Letters never sent

What I wish I would hear from American Jewish leaders

Today I woke up to the news that Israel launched a major attack on Iran overnight, a preemptive act of aggression so unwise that it literally took my breath away. This is the definition of militarism without winning strategy, the only achievable end being a major escalation of warfare that promises to harm civilians in Israel and the entire region and suck in American troops. As Murtaza Hussain reports:

“Both the Israeli and U.S. government, as well as our respective military and intelligence services, are fully aware that Israeli airstrikes on Iran are not going to successfully destroy the Iranian nuclear program. We are dealing with underground facilities dispersed over a large country, and human capital that knows how to rebuild things. At most, such attacks would set back progress for a period of months, or less than a year,” said Harrison Mann, a former U.S. army major and executive officer of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) for the Middle East/Africa Regional Center. “The only thing that you can really achieve by trying to bomb Iranian nuclear sites is to provoke a reprisal by Iran that helps escalate the situation into a larger war and draws in the United States. That’s what any purported effort to bomb away the Iranian nuclear program is actually aiming at.”

This is the act of a criminal Israeli government so intent on staying in power it would rather open up another front in a war that already includes Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon than recognize and deal with political and moral claims of Palestinians who happen to reside in the Promised Land. It comes at a time of Israel’s increasing diplomatic isolation and assumes the “America First” Trump administration will commit U.S. forces to a war no one other than Bibi and friends wants. It’s a very bad bet, for Jews and other living creatures.

Given this context, I was dismayed to see my inbox full of emails from Jewish communal leaders asking us to pray for Israel and the brave IDF soldiers sent to launch this potentially catastrophic mission. The problem is not praying that no one will be harmed; as readers know, I don’t like military solutions to political problems, and would much prefer all soldiers stayed in their beds instead of being fed into the gristmill of endless war. The problem is the rubber-stamping impulse of American Jewish leaders, who see it as their duty to support every move made by a fascist Israeli government no matter how idiotic, morally reprehensible, or counterproductive to Jewish security.

Tired of receiving such messages, I’ve decided to craft an alternative letter — the one I wished I found in my inbox this morning instead, one that revives the custom of internal criticism and rejects the instrumental use of our tradition by a criminal regime drunk on the power of the nation-state. It would go something like the following:

Dear members of the community,

I am sure that many of you are dismayed, as I am, that the Netanyahu government has unwisely decided to launch a major assault on Iran. While the purported aim of this preemptive strike is eliminating the Iranian nuclear program, military analysts are skeptical that such a goal is even possible given the underground nature of those sites, which makes them inaccessible to conventional weapons. Like many of you, I was hopeful at the return to negotiations between the U.S. and Iranian governments, and am furious at Israel for launching an operation that will make a diplomatic settlement harder to achieve.

Most immediately, it is agonizing to watch the brazen irresponsibility of a far-right government that seems to have no regard for the safety or well-being of Israelis. No one can have any doubt that Bibi would rather wage war in perpetuity than lose power and face the rightful consequences for his criminal behavior. But Israel does not have the strength to open up another front in a regional war, and its aggression will inevitably compel Iran to retaliate in what analysts fear will be a “mass causality” event. Like many of you, I have family in Israel who I care about deeply, and am despondent to see them held hostage to this government’s disastrous choices. As we know from history, fascist regimes tend to collapse and devour their own, an eventuality that should be of the utmost concern for American Jews.

Coming amid the genocidal campaign against the Palestinians in Gaza—which as of writing, has already killed or injured more than 50,000 children while failing to return all of the hostages—now is the time to bravely renounce the Netanyahu government and call on your elected officials in Washington to restrain it. In practice, that means calling for an end to U.S. shipments of offensive weaponry and using our country’s incredible diplomatic heft to bring the Netanyahu government first to heel, and then to justice. As observers have long noted, Israel cannot do what it does without American military and diplomatic cover, neither of which would exist in current form without the forceful advocacy of the American Jewish community. Our politicians will not change course until they feel the wrath of our community for enabling the Israeli government’s nihilistic pursuit of “peace” through endless war.

We all know that beneath everything—Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Yemen, and Iran—sits a political problem that has as yet proved insoluble through military means: Palestine was not an empty land when Zionist pioneers appeared on the scene. It is obvious that no people will consent to live permanently under siege and occupation, and that the decision to occupy and settle the West Bank and Gaza has led Israel to this potentially catastrophic tipping point. The history of occupations everywhere teaches us that people living under such conditions will inevitably rise up and resist, and that resistance will not always, or even often, be non-violent or restricted to military targets. This is a political problem, and the only way to ‘solve’ it militarily is through genocide, a moral stain that will last through the generations.

I know you are tired of this war, fearful of its blowback attacks on American Jews, and concerned about the safety of our people the world over. I know you are sickened to see the actions of the so-called Jewish state, so at odds with actual Jewish values and moral commitments to the sanctity of human life. Israel has been pursuing a losing strategy for decades, one that makes all of us less safe in the end. Real courage in this moment requires that we put away the rubber stamp and say no.