Gaza

Gaza, Hamas, and the moral weight of war.

AI and the Target List

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I use ChatGPT and Claude every day. Claude is better than ChatGPT – both are fascinating and powerful tools – but they both have serious, structural limitations.

In its current incarnation, AI is like a very fast but very dumb research assistant with a peculiar set of cognitive biases (of which it’s perfectly aware when pressed but to which it’s very blind in practice), highly questionable research habits, and an irrepressible inclination to make unsubstantiated (or hallucinated) claims without qualification.

I use AI every day and I’ve never had a conversation where I didn’t have to correct it, in some way, shape, or form.

I would never rely on AI for an irreversible decision. Certainly not before thoroughly interrogating its claims.

It’s therefore mind-boggling to me that our defense forces (not to mention the US armed forces) reportedly rely on AI – the same models available to the public, with augmented data and additional integrations – for creating target lists.

You don’t get more irreversible than that.

And they know AI is fallible – but as long as it speeds up the killing process and allows them to conduct rapid strikes at scale, they’re willing to accept the deaths of innocent people wrongly targeted by an algorithm.

Not to mention anyone caught in the crossfire.

In case you’re wondering, the number of wrongful deaths the strategists overseeing our defense forces were explicitly willing to accept was 3,700.

Out of a list of 37,000 targets (each reviewed for exactly 20 seconds by an actual human being) they knew that at least 3,700 of them were mistakenly identified as targets (the actual number was probably much higher) and were not actually connected to the enemy and they killed them anyway.

“Fog of war” doesn’t apply to that kind of cold calculus.

Imagine if 3,700 Israelis had died on October 7.

(Basically, take the pain and suffering left in the wake of that horrible day and double it.)

I’m still trying to wrap my head around this brutal and hypocritical approach to modern warfare. I’ll be honest, I’m not worried about actually super-intelligent AI – I’m worried about the politicians and generals who insist on blindly using the inherently limited and very fallible LLMs we have today in order to make organized mass killing more “efficient.”

Comparing to Nazis

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I am not persuaded that Israeli soldiers are Nazis.

There is so much that separates your average soldier from an actual Nazi, just as there is so much that differentiates the Israeli state’s pointless military occupation of the West Bank and patchwork of anti-Palestinian policies, from the mobilization of an entire civilization for the express enslavement and murder of millions of people based on their ethnicity.

Even the decimation of Gaza – which stands as a permanent stain on our conscience – does not begin to approach, in intent, scope, or method, the orchestrated genocide of an entire population.

The war on Gaza, like most anti-Palestinian things the state of Israel does (and despite the words and actions of a vocal, violent minority that has found its way into the governing coalition and into positions of power over Palestinians), has been typified by an immoral disregard for Palestinian lives and property – not hatred for them or a thirst for their blood.

The difference is crucial when we’re talking about Nazis.

But the act of making the comparison itself – of holding up a mirror and seeing for ourselves if and how closely we start to resemble Nazis – is not only legitimate imho but absolutely necessary, after Auschwitz.

We SHOULD be comparing our soldiers to Nazis and seeing where there might be some similarity in tactics, outcomes, or attitudes.

We SHOULD be comparing our government to the Third Reich and seeing what policies and propaganda they might have in common.

We SHOULD be comparing our leaders to Hitler and seeing if the things they’re saying and the moves they’re making have uncomfortable, unacceptable precedent.

Because after Auschwitz, we can never, ever again let any society go down that dark path.

And the #Holocaust is the most clear benchmark we could ever use for evaluating where a society stands.

Does a country stand only 1% chance of murdering its citizens (or strangers) for the taint of their blood upon its soil?

Barukh Hashem, the disease is present but contained.

But 2% is worse than 1%.

10% is worse than 2%.

Every step along that scale is an inch closer to Auschwitz.

The abyss of the human soul.

The black whole of civilization, exerting an inexorable pull on members of society towards a collective madness born of fear and hate.

No society is totally immune to the lure of Auschwitz, the demonic promise of false justice bought for the price of human lives, of a grand future soaked in strangers’ blood.

And the worse the social conditions, the more wounded the collective and individual spirit, the easier the slide along the slope to Auschwitz becomes.

As human beings – as a species – we must always set Auschwitz before us as a memory, seared into our souls, of where we never wish to return.

We must use that memory as a guide, not just for our collective policies and institutions, but in our own personal thoughts, words, and actions.

