any cases where the governments of countries where these suspects reside refuse to extradite them, the leaders of those governments can also receive passport refusals.
I fully agree all citizens of the United States request their representatives, senators, and administration to advocate the above measures.
Meanwhile, as the lone multi-ethnic democracy in the region, Israel should continue to receive full support from the United States in destroying Hamas on the ground in Gaza.
Hamas, whom was and is certainly not liked by the majority of Palestinians in Gaza, broke the ceasefire back on October 7. And again and again since.
How does a unilateral cease-fire by Israel at this time cause the Iran-backed Hamas to suddenly want to stop trying to violently destroy Israel?
Organizing to call for Hamas to stop forcing their own friends, family and neighbors to be human shields is the more pressing humanitarian effort here.
@1 but the US can compel Hamas to do those things. Hamas will do that as soon as Israel does the same. That’s why Biden can end this with one phone call to Bibi.
Also Israel is not a Democracy any more than Mississippi was before the voting rights act or South Africa in 1989
@2 there was not a ceasefire on October 7th. There was an Israeli siege of occupied Gaza, which was prevented from accessing its own international waters or be shot (Mavi Marmara incident 2010 the most notable example) and Israel promised to end this blockade in every previous ceasefire (2009, 2012, 2014, 2021) but always broke that promise.
Then they shot peaceful protestors in the 2018-19 Great Return March
Everyone wants a permanent ceasefire. They just differ on the terms they are willing to accept to have one.
@3: “Also Israel is not a Democracy any more than Mississippi was before the voting rights act or South Africa in 1989”
Arab Israelis are the single largest minority group in Israel. Not only do they vote, some serve in the Knesset.
Thanks for telling us all about the rest of your comment’s connection to reality.
@3: really? 1 phone call to Netanyahu and it’s over? that’s not how things work.
yeah well here’s why me, a white american dude on the internet with no ties to the middle east, thinks you’re wrong
I agree, Hamas should unconditionally surrender and release all the hostages.
@3 “Hamas will do that as soon as Israel does the same.”
No they will not. Their leaders have given countless interviews and pretty openly stated they will never stop until Israel is wiped from the map.
“There was an Israeli siege of occupied Gaza, which was prevented from accessing its own international waters or be shot”
and why was Israel compelled to monitor Hamas so closely? Is it because they spent countless millions digging tunnels throughout their territory in preparation for drawing Israel into a conflict. Why is Egypt exempt from your condemnation? After all they were part of this siege as well. This conflict is never going to end as long as there are people like you who believe Hamas’ actions are in response to Israel when in reality it is exactly the opposite.
Thank you for doing three things in this editorial:
1. Referring to this as a war and not as “genocide,” which to date has been this publication’s default term for these ugly, tragic, horrifically violent events that are nevertheless not genocide.
2. Acknowledging the horror and provocation of the October 7th attacks.
3. Explicitly describing a desired outcome to this conflict wherein the state of Israel continues to exist.
I still haven’t come around to your position, but at least you made me think about it.
Gaza Death Toll Tops 27,300;
Palestinian Doctor Describes
Torture During Israeli
Imprisonment
“The torture was very severe in Israeli prisons. I am a doctor. My weight was 87 kilograms. I lost, in 45 days, more than 25 kilograms of my weight. I lost my balance. I lost focus. I lost all feeling.
We were shackled for 45 days, handcuffed for 45 days. However you describe the suffering and insults in prison, you can never know the reality unless you lived through it.”
–Dr. Said Abdulrahman Maarouf
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/2/5/headlines/gaza_death_toll_tops_27_000_palestinian_doctor_describes_torture_during_israeli_imprisonment
‘Torture’?
we the People
tortured a Lotta
Peeps in OUR little
‘self-Financing!’ Wars
on Afghaniis & Iraqiis* so
that must make it Okay, right?
and
Brown Univ. Students on Hunger Strike
to Demand Divestment from Arms
Makers Supplying Israel
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/2/5/headlines/brown_univ_students_on_hunger_strike_to_demand_divestment_from_arms_makers_supplying_israel
*1/2 a MILLION
DEAD IRAQI
CHILDREN?
‘a Price we’re
willing to
Pay.’
–then Sec of State
Madeline Albright on
whether the Blockade on
Iraq was ‘worth it.’ they’re just
kids but it’s okay when We do it
bush launched his and Cheney’s
little Fiasco* in the Desert under
the Largest Protests in this
Planet’s Six Bilion year
History. we may hafta
Say It a little More
Strongly this time.
Ceasefire
NOW.
end
the
MADNESS.
*one of ’em
anyway
“More than ever before,
in this war the US has been complicit,
and it is seen internationally as culpable for Israel’s actions.”
a Wonderful clear-
eyed Look at the Insanity
Propelled by OUR TAX DOLLARS
thank you!!!
