Gerard Leval
Within the Jewish community, criticizing a rabbi is a very precarious proposition. Challenging the statement of nearly 80 distinguished rabbis is a positively frightening prospect. Nonetheless, the extraordinary circumstance of so many Modern Orthodox leaders issuing a statement condemning Israeli behavior in a moment of national trauma compels just such an action.
On Aug. 20, 80 individuals identified as “Modern Orthodox,” most of them rabbis, released a lengthy statement to which they chose to attach the pretentious title of “A Call for Moral Clarity, Responsibility, and a Jewish Orthodox Response in the Face of the Gaza Humanitarian Crisis.” The statement contains a passing recognition of the evils of the Oct. 7 massacre but then proceeds to enumerate unsubstantiated allegations regarding the difficult conditions in Gaza, followed by strong condemnation of Israel’s actions, including because it is allegedly “allowing an entire people to starve,” an accusation that is patently false.
The basis for the statement appears to be the United Nations and mainstream press reports of widespread famine in Gaza. Yet, the accusations of a Gaza famine bandied about for nearly two years by these biased sources and vehemently denied by Israel remain largely unsubstantiated and seem to be pure anti-Israel propaganda. Furthermore, the statement has been issued just a few weeks before the gathering of the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, an event that is invariably epitomized by attacks on Israel, which will be fueled by this statement.
The premise of the statement barely stands up to even a cursory review. The repeated claims of the existence of a famine in Gaza have reverberated since the beginning of the Gaza war. If there actually has been a famine since that time, it would have been expected that much of the population of Gaza would already have been decimated and images of starving Gazans would have been exposed through mainstream and social media. But, despite the Hamas media machine churning at full bore, there have been very few images of starving Gazans and most of those images have been debunked and revealed as false.
Of course, there is violence and destruction in the midst of war. Only the most naive among us is unaware that war is physically and emotionally devastating. But responsibility for such devastation must be ascribed squarely to the initiator of the violence, not to the victim. To blame the victim, in this case, Israel, is assuredly a form of defamation.
In spite of this situation, the 80 self-identified Modern Orthodox leaders have chosen to launch accusations against Israel, charging that Israel has “responsibility for the profound suffering of Gaza’s civilian population.”
While it is unclear as to the precise motivation that prompted the many rabbis and others to issue and sign the statement, at least one signatory has explained his motivations to me. He has indicated that he was prompted by his concern that there has been an increasing belief among Jews that all Gazans are guilty and need to be punished, thereby depriving Jews of our role as compassionate beings. He has suggested that acknowledging the suffering of the Gazans will strengthen the basis of our support for Israel, because that support will not be seen as being “blind Zionism,” but rather as a moral imperative. Finally, he has argued that the anger against Israel throughout the world needs to be tamped down and, in his view, expressions of rabbinic disappointment with Israel might help bring this about.
It does not take a profound understanding of the world today to recognize that this reasoning is naive. First, assessing the guilt of Gazans is for another time. But let us remember that Gazans of all stripes have held and continue to hold Jewish hostages and refuse to relinquish the objective of destroying the Jewish state. Second, the war in Gaza cannot alter the link of the Jewish people to our homeland. Our prayers for a return to Zion have been integral to our Jewish observance for millennia and are not related to “blind Zionism.” Finally, tragically, it matters little to much of the world what Israel does; so long as Israel is perceived as powerful and victorious, it is reviled.
Supporting Israel’s efforts to free its hostages and end the threat posed by Hamas and its Islamist supporters is not a task for the faint of heart. It must certainly not be the platform for generating abstract moral lessons that can negatively affect the very survival of Israel.
The fact that 80 individuals, schooled in the intellectual and moral traditions of Judaism, many certified as such by their respective ordinations, would choose, at this perilous time, to publicly chastise Israel is the most disturbing element of all. It has given fodder to those who would harm the Jewish people (one need only read the Arab press).
To the extent that the assertions regarding an alleged famine and humanitarian crisis (beyond the exigencies of war as accepted both by halacha — Jewish law — and international law) are unverified, their dissemination is inappropriate. Such spreading of unfounded information is tantamount to lashon hara (gossip), a practice strictly forbidden by Jewish law. For rabbis and other leaders to engage in this practice is especially destructive.
If the authors of the statement were intending, as they rather disingenuously seem to suggest, to fulfill a perceived obligation of providing halachic advice to those in charge of the war in Gaza, then yet again they have failed in their mission. Such advice or counseling must be conducted in private and in the context of recognized Jewish legal principles. Those principles do not contemplate the giving of such advice through the airing of condemnatory public statements. Such unauthorized shaming is assuredly inconsistent with appropriate rabbinic comportment.
Finally, it must, sadly, be concluded that the issuance of the statement has the tone of unbridled sanctimony. The individuals who have arrogated to themselves the right to impose their moral judgment on those conducting the difficult and complex war in Gaza and have done so in such a public manner have displayed a measure of belief in their own moral superiority that is arrogant and destructive.
Whether Israel has demonstrated some moral failings in its struggle in Gaza is to be determined in the future. But in publicly castigating Israel, 80 religious leaders have themselves demonstrated a significant moral failing in the present. This is
truly tragic.
Gerard Leval is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of a national law firm.