Obligations, even in war

To the editor:

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” The Israel-Hamas war makes this quote especially relevant, as our city, with 1.6 million Jews and 160,000 Arabs, anxiously follows events in the Middle East. 

Those who support Palestinian rights oppose Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank and favor a two-state solution must make one thing clear: The Oct. 7 slaughter by Hamas of 1,400 men, women and children in southern Israel and the taking of 200 hostages are war crimes.  Under no circumstances can they ever be justified, as some who oppose Israel’s occupation have claimed. 

At the same time, those who give unconditional support to Israel need to critically examine the Netanyahu government’s response to the Hamas attack. Two weeks of intense bombing in Gaza has resulted in massive infrastructure destruction and internal displacement as well as the deaths of an estimated 4,600 Palestinians, among them more than 1,900 children, with 10,000 wounded.  Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, immediately announced a “complete siege” of Gaza, cutting off food, water, medical supplies, electricity and fuel. The UN has called the living conditions in Gaza “catastrophic.” 

A New York Times journalist wrote that “core principles of humanitarian law” dictate that civilians “cannot legally be targets of violence or disproportionately harmed by it. And those obligations apply to all parties involved in the fighting, even if the other side has violated them.”  

Howard Elterman