This was in the Jewish magazine I get:
As a Zionist and lifelong advocate, I believe Israel has gone too far
by Rabbi Doug Kahn July 21, 2025
 A view from a hilltop in Sderot, Israel, shows smoke rising inside Gaza in October 2024. (Natalie Weinstein/J. Staff)
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I am retired from Jewish communal life — nine years now — yet the world is not cooperating. I cannot go a day without a conversation about Israel and antisemitism, with friends and family members sharing increasingly deep concern about Israeli government behavior in the war against Hamas and on the West Bank, wanting to know my take and some urging me to speak out. (We also discuss our serious fears for the future of American democracy, but that is a topic for a different day.)
I have been reluctant to speak out — not because I do not share their concerns, and not because I think American Jews do not have standing to comment on Israeli actions. I firmly believe we do have standing, because Israel seeks our engagement and, in turn, Israel’s actions clearly affect us and the Jewish future in Israel and around the world.
Rather, my reluctance stems from decades of witnessing firsthand the piling-on effect against Israel, as if no other country in the world engages in conduct worthy of public criticism. From a local grocery collective deciding to temporarily remove Israeli products, to a rape crisis center requiring volunteers to take anti-Zionist training, the level of obsession with and vitriol aimed at Israel has necessitated defending Israel in the public square against outrageous bias.
That gross imbalance includes the shocking willingness of a growing number of organizations to overlook the horrors of what Hamas perpetrated on Oct. 7, 2023 — violating an existing cease-fire with the premeditated murder of approximately 1,200 people in Israel and seizing of 250 hostages — and then to beat up on Israel for having the audacity to defend its own citizens, something every country in the world would do as a matter of national obligation.
In defending Israel as a liberal American Jew, I have harbored doubts about various Israeli policies and actions over the years. These include, for example, the government’s settlement policy in the West Bank, which has made it increasingly difficult to achieve a two-state solution, which I believe remains the only viable solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
Meanwhile, my own internal moral compass and my communal responsibility always led me to the same place: Defend policies, including those I might disagree with, but never defend the indefensible. By way of example, building a security barrier between the West Bank and Israel created tremendous hardships for many Palestinians but dramatically reduced the terror incidents, a policy worthy of strong defense. By contrast, current vigilante activity by West Bank settlers is indefensible, as is anything less than a concerted commitment by Israel to condemn perpetrators and to prosecute any criminal activity by settlers to the fullest extent of the law.
The challenge today in deciding whether to speak out is that Israel has never been piled on more by its detractors, and the accompanying vitriol too often crosses the line into antisemitism. In addition, Hamas is a brutal enemy that believes its single greatest advantage is drawing Israel into killing innocent Palestinian citizens in order to provoke global outrage and anti-Israel sentiment. Hamas built its infrastructure, including its more than 350 miles of tunnels, under civilian populations, under schools and under hospitals, to achieve this tragic result. It is a cynical and deadly strategy that makes Hamas overwhelmingly responsible for the tragic loss of innocent civilians, killed by Israeli forces seeking to eliminate the threat on its border that no sovereign state would tolerate.
And, yet, with all the caveats and context, there are certain Israeli actions that are simply indefensible.
I am not going to cease making the case for Israel, but the excesses cannot be ignored. I believe after more than 40 years of Israel advocacy and having the privilege of introducing the Israel I love to hundreds of major Bay Area non-Jewish leaders, I am due some latitude in sharing where I think lines have been crossed. In doing so, I draw a distinction between what I believe to be a just war of defense by Israel, and those military actions that cross a line: unjust actions in a just war.
The extent of human and physical destruction in Gaza far exceeds what I believe is militarily justifiable in seeking to eliminate Hamas as a threat to Israel. It feels more tied to a policy of vengeance born out of the trauma of Oct. 7 than a military strategy. Yes, we should be skeptical of the numbers coming out of the Hamas Health Ministry, mindful of the extraordinary dangers facing Israeli troops whose lives are on the line, and furious over Hamas’ refusal to release the hostages who have endured untold suffering and torture. We must continue to demand their release. But withholding humanitarian aid (food, water, medicine and electricity) through a collective punishment policy crosses a moral boundary. Not providing urgently needed medical equipment, especially for children who have been severely injured or who need life-saving supplies because of illness, cannot be justified.
Shooting in close proximity to people en route to seeking desperately needed aid is appalling. Considering relocating hundreds of thousands of Gazans into one enclosed area is outrageous. These policies are morally indefensible.
No child should die of malnutrition or an inability to obtain medicine, and maximum reasonable care to protect civilians should be restored as an urgent priority.
Israeli know-how pulled off a brilliant strategic operation against Hezbollah and against Iran. There is no doubt in my mind that Israel can find a way to end the humanitarian nightmare that exists in Gaza, even given the obstacles Hamas places in the way. A new cease-fire deal is being discussed that presumably would allow for increased humanitarian assistance. Whether the deal takes hold or not, Israel must act on the humanitarian front with a massive commitment to saving life.
I do not know how many lost lives could have been saved, even while understanding that in the fog of war deaths of innocent civilians always occur. But what I do know is that a population of nearly 2 million human beings is at dire risk in Gaza. Israel must comprehensively address the desperate humanitarian situation in ways that eliminate any collective punishment and provide urgent relief to save as many innocent lives as possible. That is the Israel I have always known.
I am concerned about the staggering erosion of Israel’s standing in the world, including in the U.S. and especially among younger people, and I do not know whether the rapid decline of support for Israel among segments of the population is reversible. I certainly hope over time it is. But I am equally concerned about Israel’s character and the Jewish soul, which are increasingly at risk. That is why — as a Zionist and lifelong public advocate for Israel — I believe it is our responsibility, while clearly asserting Israel’s right to defend itself, to call out when moral boundaries have been crossed.
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