Gaza Constitutes the Greatest Jewish Spiritual Crisis Since the Holocaust - Beinart
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David Seidenberg
May 28, 2025, 11:59:37 PMMay 28
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Peter Beinart wrote on Monday: "Gaza Constitutes the Greatest Jewish Spiritual Crisis Since the Holocaust".
I didn't think even until recently that we would get to that depth, but I believe we have, and I believe he's right.
I grew up thinking Jews hadn't behaved like Muslims and Christians at their worst, who act like life is cheap, because we had better moral education and character formation, better Torah/teachings about the sanctity of life and the image of God in every person. Better ways of making all the people good, not just the most sensitive people.
Nope - from where we stand today, it looks like we didn't behave that way just cause we didn't have power. Power corrupts, and the power of the state absolutely corrupts. It corrupts moral education, it corrupts moral thinking, it makes cruelty tahor (makes it kosher). It turns out that not having such power is what kept us morally "pure" (relatively speaking).
And the cruelty is to "our own people" as well. The hostages left in Gaza have been abandoned to die by this government as collateral fodder, just as much as the children of Gaza are collateral fodder.
"Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but my people are given over to cruelty." (Lam 4:3)
Yes, Israel has one of the biggest anti-war movements by percentage of the population ever seen. And it still doesn't stop a majority from arguing why enforced starvation is not Israel's fault and not Israel's responsibility to fix. Why killing so many innocents is just fine as "business as usual".
Perhaps our soul as a people will re-emerge. The protest movement is a sign that there is goodness there still. But it will not emerge intact.
I could argue for a Zionism that is progressive, humanistic, open to what was the only just solution, a binational state. But at a certain point, that does not matter. This is what we have, not that.
In 2008, Rabbi Menachem Froman and journalist Khalid Amayreh brokered a full ceasefire agreement accepted by Hamas. Israel's government refused to meet with them, refused to look at or respond to it. We never had to be here today where we are. This was not inevitable.
Hamas viciously murdered Israeli citizens and residents of all religions and races on October 7. Nothing will change how deadly sinful and horrifying and damnable that was. But Israel could have stopped that beforehand, not just militarily. It could also have responded more effectively and judiciuously. It chose not to.
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I didn't think even until recently that we would get to that depth, but I believe we have, and I believe he's right.
I grew up thinking Jews hadn't behaved like Muslims and Christians at their worst, who act like life is cheap, because we had better moral education and character formation, better Torah/teachings about the sanctity of life and the image of God in every person. Better ways of making all the people good, not just the most sensitive people.
Nope - from where we stand today, it looks like we didn't behave that way just cause we didn't have power. Power corrupts, and the power of the state absolutely corrupts. It corrupts moral education, it corrupts moral thinking, it makes cruelty tahor (makes it kosher). It turns out that not having such power is what kept us morally "pure" (relatively speaking).
And the cruelty is to "our own people" as well. The hostages left in Gaza have been abandoned to die by this government as collateral fodder, just as much as the children of Gaza are collateral fodder.
"Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but my people are given over to cruelty." (Lam 4:3)
Yes, Israel has one of the biggest anti-war movements by percentage of the population ever seen. And it still doesn't stop a majority from arguing why enforced starvation is not Israel's fault and not Israel's responsibility to fix. Why killing so many innocents is just fine as "business as usual".
Perhaps our soul as a people will re-emerge. The protest movement is a sign that there is goodness there still. But it will not emerge intact.
I could argue for a Zionism that is progressive, humanistic, open to what was the only just solution, a binational state. But at a certain point, that does not matter. This is what we have, not that.
In 2008, Rabbi Menachem Froman and journalist Khalid Amayreh brokered a full ceasefire agreement accepted by Hamas. Israel's government refused to meet with them, refused to look at or respond to it. We never had to be here today where we are. This was not inevitable.
Hamas viciously murdered Israeli citizens and residents of all religions and races on October 7. Nothing will change how deadly sinful and horrifying and damnable that was. But Israel could have stopped that beforehand, not just militarily. It could also have responded more effectively and judiciuously. It chose not to.
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