Our aid to Israel shouldn't enable innocents' starvation

By Sid Schwab / Herald Columnist

I took one of those send-your-spit DNA tests. As expected, it showed me to be 99 percent Ashkenazi Jewish, because both sides of my family are Jewish, going back past Adam and Eve, probably to Graecopithecus. I’ve written about why I’m not proud of things over which I had no control, born Jewish among them. But I’m glad of it.

When I meet Jewish people, I feel unspoken kinship. Jews have contributed disproportionately to the arts, technology, science, medicine. If I’m not among those contributors, I admire them from closer than afar. Jews have survived centuries of hatred. My grandfathers lost family in the Holocaust, which, contrary to the belief of many in the MAGA camp, actually happened. Seeing pictures of those skeletal outlasters of incarceration makes me physically ill. As does the rise of antisemitism under the leadership of “good people on both sides” Trump.

I’m glad for the existence of modern-day Israel, in awe of its research achievements that have benefited humankind. If its re-creation after World War II as haven and homeland for survivors of the Shoah engendered unceasing animus within the countries surrounding it, it was the right thing to do. As have been its wars of survival, like its stunning victory over the outnumbering, attacking nations in the Six Day War.

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So when I say I’m revulsed by what Israel is doing in Gaza, it’s not about religion or ethnicity. It’s about humanity. If a strong response to the horrifically cruel attacks by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023 was absolutely called for, Israel has long-since gone beyond justification. I’m angry over it and filled with sorrow. If I can’t claim pride in being born Jewish, I can feel uneasy — embarrassed, even — to be associated, however tangentially, with the brutality, the indiscriminate slaughter being carried out by Israel. Starvation. Interdicting aid. Killing people, children included, as they scramble to receive what little nourishment is available. Recently allowing some food convoys back in, plus Donald Trump’s meager contribution of cash last week: too little, too late.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/schwab-our-aid-to-israel-shouldnt-enable-innocents-starvation/