And together, we must build the antithesis of Auschwitz – we must plant the Paradise as our answer to its Hell.

I Am Dry, They Are Wet

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The land needs the rain. I’m grateful for it.

I’m also grateful to live in a safe, dry home, with a heater.

And not in a tent on a rubble-strewn mudslide of a street running between the ruins of bombed-out stores and apartment buildings, struggling to keep the freezing wind and downpour away from my children.

As a religious Zionist, who believes in building a golden city on a hill of justice and righteousness, who believes that we came back home to build a country based on our values, I can not get the thought of those other families out of my mind.

I am dry.

They are wet.

That is not right.

I dream of a Zion where all are safe, dry, and warm.

I hope that dream is infectious.

Sedé Teiman and False Equivalence

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Whatever crimes were committed at Sedé Teiman and other bases/prisons need to be investigated and the perpetrators need to be tried and fully punished, not just for immediate justice but to reform the popular indifference in too many circles towards war crimes, crimes against Israeli law, and crimes against the human conscience. The accusations are horrific. Examples must be made.

However.

It’s possible to effectively critique the rhetorical mobilization of “terrorism” to selectively punish certain classes of actors and deny them due process, without making a false equivalence between Hamas and the IDF.

The fact that most Palestinians’ experience of the IDF is understandably (and inexcusably, from my religious Zionist perspective) one of occupation, siege, or bombing, does not make the IDF the same as the military wing of an organization chartered to genocide Israelis, or the crimes of IDF soldiers – who are investigated and punished for violating Israeli and international law, even under a political regime trying its damnedest to defend and excuse them – similar to the crimes of Hamas soldiers, who violate international law (and sharia) with impunity as a matter of strategy, tactics, and ideology.

I don’t think the IDF deserves to be put on a pedestal – it’s just an army and it’s susceptible to the same lapses and crimes as any army. And the blindness of many Israelis towards the crimes committed by some of their sons and daughters deserves outspoken criticism, *primarily* from other Israelis and Jewish people. But this equivocation with Hamas is part of a parallel blindness towards fascism (and an affliction of latent antisemitism, among other things) that infects the meritorious pro-Palestinian movement.

Genocide Accusation as Blood Libel

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On October 7th, 2023, the Hamas military invaded southern Israel. For an entire day, they systematically murdered every Jewish person they found. Their stated goal was to join with Hezbollah forces scheduled to invade northern Israel on the same day, and together with militant cells in the West Bank successfully wipe out millions of Jewish people.

From October 7th, 2023 onward, for a period of two years, the IDF invaded, bombed, and shelled the Gaza Strip, targeting military tunnels, weapons caches, and Hamas units densely embedded and enmeshed amongst and under civilians, their homes, their schools, and their hospitals. Their stated goal was to rescue the captive Israelis that Hamas kidnapped and to destroy Hamas as an organization.

To my mind, one of these is clearly attempted genocide.

The other is not.

However, it would seem that there are many, many people – some of whom I would even count as friends – who disagree with this rather straightforward assessment.

Since October 7th, I have read and heard arguments from anti-Zionists accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.

Not just war crimes, not even ethnic cleansing, but genocide.

While the accusation originates in authoritarian state propaganda and is largely promoted by ignorant talking heads via memes and reels, it also has the support of several academic bodies dedicated to the study of international human rights law and genocide studies (as well as a bogus pseudo-academic fake institute, but I won’t dignify them with inclusion here).

These academics published and co-signed a paper suggesting that according to the standard and accepted definition of genocide, Israel is commiting genocide against Palestinians. As proof of this claim, they cited: select statements by Israeli politicians, the “totality of evidence” of the war’s devastating impact, select instances of IDF soldiers targeting civilians, and the widely-circulated casualty statistic claiming that roughly 3% of the population was killed.

Based on this paper, co-signed by several reputable academic centers for genocide studies, I am supposed to believe that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.

If I don’t accept this supposed consensus, then apparently I am a “genocide denier.”

🤔

Here’s why I am not persuaded by the argument.

1. Cherry-picking statements from hyperbolic politicians who ALSO made many statements asserting the goal of self-defense and the need for humanitarian aid for Gazans, completely fails the standard of the “only possible interpretation” of these statements being genocidal intent.

2. The recourse to the “totality of evidence” in the alleged absence of direct evidence of genocidal intent is completely unnecessary: the direct evidence available – in the form of all the measures the IDF took to protect Gazan life, from sending warning phone calls and leaflets to evacuating civilians to literally scheduling airstrikes in advance – indicates that there was no genocidal intent.

