Tisha B’Av in Gaza for Good News and Bad Acts

Tisha B’Av is the one day on the Jewish calendar when the topic of the unrestrained hatred of other Jews (sinat khinam) should be central; because our sages say that both Jerusalem and the Second Temple were destroyed because of Jewish sectarian extremist hatred (sinat khinam); like that which in our days, killed Yitzchak Rabin.

Unpacking that Jewish collective cardinal sin of sinat khinam should become Tisha B’Av’s central theme because when one attaches to “hatred” the growing instances of racism, intolerance and ultra-nationalism in Israeli society the danger of history repeating itself is growing. Now the good news of the New York Declaration will spark terrible political conflicts in Israel.

For the first time the entire Arab League has condemn Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion of Israel, and urges Hamas to disarm, at a 2-state UN conference. Arab and Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey, signed a declaration condemning for the first time Hamas’s onslaught of October 7, 2023, and calling on the Palestinian terror group to release all the hostages it is holding, disarm and end its rule of Gaza, in a bid to end the war in the Strip.

The “New York Declaration” sets out a phased plan to end the nearly eight-decade conflict and the ongoing war in Gaza. The plan would culminate with an independent, demilitarized Palestine living side by side peacefully with Israel, and their eventual integration into the wider Middle East region. The timeframe for achieving a Palestinian state is 15 months.

The “New York Declaration” text condemned the deadly Hamas-led October 7 assault on Israel, when some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage — of whom 50 are still held, most of them not alive — and which sparked the war in Gaza. It marks a first condemnation by virtually all Arab nations of the attack.

Public support among Israelis for a two-state solution has reached a new low, with only 21% believing that a peaceful coexistence between Israel and a future Palestinian state is possible, according to a new poll by Pew Research Center released on June 3, 2025. Among Jewish Israelis, the results are even more stark: only 16% believe peaceful coexistence is achievable. Arab Israelis are more hopeful, with 40% hoping a two-state future is possible.

The survey, was conducted between February 5 and March 11, 2025, during a temporary ceasefire in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, found a steep decline in Jewish optimism, due to the Hamas massacre of 1,200+ people on October 7, 2023, down by 14 percentage points from spring 2023, and the lowest level recorded since Pew began polling the question in 2013.

The majority of Israelis no longer see two states as a viable path to peace, not because of ideology, but sadly because of bitter experience. And the majority of Palestinians will no longer see Iran or any of the Arab States as coming to their rescue in another war. Hamas is still holding dozens of hostages with at least 49 confirmed dead by the IDF, and just 20 who are believed to be alive. And when in mid June, Israel attacked Iran, more than one Arab state in the region supported Israeli air defenses, in a similar way to how they had done in previous Iranian attacks on Israel.

A new Gallup poll found about half of U.S. adults now have an unfavorable view of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, his most negative rating since he was first included in Gallup polling in 1997, underscoring the Israeli government’s dramatic loss of support within the U.S. If Netanyahu does not strongly support the New York Declaration he will have to lose an election. Young adults also are much more likely to disapprove of Israel’s actions. Only about 1 in 10 adults under age 35 say they approve of Israel’s military operations in Gaza, compared with about half of those who are 55 or older.

But “Holocaust survivors taught me: look forward, not back. Build a life, a family, a future, a hope. Hate makes us slaves; therefore let it go. Do not wage war on the children of darkness. Make sure instead that you and your children are sources of light.” (Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, in Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence)

The Talmud (Shabbat 119b) relates that Rabbi Hanina said, “Jerusalem was destroyed only because its inhabitants did not reprove one another. Israel in that generation kept their faces looking down to the ground and did not reprove one another.” Rabbi Hanina doesn’t mention any one specific action that was so reprehensible that it doomed the city.

Strict halakah and narrow minded zeal easily lead to anger and hate, which unfettered and unrestrained lead to disaster. It is not surprising that Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai openly criticizes the failure to judge people with understanding, flexibility and loving tolerance. He was the only Rabbi in the Talmud to openly declare a Torah commandment (sotah), suspended due to changed circumstances.

If Jews can avoid the ‘unrestrained hatred’ resulting from the strict, uncompromising, overly self-righteous, intolerance of many of the parties that doomed Jerusalem because we say a special blessing when we see a very large population of Jews, who because of their great numbers must include more sects of Jews than we ourselves usually associate with: “Blessed is the Sage of Esoterica, for the opinion of each (Jew) is different from the other, just as the face of each (Jew) is different from the other.” (Berakhot 58a).

Then we will see: “In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth. The Lord Almighty will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.” (Isaiah 19:23-5)