Reform Jews: Gaza Ceasefire vs Gaza Surrender

Day 5 Hanukkah Letter to Reform Jews: “Gaza, Ceasefire vs Surrender” 

“Reform leaders of America – demand that Hamas surrender.” Reform rabbis and Reform Jews, let us be leaders of a united Jewish people.  Our people have not faced an existential threat of this nature since the Holocaust. This moment calls for the entire Jewish people to unite around one simple and overarching message.  Hamas must surrender. 

There is one outcome to Hamas’ war in Gaza that will produce peace, opportunity and hope for Israelis and for Palestinians. Reform Jews – now is the time to demand Hamas’ surrender.  Let’s say it together. In one voice.  Maybe we’re 15 months later than we wish, but it’s not too late.  

In February, 1948, David Ben Gurion spoke about Israel’s ‘capabilities’.  Could Israel, could the Jews defeat the massive Arab world, in a war of independence?  He said something like, “We don’t know what our capabilities are.  What we do know is that our capabilities are clearly related to our goals.  If we have limited goals, we will have limited capabilities.  If we have great goals, we will have great capabilities.” (Thank you Einat Wilf for sharing this.) 

Reform Jews, let us set for ourselves great goals.  Let us raise a powerful, relentless, invincible voice to the President and Congress of the United States.  Together, let’s demand Hamas’ surrender.  

The 3 Guarantees of Ceasefire

How can anyone who cares about the suffering of Palestinian children advocate for ceasefire?  Ceasefire guarantees three things:

a) generations of suffering and death for Palestinian children;

b) generations of a Hamas culture of martyrdom, a vile hatred of Jews and the celebration of children dying for the sake of dead Jews; and

c) war – ceasefire guarantees war. 

(Just since 2012, there have been 5 ceasefires with Hamas.  Each one produced the next war.  Go back to July 20, 1949.  On that day, leaders of 5 Arab countries publicly stated that “the next war is coming.”  Why is that date important?  July 20, 1949 was the day that Arab countries signed Armistice agreements with Israel, which the West pretended was the end of Israel’s War of Independence and the beginning of peace.)

Surrender – Is The Impossible Possible?

Who amongst us would have believed that Israel could bring about the mass devastation of Hezbollah and of Iran, and the fall of Syria?  Reform Jews, who are we to say that the deathcult of Hamas is more unbeatable than the deathcult of Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany?  Who are we to say that in comparison to the massive land mass and populations of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, the Gaza Strip is way more impossible to transform?  

Gaza is a tiny piece of land with a tiny population. All of its neighbors want the surrender of Hamas.  If the West can come together to defeat Naziism and the deathcult of Imperial Japan, the West can do the same with Gaza.  America occupied Germany for about a decade – transformation of Gaza will take a decade or more. Reform Jews, our grandchildren’s future demands that we try. 

Reform Jews – Let’s cry and fight for our entire Israeli family 

Ceasefires never end Israel’s wars.  They guarantee the wars of the future.  Reform Jews, can we stand with our Israeli family, even if only because the vast majority of our Israeli family believes that surrender is the only acceptable way to end this war?

Reform Jews, for 15 months, Israel has faced 2 horrific choices.  The first is – surrender to Sinwar and agree to a ceasefire, in exchange for hostages.  Returning hostages is a mitzvah of enormous importance.  Every Israeli knows this.  Israelis feel unbelievable support and solidarity with the hostage families.  Israelis know the unspeakable pain, fear, anger and rage of hostage families.  Israelis know how truly unthinkable it is to worry every second of every day about the well-being of a loved one in a Hamas terror dungeon. 

Israelis know another thing as well.  This war with Hamas is existential.  It cannot end with Hamas in power.  To our very bones, Israelis believe that this entire war will have been pointless if Hamas simply reconstitutes itself in a matter of months or years.  “Really, we sacrificed and suffered so much, just for another Hamas war!?!  Our children will go back into Gaza to do this all over again!?!”  Reform Jews, please, I beg you – embrace as well the sheer agony that  Israelis’ feel, over a Hamas that survives this war.  

At the heart of Reform Judaism is to hold with profound compassion all sides of a heartbreaking reality.  Aligning with hostage families on the one hand or instead with parents of young children who will be soldiers or children kidnapped in the years ahead – that’s not who we are.  At the heart of Reform Judaism is the commitment to holding and honoring both of these painful realities of our Jewish family.  The call of this moment is a powerful Jewish (and non-Jewish) movement demanding Hamas’ surrender.  Let’s not wait a day more.    

Surrender – Israelis should never release the next Sinwar from prison

I trust that not a single Reform Jew approves of Israel releasing the next Yahye Sinwar from prison. Do we know Sinwar’s history, the butcher of Gaza, the head of Hamas, the mastermind of October 7? In 1988, he was sentenced to 400 years in prison for murdering Israeli soldiers and for horrific brutality against Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel.  (Mosab Hassan Youseff, son of a Hamas founder, speaks about this very often.) 

Do we know that a Jewish, Israeli dentist discovered cancer in Sinwar’s brain and arranged for Sinwar a life-saving brain surgery.  Do we know that in 2011, PM Netanyahu released 1100 terrorists from Israeli jails, in exchange for one Jew, Gilad Shalit.  One of those 1100 terrorists was Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7 massacre.  Many of the commanders of October 7 were released by Prime Minister Netanyahu at the same time that he released Sinwar.  

Reform Jews, let us stand together and demand surrender.  Let’s say it out loud that no President of the United States should ever negotiate for hostages with the world’s most horrific monsters.  Surrender is the only choice that the US and the world must allow to Palestinians.  Palestinians have an incredible opportunity to finally reject Sinwar and Hamas’ ideology of death and martyrdom. 

America should honor Palestinians’ dignity.  Reform Jews we should be intense advocates for Palestinian dignity –  place the power over their lives directly in their hands.  Give them the opportunity to reject the barbarism and deathcult of Hamas and to embrace a future of peace and prosperity as neighbors of the Jewish State of Israel. 

War only ends when one side loses.  Peace does not begin until war ends.  (Einat Wilf’s words.) Surrender is what Palestinians in Gaza must do.  Surrender will be their greatest act of resistance – against the barbaric culture that has ruled them for 20 years. Free Palestine from Hamas and from the death cult that rules their lives.     

Surrender Means Rejection of All Rights of Return

For those who are asking – what does this Palestinian surrender look like?  First,  its happened before – Germany and Japan both signed an Instrument of Surrender.  We can be quite certain as well that Tal Becker and other experts in international law can answer this question quite well.  The “unconditional surrender” document will state explicitly: 

1. that every person who considers him/herself Palestinian recognizes that their sovereign, national state will never include Jewish Israel.  
2. no Palestinian had, has or will have a right of return to any part of the Jewish state, including the former home of a grandparent or great-grandparent, who fled in 1948.   
3. the rolls of 6 million fake refugees compiled by UNRWA are now and forever null and void; like 10’s of millions of refugees around the world, and like the 800,000 Jewish refugees who fled their Middle Eastern homes after 1948 – none have a right of return.  Neither do Palestinians.

Reform Jews, this is truly a path to peace.  Palestinians in Gaza will be given an incredible opportunity to build a prosperous and peaceful future for their children, exactly what so many of us Reform Jews believe that they, Palestinians, want for their children.  Surrender is the obvious and only solution.

Do we think they will surrender?  How do we understand Palestinianism, their driving ideology?  Come back for my next Hannukah post.