3. While over 70% of the Gaza Strip was reduced to rubble, only 3% of the Gazan population was killed in this war. The wild disparity between these two percentages indicates that rather than wantonly disregarding Gazan life, let alone targeting Gazans for slaughter, the IDF waged war in a densely-packed urban setting without genocidal intent.

4. Gazans are not a separate religious, ethnic, or national group. They are part of the Palestinian people. While Gazans were dying from Israeli airstrikes by the thousands, millions of Palestinians across Israel were completely safe from any threat of genocide; in fact, they were in greater danger from rockets and missiles from Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran. While military measures in the West Bank intensified and settler crimes against Palestinians increased, there was no genocidal targeting of Palestinians as a religious, ethnic, or national group at any point in the past two years.

5. As mentioned above, only 3% of the Gazan population died in this war. That number is not just civilians – it includes Hamas soldiers. And the fact that, on analysis, it actually *disproportionately* includes Hamas soldiers as opposed to, say, children (roughly half the population), indicates not only a lack of genocidal intent but a lack of genocidal *outcome*.

Kappara, this war has been undeniably devastating for Gazans.

The question itself of whether we have committed genocide or come close to committing genocide, is a valid question.

The debate itself in international human rights law regarding the meaning, nature, and definition of genocide, is a valid debate.

It is also clear that the IDF did not always follow its own policies and it may even be that war crimes were committed over the past two years.

Israel is a democracy dedicated to the rule of law, and we can and should investigate everything that needs investigation.

Howthebleepever.

The accusation of genocide, in light of the evidence, is a blood libel.

Its origins, its memes, its subtext, its imputation of ultimate guilt, its baselessness, make it a blood libel.

Not everyone who believes it is a rabid antisemite – but everyone who believes it has bought into modern antisemitism on some level. Including those Jewish people who support, repeat, and insist on the truth of the libel.

As I’ve written previously, I believe that Zionism must reckon with the devastation of Gaza, and that a new future must be built from the ashes of both Beeri and Gaza. And as anyone who has read my posts knows, I’m the last one to place the Israeli state, government, or military beyond criticism.

But the truth is the truth.

May the genocides actually occurring right now across the world be swiftly stopped, and may the world know no more genocide.

May a just peace come to this land and may Palestinians and Israelis together take the right steps forward towards a shared future of liberty, equality, and security for all.

The Road Leads to Zion

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Yesterday I saw a video of an execution on Facebook.

A row of kneeling men, shot in the head from behind.

The person who shared the video asserted that the shooters were Hamas soldiers, the victims were men accused of “collaboration” with Israeli forces. From what little I could tell, this was the case.

This event happened after the ceasefire went into effect and while the kidnapped Israeli captives were being returned to Israel.

Like the war itself at the beginning, I accept this ceasefire now for its necessity while harboring many questions and doubts.

It is necessary to stop bombing Gazans without a strategy or endgame or even evaluation of our tactics. It is necessary to rescue our kidnapped citizens. It is necessary to chart a new course forward, that neither abdicates responsibility for the populations of Gaza and the West Bank nor supports fascist enemies as “assets” for political expediency.

But there are many points in Trump’s updated Biden Plan that raise eyebrows, if not red flags. And the key security assurances depend on Hamas disarming, accepting an international transitional force, and withdrawing from Gaza.

None of which they have agreed to do.

While they apparently reorganize as a “police force” and execute Gazan dissidents.

Look, I’m glad the kidnapped captives are reunited with their families. I’m glad the airstrikes have stopped. I have deep gratitude to the Creator for these undeniably good things, and I recognize that neither our relationship with divine justice nor the tools it utilizes to achieve its implacable ends, are uncomplicated or pure.

But this deal – Biden’s deal – is a bad deal.

As much as I detest Benjamin Netanyahu for being a generally incompetent and criminal prime minister, and for unnecessarily prolonging this war in particular, this deal was and is a bad deal.

And if Donald Juniper Trump contributed to this deal, what he contributed was political pressure and/or guarantees (the ol’ carrot and stick) to Benjamin Netanyahu in order to persuade him to accept a bad deal.

It’s unsurprising that POTUS would be so proud of a bad deal for Israel (and Gazans, if we’re being honest). The mess he’s proudly made of his own country suggests that he’s not the man to bring about peace in the Middle East.

(So, no Noble Prize for him.)

