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I am a r, who grew up in the progressive wing of the Zionist movement and have been involved in Jewish cultural creation and presentation for decades. I also married into a Palestinian family, which has given me a perspective many in my community may lack. My conviction, that the destruction of Gaza and the forced starvation of its people must end now, is firmly rooted in the centrality of human rights to the Jewish tradition in which I was raised.

At the same time, I understand there are many within the Jewish community who believe that Israel 鈥� as the country around which they have oriented their identity and which they see as a bulwark in an increasingly antisemitic world 鈥� is under constant threat and must be supported at all costs.

But what are or should be the limits of that support? Let鈥檚 consider four fundamental questions that have emerged since Oct. 7, 2023 and are becoming more urgent by the day:

1. In the context of all the insecurity facing the State of Israel, is it valid to criticize it for its treatment of both the Palestinian population within its borders and those who’ve lived for decades with the illegal occupation of the West Bank and blockade of Gaza?

Yes, of course. Israel is a sovereign state and like many others, it is unfair and oppressive to its largest minority. By keeping a majority of the Palestinian population under occupation and without basic rights 鈥� by encroaching on their land, destroying their homes and bullying them in every aspect of life 鈥� Israel has opened itself not only to criticism but also to potential charges at the International Criminal Court.

All of this can and should be criticized and vigorously opposed, including by Jews both in Israel and those of us living in the diaspora. There is nothing inherently antisemitic in doing so, as the more extreme聽defenders of Israel often claim. In fact, many of the central ethical tenets of Judaism call upon us to challenge the current regime and its actions.

2. Are we in fact witnessing a genocide? How can a word used to define the Holocaust also be used to describe Israel鈥檚 actions?

On a certain level, the specific naming of what the Israeli government is doing to the people of Gaza is irrelevant, although I understand why this is an essential question both to Palestinians and in a country born in the aftermath of the Holocaust. Whatever we call this disaster, the Israeli government’s military tactics and its blockade of humanitarian relief constitute war crimes and must immediately stop.

Still, it matters much that many respected, mainstream genocide scholars (though certainly not all) have concluded that the combination of widespread murder, destruction, oppression and theft, first enunciated in the Nuremberg trials, is exactly what is happening. All the whataboutism in the world changes nothing.

3. Aren鈥檛 many supposed supporters of Palestinian rights promoting antisemitism by conflating anti-Zionism with Jews and Jewish communities worldwide and by holding Israel to a different standard than other oppressive regimes?

Most definitely. There is currently a serious global upsurge in antisemitism 鈥� something that must be recognized and rejected, especially by non-Jews. We shouldn鈥檛 forget that Zionism was founded as a response to the intractable European antisemitism 鈥� which evolved from religious Jew-hatred to a movement based in the pseudo-scientific racial theories that fed Nazism in the 1930s 鈥� that failed to deliver Enlightenment ideals and human rights.

Those who overlook the fact that Zionism was a legitimate movement for national liberation and self-determination, or who mischaracterize Israel as just another colonial settler state that needs to be dismantled, both misunderstand the complexity of the region鈥檚 history and trigger the collective PTSD that we Jews share. Nevertheless, the rhetorical attacks on Zionism neither counterbalance nor excuse the crimes being committed by Benjamin Netanyahu鈥檚 government.

4. What should we make of claims made by some defenders of Israel that Jewish criticism of Israel鈥檚 actions (both by the government and state-supported settlers) are聽the聽treacherous actions of 鈥渟elf-hating Jews鈥� who are mere聽鈥渢ools鈥� of Hamas?

In pre-Second World War Eastern Europe, Jewish life was teeming with open debate 鈥� within and beyond Zionism 鈥� and these communities, spread across many countries, were stronger for it.

However, since the founding of the state of Israel in 1948, its ongoing denial of the Palestinian Nakba and most particularly since its annexation of the West Bank and Gaza during the 1967 Six Day War, many Jewish organizations in the diaspora have demonized criticism of Israel as antisemitic.

These accusations have also been directed at Jewish critics, who are now routinely ostracized and called 鈥渢raitors,鈥� 鈥渒apos,鈥� and 鈥渟elf-hating Jews.鈥� This kind of discourse is a complete repudiation of the essential Jewish tradition of difficult discussion, disputation and debate as a central path towards a greater embodiment of our essential ethical and moral principles. The result, since Oct. 7 in particular, has been systematic and devastating gaslighting, which is contributing deeply to the loss of the moral compass within the Israeli leadership and segments of the Jewish community.

In the end, we are in a moment of great threat, most importantly for the Palestinians who bear the impact of overwhelming state violence and potential expulsion, but also to the unity and perhaps soul of the Jewish community.

My deepest belief is that only聽when a majority of the people directly involved in the conflict, as well as the rest of us in the wider concentric circles that surround this war, are able to literally and metaphorically sit together, hear and receive one another’s stories, truths, sufferings and losses, and then give each other genuine respect, can there be hope for the transformation of the struggle and the death cults that have grown up around this terrible conflict.

Such hard conversations must not be delayed until there’s some kind of resolution, if such a possibility even exists. Rather, we, as Jews, need to tackle these questions, for the answers are the necessary precursors to peace and real change.