A formal offer of surrender by Hamas’s isolated leadership would likely mean nothing and change nothing. Its forces on the ground would surely regard any order to lay down their arms as suspect at best, and would likely ignore it. Netanyahu would likewise dismiss it as a ruse. This isn’t WW2. No one surrenders in a modern war.
Anyway, these are pro-Israel, Jewish, Israeli nationals talking — some of them IDF veterans. Please consider that maybe, just maybe, they know a few things about Israel that most of the rest of us don’t.
The Stranger and the rest of the ceasefire-only-for-Israel crowd have banged on for almost four months now, without effecting any change in either the situation on the ground in Gaza, or in public opinion within the United States. There are several reasons for their total failures.
First, President Biden has no real leverage over Israel. US aid to Israel constitutes a tiny fraction of that country’s leverage, and Israelis correctly see themselves as fighting an existential struggle with Hamas. They’re not going to stop attacking Hamas, no matter how many sternly worded telephone calls @3 wants Biden to make.
Second, even if President Biden was foolhardy enough to threaten Israel with loss of aid, Congress would immediately ensure his was an obviously empty threat. You see, each member of Congress knows perfectly well: whether the district has 100 Jews or 100,000 Jews, pretty much every last one will send Congress messages supportive of Israel. (And no, a half-dozen dissident Jews complaining in the Stranger will make absolutely no difference.)
Third, everyone who wants to know already knows Hamas picked this fight, Hamas uses Gazans for human shields, and Hamas opposes pretty much every belief held by anyone in the West who is not a literal fascist. So while the loss of life in Gaza is tragic, eliminating Hamas takes precedence.
Now, as for eliminating Hamas, we can either continue letting the IDF destroy Hamas, with continuing loss of civilian lives in Gaza, or we can start throttling Hamas, as already described @1.
Speaking of
“protests”
nyt:
Group in Michigan
Urges Protest Vote Against
Biden Over Israel-Gaza War
The Democratic group is telling voters
to mark “Uncommitted” on their primary ballots.
An NBC News poll released Sunday found just 29 percent of voters approved of Mr. Biden’s handling of the war between Israel and Hamas — including just 15 percent of voters younger than 35.
The group’s website is blunt.
“Tell Biden, count me out
for genocide,” it reads.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/06/us/politics/biden-michigan-israel-gaza.html
yeah
but it’s
not Real Genocide:
it’s
just
genocide Lite!
it’s NOT all about
your “feelings”!
poor
deluded
Children.
the ICJ
gave Israel
just thirty days
they’e gonna
Genocide the FUCK*
outta Gazans till they get overruled
*only 10%!
What Israeli Soldiers’ Videos Reveal:
Cheering Destruction and Mocking Gazans
An analysis of social media videos
found Israeli soldiers filming themselves
in Gaza and destroying what appears to be civilian property.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/06/world/middleeast/israel-idf-soldiers-war-social-media-video.html
just the
Natural Exhuburance
Of Soldiers? Or yet even More
War Crimes?
so Hard to
tell the Difference!
put an END
to BiBii’s
Reign of
Terrorism.
there
is NO
“justification”
for Terrorism. fucking EVER.
well-put
wormy.
well
put.
@18: Awwww, not even the Stranger abuses the term, “genocide,” any more. You must be feeling lonely, having to go further and further to scrounge up abuses of it to justify your own.
(Please explain how your definition differs from the ICJ’s definition? Because you’ve invoked both in this comment.)
@19: You’re right, there is no excuse for the acts described by the New York Times. These should all be investigated as war crimes, just like the American war crimes committed at Abu Ghraib in Iraq. But these are not “terrorism,” because there is no intent of changing a government’s policy by deliberately targeting civilians. (You know, what Hamas did in Israel on 10/7.
It’s cute how people think Biden has any influence over Netanyahu or that either of them care at all about what these folks want.
@21 Biden absolutely does have influence, maybe due less to the money than to the fact that the U.S. is Israel’s main (and often only) defender in the U.N. and other global and Western institutions whose approval (or at least acquiescence) Israel desperately craves. Israel’s original, publicly stated plan for the Gaza invasion included a total siege on the civilian population — no food, no water, no fuel or medicine, no aid of any kind. Biden made it clear he wouldn’t defend such a tactic, and Netanyahu abandoned it. The administration also appears to have dissuaded a “pre-emptive” strike on Hezbollah.
Now, could Biden actually bring about a durable cease-fire by threatening to stop vetoing U.N. resolutions condemning Israel? I honestly don’t know if that would work. But he certainly should try, and at the very least it would force Netanyahu into some very difficult but necessary decisions he has been trying his best to avoid.
@22: Whether Biden has much influence at all with Bibi, the Israeli population understands they are engaged in an existential fight with the genocidal terrorists known as Hamas. They will fight to destroy Hamas in Gaza for as long as it takes.
Anyone outside of Israel who wants to end the humanitarian disaster in Gaza should be demanding we throttle Hamas from the outside, whilst Israel destroys it within Gaza. That will end this war faster.