Cruelty, immorality, and destructiveness in the expansion of the war in Gaza

A few years ago, a journalist by the name of Adam Serwer wrote an important  book called Cruelty is the Point. It is a collection of essays that explains the historical background to the cruelty that the Trump administration is heaping upon so many groups in American society: immigrants, academics, medical researchers, federal workers in many fields, the poor and suffering in America and around the world. It is a powerful book, which explains how cruel slavery was in America for so long, and how much of  this cruelty remains in the American DNA.

In October,2018, Adam Serwer wrote about the cruelty of the previous Trump administration in The Atlantic:

The Trump era is such a whirlwind of cruelty that it can be hard to keep track. This week alone, the news broke that the Trump administration was seeking to ethnically cleanse more than 193,000 American children of immigrants whose temporary protected status had been revoked by the administration, that the Department of Homeland Security had lied about creating a database of children that would make it possible to unite them with the families the Trump administration had arbitrarily destroyed, that the White House was considering a blanket ban on visas for Chinese students, and that it would deny visas to the same-sex partners of foreign officials.

Imagine how much crueler the Trump administration is in its second term!

I have been thinking about this notion that “cruelty is the point”  in recent days as the Israel Offense Forces are launching an unprecedented series of cruel attacks on the Palestinians in Gaza. They are killing hundreds of Palestinians, mostly innocent civilians, including many women and children, every day. Rather than ending this war–which was justified at the beginning after the Hamas massacres and kidnappings of October 7^th, 2023– the government is pursuing a  war of choice which can no longer be called one of self-defense. Its current escalation comes at the expense of reaching an agreement, which could have been accomplished many times.

I just can’t get over the cruelty, immorality and insanity in this latest version of the war of revenge. It is affecting me—and many other people that I know in Israel and abroad—very badly.  It is an absolute shanda—the Yiddish word for shame and disgrace. I am deeply ashamed at my government and my army for what it is doing in Gaza right now.

There was some hope in the air last week that  Trump and Witkoff would prevent Bibi and his government from going forward with this unprecedented offensive when they were in the region. Every hour on the news here in Israel we were told that there was a chance of a break-through, that they would force Bibi to make a deal. But they have failed, as of now, once again.

They should have prevented him from relaunching the war in mid-March, after having helped us reach a cease-fire for two months and the return of 33 hostages. But they couldn’t stop him then, even though he had signed an agreement to move forward to stages two and three. Instead, they let Bibi and his fanatical government get away with violating a signed agreement, which they (Witkoff and Trump) took credit for arranging. Why? Why couldn’t they stop Bibi from continuing this senseless war in March? Or again now in May?

I thought that Mr. Trump was the great strongman who wants peace in the region and can simply make serious threats that other governments, like ours, are then supposed bow down and obey his dictates. But apparently, he and his team are not willing or able to overrule Bibi, Ben Gvir and Smotrich and the rest of the crazies in this government. Instead, they say nice things about wanting the war to end but in practice they allow it to continue and get worse all the time. Oh yes, starvation of the Palestinians in Gaza seems to bother them a bit, but they have done nothing to prevent it or ameliorate it. Instead, there is an urgent humanitarian disaster in Gaza, which America and Israel and not coping with in any serious way yet.

We are faced with an immoral, evil, and extremely cruel government in Israel, which is supported by a similar one in the USA.  This cruelty is not completely new, but it is now unprecedented in its scope. Actually, the governments of Israel have been behaving cruelly to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank for decades via military occupation, which includes daily humiliation at check-points, raids in homes in the middle of the night, home demolitions, unfair distribution of resources, such as water, and standing idly by when the hilltop youth rampage against Palestinians in the West Bank.  All this is well known and documented for a long time, but the Israeli government ignores it. On the contrary, the current government encourages not only the annexation of the West Bank but the forever war in Gaza, the expulsion of local Palestinians and the resettlement of the area by Jews.  And the cruelty has reached new extremes in Gaza and the West Bank in recent weeks.

This government is a moral stain on the Jewish people and on the citizens of Israel. It is totally obtuse to the will of the people, who want this war to end, the hostages brought home, and stability to be restored to the country. Its current military campaign in Gaza is no longer supported by the majority of Israel’s citizens. Its corrupt and immoral leaders are an embarrassment to the citizens of this county and to the world. Their cruelty and immorality should no longer be accepted by concerned Jews in Israel and around the world. The sooner that we are rid of this oppressive and obstructionist government, the better we will all be.

No one can remain silent any more in the face of the aggressive actions of the current Israeli government in their unprecedented escalation of this war. One can love Israel, as I do, but not this government, which must be denounced clearly and unequivocally right now for its horrendous policies and practices in the war in Gaza. For the sake of the future of Israel and the Palestinians.