But it seems that Israelis and Palestinians will be footing the bill for this deal in years (if not months) to come. (More exemplary leadership from the worst prime minister in Israeli history.)

But where does that leave us?

We still have a democracy. As the war (or this round of it) officially draws to a close, we can turn our focus to next year’s elections and the long-overdue investigations of the politicians and bureaucrats responsible for October 7. There is no longer any political excuse for delaying action on these crucial matters. For two years we’ve held off on holding our leaders accountable. The bill has come due.

We still have joy. Communities across Israel had a dual celebration last night and today – the regular celebration of the Torah on the eight day after the joyous festival of Sukkoth, which was stolen from us for two years and only resumed today – and the unprecedented celebration of the release and reunification of kidnapped captives with their families and friends and people, after they were stolen from us two years ago. Across Israel, we sang “the children have returned to their land” like never before. That joy was palpable and is a source of great power, if we nurture and bring it with us into the days ahead.

We still have each other. Despite every effort by the Russo-Sino-Iranian Axis to isolate and turn the world against Israel; to coerce Gazans into embracing Hamas; to radicalize Israelis and Palestinians, and their respective supporters, against each other – despite the horrors and devastation and trauma of war and occupation and loss, the bridges burned and the alliances torched in the livestreamed shock of rubble and bodies, the skyrocketing mistrust of the other’s intentions and good faith – despite this dirty diaper of a deal that neither ensures Israelis’ security nor grants Palestinians autonomy – Israelis and Palestinians here in this land are still talking to each other, quietly, two here and three there, as neighbors and fellows bound to the same land with the same fate. So much went so wrong in the wake of Oct 7, and we’re slowly picking up the pieces – together.

I don’t know what bends, twists, and dangers the road ahead will bring.

But I know where the road leads.

Peace. Justice. Security.

For all.

Zion.

Reckon with the Devastation

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This will make some people irrationally mad but: Zionism must reckon with the devastation of Gaza.

We’ve left behind the naive days when we waged war solely and wholly in self-defense, with great concern and cunning strategy to decisively end wars with as little human, moral, economic cost as possible.

Rejecting the blood libels and insulating ourselves from the propaganda is insufficient in light of our public failure to meet our professed standards of conduct and policy in Gaza.

Correct assignment of moral agency and culpability to Hamas for instigating and doing their part to prolong the war is insufficient in the aftermath of what we, together, wrought in Gaza.

Even if the bombs were meant for the deserving, even if steps were often taken to protect the undeserving from the bombs, the net result has been thousands dead that should have lived and they too have a claim on our dream of Zion.

Zionism is about return.

Return to the nation.

Return to the land.

Return to the covenant.

Return to right relationship.

Now as we end this miserable war, we must return to our senses and show the world what it means to return to the right way.

What return to the unfinished dream of Zion, as a nation of individuals with agency and autonomy, truly looks like at home and on the world stage:

– a just and peaceful law-abiding society
– a symbiotic relationship with the land
– a common culture of beautiful holiness
– a sanctuary for all human beings, created in the divine image

And furthermore.

In the name of building the Zion of which we have dreamed for millenia – in the name of return – it is not enough that we bring about the rebuilding of and return to Beeri and Nir Oz.

We must do everything we can to rebuild and encourage the return of Gazans to their homes, their communities, their lives.

Yes, Gazans – those who have unfathomably suffered for the past two years as they scrambled for cover trapped between Hamas and the IDF, deserve to return home no less than any Israeli.

We must reckon with their loss at our hands, just as we must reckon with our own – and build Zion from the ruins of Beeri and Gaza together.

At this delicate and uncertain time, on the eve of the Hebrew anniversary of the attempted genocide that started this horrific war, when so much about the future remains unknown and opaque to us – I pray that the Creator of all hearts accept our prayers for a just peace, for an end to wicked injustice and cruel violence, for the remaining kidnapped hostages to be reunited with their families, for a rebuilt Gaza, and for a day when awareness of our common Creator fills the world like the waters of the ocean.

The Ceasefire Plan

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The Trump ceasefire plan does not seem substantially different from the Biden ceasefire plan.

The timetable for some things is a little faster, for other things a little slower. There is a stark cosmetic difference in the language.

But it seems to set out roughly the same basic points for both Israel and Hamas as the previous administration’s proposal.

🤷

There are definitely good, if vague, points set out in the plan.

