We, the undersigned rabbis, write in response to the recent statement circulated under the title “A Call for Moral Clarity, Responsibility, and a Jewish Orthodox Response in the Face of the Gaza Humanitarian Crisis.” We are compelled to honor the numerous truths omitted by that statement.

Responsibility for Suffering in Gaza

The letter assigns partial responsibility for the suffering of Gaza’s civilians to Israel. This is false; the one and only source of Gaza’s ongoing tragedy is Hamas. To state otherwise is to grant unintended support to antisemitic inversions of this obvious truth.

In 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza at enormous personal and national cost, uprooting thriving Jewish communities with the hope that Gaza might become a peaceful and prosperous society. Instead of investing in schools, hospitals, and infrastructure, Hamas stole that aid and transformed Gaza into a fortress of terror, for one purpose alone: the eradication of Israel and the slaughter of its Jews.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched an unprovoked massacre of unprecedented brutality, murdering, raping, and burning alive more than a thousand innocent Israelis, while kidnapping over two hundred. Thousands of so-called “civilians” joined in looting, torture, and celebration. Gaza’s civilians were offered millions of dollars and safe passage out of Gaza for information about the location of hostages, and not a single one has come forward to help.

Israel did not choose this war—it was forced upon her. And as long as Hamas refuses to release the remaining hostages and persists in its campaign of terror, Hamas—and only Hamas—bears full and exclusive responsibility for the ongoing suffering of Gaza’s population.

It is not enough to remind the world
that Israel continues to facilitate the transfer of food, medical supplies, and aid, all while under fire. If these deliveries fail to reach civilians, it is due to Hamas’s seizure and control. Casting Israel as the source of starvation echoes Hamas’s false narrative and undermines Israel’s just conduct under fire.

Israel’s Paramount Responsibilities are Self-Defense and Elimination of Danger

Our faith indeed demands compassion and dignity for all, but the value that the Torah places upon the protection of every life begins with one’s own. Deuteronomy 4:15 commands, Venishmartem me’od lenafshoseichem, “you shall profoundly guard your life,” and in 13:16, Uvi’arta hara mikirbecha, “you shall eradicate evil from your midst.” And in the Medrash (Tanchuma, Parshas Metzora), Rebbe Eliezer teaches us that “Whoever is kind to the cruel will end up being cruel to the kind.”

The current crisis in Gaza is the direct result of Hamas’s October 7 massacre, its deliberate policy of using civilians as human shields, and most of all, its ongoing cruelty to the remaining hostages. The primary goals of Israel’s military must be to free those hostages, to eliminate the danger posed by a genocidal terrorist organization, and to deter hostile actors from future efforts to murder its populace. It is irrational and indeed counterproductive to suggest that other “responsibilities” must take priority.

John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at West Point’s Modern War Institute, recently pointed out that “There is no historical precedent for a military providing the level of direct aid to an enemy population that Israel has provided to Gaza.” Statements implying that Israeli forces must prioritize moral optics over genuine security assist Hamas and wound both the front line soldiers and the spirit of the Israeli people.

The Reality of Humanitarian Aid

The claim that Israel has deliberately starved Gaza is a falsehood spread by Israel’s enemies. In fact, Israel has facilitated the entry of thousands of tons of food, medicine, water, and fuel into Gaza. Israel continues to provide electricity and water, and has allowed multiple international efforts to deliver humanitarian relief. That the media is saturated with falsified photographs of children with unrelated medical conditions, created by AI, or lifted from unrelated conflicts elsewhere, testifies to the utter absence of signs of genuine starvation, with the notable exception of the inhumane behavior by Hamas towards the hostages.

To whatever extent other Gazans face shortages, the problem is again not Israel’s willingness to provide aid, but Hamas’s theft and exploitation of that aid. Time and again, food shipments are seized by Hamas, diverted to their fighters, or resold at exorbitant prices to ordinary Gazans. There is no question that the wholesale provision of “humanitarian aid” without appropriate safeguards has prolonged the conflict. To suggest that the appropriate course is to do more of the same is to foolishly advocate for further suffering on all sides.

Accountability for Violence

The statement references “extremist settler violence” without balance or context. It ignores the reality of decades of consistent, ongoing Arab terror against Jews living in Yehuda and Shomron—bombings, shootings, stabbings, kidnappings, and rapes. Families have been shattered, children murdered, and communities traumatized. The statement offers not a word of acknowledgment or compassion towards these victims.

Instead, it actually places blame upon them, focusing only upon those few who respond inappropriately to the barbarism to which they are subjected on a daily basis. It is not those isolated crimes that “destabilize the region,” but the fact that Israel must construct walls and erect warning signs to alert Jewish citizens that simply entering a particular village risks their lives. Arabs in Israel face no similar danger, and only those blinded by ideology could fail to recognize the source of the violence.

A Torah Viewpoint

We note that the statement presents itself as an “international coalition of Orthodox rabbinical leaders.” This claim is misleading at best. The overwhelming majority of its signatories are not representative of mainstream Orthodoxy, but rather come from the ranks of “Open Orthodoxy,” including nearly twenty women who have adopted the title “rabbi” and several openly gay clergy. Whatever one’s view of such movements, they are not acting in accordance with Torah, and are not recognized as Orthodox by the vast majority of Orthodox Jewry worldwide. The attempt to speak in the name of Orthodoxy while presenting views outside its consensus is disingenuous at best.  This letter, to the contrary, represents the broad spectrum of mainstream Orthodox, Torah-observant Judaism, as evidenced by my signature and those of my esteemed colleagues.

True Moral Clarity

True moral clarity requires recognizing that the root of this crisis is Hamas’s evil intent, and that genuine peace requires the eradication of the threat posed by Hamas and allied Gazan terror organizations to civilians. Israel’s moral obligation is to destroy that threat while doing its utmost to mitigate civilian harm. Demanding otherwise risks moral capitulation, endangers lives, and betrays Jewish history and ethics.

By amplifying Hamas’s narrative, even unintentionally, moral critiques can become moral liabilities. To accuse Israel of moral failure while she sacrifices her soldiers, who risk and give their lives to minimize civilian harm, is an inversion of truth and justice.

There can be no peace until evil is defeated. That is not only a matter of political necessity—it is a Torah imperative. For all of the foregoing reasons, it is my privilege to sign this letter.