On October 7th, I was horrified to learn that Hamas terrorists had invaded the Gaza-adjacent Kibbutz Nir-Yitzhak, the kibbutz my 92-year-old grandfather had founded — nonviolently, on uninhabited land. He, a Holocaust survivor, was forced into hiding in his own home for the second time in his life, and now is unable to spend some of his last moments in the community he built. 

The barbarity of Hamas’s murder, brutalization, rape, and psychological and physical torture of civilians should go without saying. Intentionally harming civilians — particularly in such grossly inhumane ways — is inarguably a war crime. 

The Israeli military campaign that followed, though, should horrify any decent person. Countless refugees do not have homes to return to. Those still in Gaza have terribly poor access to food, water, and shelter. Dozens of journalists have been killed. 102 United Nations staff. 13,000 civilians. 6,000 children. 

6,000 children. 

But so many of Israel’s supporters don’t seem to be outraged by this. Of course, Hamas chooses to operate out of hospitals and civilian-dense areas, and Israel does often attempt to evacuate these places, but this does not account for the full scope of civilian carnage. To Israeli military leadership, these death tolls do not just represent the unfortunate side effects of taking out Hamas, but have been part of the intended strategy. Senior Israel Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari proudly stated at the start of this war, contrary to the beliefs of many, that Israel’s offensive focus now “is on damage, not accuracy”. 

My question to the people who are excusing, justifying, or ignoring this reality is the following: How can we expect the same far-right government that has overseen the expansion of the settlement enterprise in the West Bank, repeatedly turned a blind eye to gross acts of settler violence, codified apartheid into Israel’s legal framework, and has genocidal figures at the highest perches of public office to somehow now become a beacon of morality? Why would leaders who have long-standing records of supporting horrible mistreatment of Palestinians suddenly now seek to protect the innocents among them, at this moment in Israel’s history? 

We, people who wish to see Israel exist as a healthy democracy, have to confront the reality that Israel has undergone an incredibly alarming rightward shift in recent years, and that Palestinians have paid the price for it. The recent military actions carried out by Israel in Gaza must be viewed in this context, and only solidify the case that Israel does not care about Palestinian life. And the widespread public silence by people who support Israel on the staggering civilian death tolls hurts Israel more than it helps. 

As long as home demolitions occur in the West Bank to make room for settlers, as long as the Nation-State Law remains in place, as long as Israel maintains legal jurisdiction in the West Bank over Palestinian noncitizens who cannot vote, and as long as civilian death tolls in Gaza continue to soar, Israel only further handicaps its potential to be a vibrant democracy, or a democracy at all. While support for these most basic ideals should be rooted in simple morality over support for the state, harming Palestinians will only contribute to further harm against Israelis. What will be left is a cycle of indiscriminate, haphazard retaliation that will benefit no one. 

We must hold out hope for some sort of fragile, unlikely peace, and Israel must start to actually practice the morality, wisdom, and restraint that will take them there. I grew up visiting my family’s kibbutz every other summer, looking toward the fences outside Gaza that were not always there, and hearing my dad talk about how he used to go to the beaches in a then-integrated Gaza Strip.

There are massive amounts of blame to go around, and Israel certainly cannot be the only actor interested in meaningful change if change is to happen. But we can not let our long-term vision become distorted. Israel’s peace with Egypt and Jordan seemed impossible before it happened. Peace is still an option — it is in fact the only option — and we cannot let Israel veer from the path toward it.