But there are also some red flags:

I think setting up a Board of Peace headed by a corrupt authoritarian to rule Gaza via a puppet technocracy sounds shady.

I don’t trust the current US government.

And I’m left with a lot of questions about many of the points and how they will be implemented.

So I have my reservations about this ceasefire plan, like I did about the war itself; but if it brings about an end to the war, the elimination of Hamas, the return of the hostages, and the rebuilding of Gaza, then those will undeniably be good things.

How Many New Years

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Whew. Said the prayers. Blew the shophar. Ate the honey. Let my wife rest through the night.

I showed up, I did my part, I stood with every single being in creation and crowned my King.

Despite everything, Rosh Hashana was, thank God, a success in my little corner of the cosmos.

Barukh Hashem.

Mammash.

But.

As we started the month of Tishri, I opened up Isaiah for the next review. And I returned to the following verses:

“Your new moons and fixed seasons fill Me with loathing; they are become a burden to Me, I cannot endure them.

And when you lift up your hands, I will turn My eyes away from you; though you pray at length, I will not listen. Your hands are stained with crime—

Wash yourselves clean; put your evil doings away from My sight. Cease to do evil;

Learn to do good. Devote yourselves to justice; aid the wronged. Uphold the rights of the orphan; defend the cause of the widow.”

These verses made me think.

I thought of the attacks on farmers and shepherds in Yehuda and Shomeron.

I thought of the devastation in Gaza, excessive beyond the needs of self-defense and exploited for corrupt profit.

I thought of the hostages abandoned to Hamas, their families libeled as traitors for demanding accountability.

I thought of the widows and orphans of fallen soldiers and murdered civilians, sacrificed by career politicians clinging to power.

I thought of our society, built on holy ideals and ancient dreams, but that has become tolerant of too much violence against the vulnerable and too much injustice against the innocent.

How many new years will we celebrate while glibly justifying the ultimately unjustifiable?

How can we crown our King when we can not recognize his image and likeness?

What good are my prayers when both the Temple and Gaza lie in ruins?

Beloved, let us return to the covenant of our ancestors and the ways of our King.

We may have gone astray but all is far from lost.

There is still time for us to reconsider our path going forward.

This is the time.

“Come, let us reach an understanding, —says GOD. Be your sins like crimson, they can turn snow-white; be they red as dyed wool, they can become like fleece.”

Statement on the Discourse of Genocide

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Statement on the Tiktok Discourse of Genocide in Gaza

The Mt. Zion Bureau of Public Affairs affirms the responsibility of every sovereign state, including Israel, to conduct military operations in accordance with international humanitarian law. We recognize that the current war in Gaza has caused profound suffering and immense civilian loss of life. Allegations of war crimes—including disproportionate use of force, attacks in densely populated areas, and restrictions on humanitarian aid—must be addressed with seriousness and transparency. We call for rigorous review and accountability where violations may have occurred.

At the same time, we categorically reject the accusation that Israel is engaged in genocide against the Palestinian people. Genocide, as defined by the 1948 UN Convention, requires intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. Israel’s stated and operational objective is the destruction of Hamas as a terrorist organization responsible for the October 7 massacres, kidnappings, and continued rocket attacks on Israeli civilians. The tragic civilian toll of this war reflects the brutal reality of combat against an enemy deliberately embedded in civilian areas—not an exterminatory policy against Palestinians as a people.

We further note that Israel remains home to nearly two million Arab citizens who participate fully in the civic, political, and social life of the state. Their continued security and integration stand in stark contradiction to claims of genocidal intent. Where inflammatory rhetoric by individuals has strayed into language suggestive of extermination, such speech has been condemned within Israel’s political and legal system and does not reflect state policy.

The charge of genocide is not simply a legal question. It carries with it a historical echo. For centuries, Jews have endured false collective accusations—blood libels, deicide, dual loyalty—meant to strip them of legitimacy and justify violence against them. To misapply the label of genocide to Israel’s self-defense risks repeating this pattern: collapsing the distinction between the Israel Defense Forces, the State of Israel, and Jews worldwide, and recasting Jewish survival itself as a crime.

We therefore call upon the international community to distinguish between legitimate investigation of alleged violations of the laws of war and the politically weaponized discourse of genocide. The former is essential for the integrity of international law. The latter undermines it.

Israel will continue to defend its citizens against genocidal threats, as it has since its founding, while striving to uphold the standards of law and morality upon which its legitimacy rests.

– Mt. Zion Bureau of Public Affairs