A moral crisis in the West
These last weeks have been devasting for Israel and the Jewish people. We have been inundated with claims of famine in Gaza, announcements that multiple Western nations will recognize a Palestinian state, and horrifying videos from Hamas showing two Israeli hostages — Rom Bravlavski and Evyatar David — tortured and starving.
We are seeing growing support for Hamas, a known terrorist organization, and continued demonization of Israel.
While Ambassador Mike Huckabee and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff visited the GHF food delivery site, global media pushed images of starving children and blamed Israel. These diplomats saw aid flowing, but the media’s biased narrative ignores food rotting inside hundreds of aid trucks in Gaza because of the U.N.’s refusal to deliver them. Many of the children pictured suffer from congenital diseases, not starvation — yet the media will not ask why the supposedly starving children’s parents appear well-fed.
No one denies there is suffering in Gaza, but Israel is not solely to blame. This war began more than 22 months ago in response to Hamas’s October 7, 2023, barbaric invasion and massacre. In other wars, civilians are evacuated. In this war, the West and Arab states have blocked Gazan civilians from leaving, claiming Israel seeks ethnic cleansing. Did anyone accuse Russia of ethnic cleansing when Russia invaded Ukraine and Ukrainian civilians fled?
Israel did not burn people alive, torture civilians, or execute innocents. Hamas did.
Yet the world blames Israel.
The most shameful act by the media was ignoring the hostages’ suffering. The videos showed Rom and Evyatar starved and tortured — Evyatar forced to dig his own grave. Israeli society endured the psychological trauma of seeing its sons abused for propaganda. Still, the world looked away.
Now, several countries have pledged to recognize a Palestinian state next month at the United Nations’ General Assembly. Hamas boasts that this recognition is a direct result of October 7. This is not diplomacy. It is rewarding terror. It is appeasement.
Across Europe, Islamist activists vandalize property, call for death, and attack Jews. France just deported one Gazan student for antisemitic posts, but there are hundreds of thousands like her. Israelis abroad face boycotts, verbal abuse, and physical attacks simply for speaking Hebrew.
The West must regain its moral compass. Those calling for death and the destruction of Israel are wrong. Those defending their citizens and trying to protect their country are right. When a nation is attacked, it has a duty to protect its people.
Hamas has not only destroyed bridges between Israelis and Gazans, it has destroyed Gazan lives as well. The world must amplify the voices of Gazans who speak against Hamas. If those voices remain silenced, it proves the so-called “humanitarians” are not interested in helping Gazans — only in destroying the Jewish state.
True humanitarians must stand up and protest the biased narrative. We cannot champion one people while holding another to a higher standard. This upside-down world must right itself. If the West does not regain its moral compass, the society we know — built on truth, justice, and moral clarity — will crumble.
Stephanie Z. Bonder of West Caldwell, MA. Ed., is a Jewish educator who teaches throughout the MetroWest community and the National Hadassah network. She is continuing her educational journey by pursuing a master’s degree in Jewish education from the Melton Hebrew University School of Education.
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