Letters
Donating to Gaza is bad for Israel
I do not know whether the decision to donate money for alleged famine relief in Gaza is motivated by purely humanitarian considerations or is a PR gesture to help counter widespread antisemitism generated by pictures of emaciated children and relentless media charges claiming Israel is responsible for starvation in Gaza. Nevertheless, regardless of its intent, this donation is a serious strategic and moral mistake.
First, this donation is an obvious divisive issue among Jews. In the (August 22) issue, Andrew Silow-Carroll has a column about Jew vs. Jew in a bitter debate about this donation noting that each side invokes Torah concepts over whether this donation is consistent with Jewish values. As for myself, I reject the idea that Jews who criticize this donation are somehow cruel and insensitive to humanitarian or Torah values. Instead, I side with the government of Israel which has strongly denied these Hamas-inspired starvation charges. I also trust two top news analysis nonprofit organizations, CAMERA.org and HonestReporting.org, which corroborate Israel’s extraordinary and unprecedented effort to deliver food to needy civilians in Gaza under war time conditions and despite Hamas interference.
Second, the action of UJA/Federation in making this donation represents this Jewish agency’s decision to reject Israel’s claim that it is not using starvation as a weapon in Gaza and that whatever food shortage exists is due to actions of Hamas and United Nations officials deliberating sabotaging its food delivery efforts. Since UJA/Federation is a leading American Jewish organization, this gives feckless politicians led by Bernie Sanders more ammunition to slander Israel with phony blood libel genocide and starvation charges.
The pictures of hungry children in Gaza are a potent symbol of starvation and many Americans and many nations are falling for pro-Hamas propaganda and media bias to blame Israel for the situation. In July, Bernie Sanders introduced another two resolutions to condemn Israel for causing starvation and to stop military aid to Israel. This time a record 27 and 24 Senate Democrats voted for the resolutions. This is a warning that American support for Israel is under attack and that all Jewish community leaders must guard against making statements and gestures which undermine Israel and Jewish unity.
As per the letter from Andrea Bier (August 22), the UJA/NY Federation Gaza donation represents a broken moral compass. On the other hand, this major Jewish agency donated more than $250 million to deserving Jewish and non-sectarian organizations in New York and Israel in 2024. I therefore will continue to donate to the UJA/Federation system despite my strong objection to the Gaza donation decision since otherwise this becomes the classic case “of throwing the baby out with the bath water” to the great delight of antisemites who seek to divide and weaken the Jewish people.
Larry Dvores
Livingston
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