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Accusing Israel of Immorality Is Despicable
Israeli soldiers drape their country’s flag over an IDF tank near the border with Gaza. Photo: Reuters/Ronen Zvulun
JNS.org – In a speech given on the cusp of Israel’s creation in January 1948, future Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir said, “There can be peace in Palestine in five minutes. It depends entirely upon the attackers. The minute the attackers stop, there will be peace in Palestine. But as long as they go on, there will have to be war and we will have to fight back. And there is absolute faith on behalf of the entire community. We have no doubt whatsoever as to the results of this struggle.”
In the same speech, Meir spoke about the Israeli willingness to sacrifice in war: “I would not say, because it would not be true to say, that we do not mind that our young people are killed. We do. I read that an Arab in London made a statement that the Arab community has this advantage over the Jewish community: They do not take it to heart so much when Arabs are killed; we can stand it less than the Arabs.”
“I want to say this,” she said. “In one way it is true, every young man or woman that is killed in Palestine hurts; the death of each one of them hurts very much. We are still a small community and it is as though we were one family. We personally know each one that is killed and it hurts a lot. But it seems to me that just because it hurts so much, just because life is so dear to us, we are prepared to go to the very limit and to die if necessary.”
“Life that is not worth much if it is taken away does not matter,” she asserted. “Life is very dear to us, and the life of each youngster is very dear to us. Yet the spirit in the Yishuv is that we know that many more lives will be lost and we are prepared for it.”
Meir’s speech could be given today and it would be just as relevant as it was then.
Over the past month, American leaders like Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Senator Chuck Schumer have made comments that have raised the ire of many Israelis and their supporters.
Schumer said, “What horrifies so many Jews especially is our sense that Israel is falling short of upholding these distinctly Jewish values that we hold so dear. We must be better than our enemies, lest we become them.”
These comments were echoed by Blinken: “Israel is not Hamas. Israel is a democracy. Democracies place the highest value on human life, every human life. … It’s what distinguishes us from terrorists like Hamas. If we lose that reverence for human life, we risk becoming indistinguishable from those we confront. Right now, there is no higher priority in Gaza than protecting civilians, surging humanitarian assistance, and ensuring the security of those who provide it. Israel must meet this moment.”
At another point, Blinken said, “Israelis were dehumanized in the most horrific way on Oct. 7. The hostages have been dehumanized every day since. But that cannot be a license to dehumanize others.”
Their words are infuriating because they are completely inapplicable to Israel’s conduct. West Point’s urban warfare expert John Spencer explained in Newsweek, “No military in modern history has faced over 30,000 urban defenders in more than seven cities using human shields and hiding in hundreds of miles of underground networks purposely built under civilian sites while holding hundreds of hostages. The sole reason for civilian deaths in Gaza is Hamas. For Israel’s part, it’s taken more care to prevent them than any other army in human history.’”
Rabbi David Ingber, the founder of the New York Jewish congregation Romemu, expressed the anger many Israelis felt at Blinken and Schumer’s words. In a speech entitled “I Love Israel” Rabbi Ingber said, “Anyone who has ever spent a minute with an Israeli soldier or spent a minute in Israel knows how absurd that hypocritical statement is from Senator Chuck Schumer. Anyone who spent five minutes discussing with a general or anyone else in Israel what it is that they are contending with at this moment. … Anyone who knows that for five minutes can feel how insulting it is, how condescending it is to people who live in Israel [and] who send their children to the army. I have friends and family in Israel. Are their children genocidal maniacs? The young Israeli soldiers stationed on the Gaza border are not a part of a state-sponsored terrorist organization called the IDF. They are heroic soldiers in an army whose purpose is to protect the inhabitants of Israel from enemies whose sworn purpose is to cause Israelis harm.”
The day after Oct. 7, Israel could have carpet-bombed Gaza in a truly indiscriminate fashion. It could have killed hundreds of thousands of Gazans from the air. The war would have been called the “Three Day War” and not one Israeli soldier would have been called up and not one Israeli soldier would have died.
Instead, Israel called up hundreds of thousands of soldiers to put their lives at risk, not to make Israel safer—the Air Force could have achieved that mission—but rather to minimize Palestinian deaths. Israel has lost hundreds of soldiers in order to fight an ethical war. For anyone in America to then claim that Israel is not upholding Jewish values or risks becoming indistinguishable from Hamas and dehumanizing others is shameful and despicable.
The post Accusing Israel of Immorality Is Despicable first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Canada Is Evaluating Ties With Israel After Qatar Attack, Foreign Minister Says
Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand speaks during a High-level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution at UN headquarters in New York City, US, July 28, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jeenah Moon
Canada is evaluating its relationship with Israel after the attack on Hamas leaders in Qatar, foreign minister Anita Anand said on Wednesday, in the latest sign of unhappiness with the Israeli government.
Anand reiterated that Canada considered the attack to be unacceptable, especially given Qatari attempts to mediate a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Anand made her comments when asked whether Canada might follow the lead of the European Commission, which said it would propose the suspension of trade-related measures in a European Union agreement with Israel.
“We are evaluating our relationship with Israel,” Anand told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of the ruling Liberal Party in Edmonton.
Asked specifically whether Canada was considering any kinds of sanctions against Israel, she replied: “We will continue to evaluate our next steps.”
Canada has noticeably hardened its line on Israel under Prime Minister Mark Carney, who replaced Justin Trudeau in March. Carney announced in July that Canada would recognize Palestinian statehood, angering Israel.
Trudeau was generally supportive of Israel‘s campaign against Hamas, while occasionally criticizing actions of the Israeli military.
Carney on Tuesday condemned the Israeli airstrike, calling it “an intolerable expansion of violence” that risked escalating conflict throughout the region.
He said last month that Israel‘s plan to take control of Gaza City was “wrong”.
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Iran Says More Talks Needed to Bring About IAEA Inspections
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi speaks during a meeting with foreign ambassadors in Tehran, Iran, July 12, 2025. Photo: Hamid Forootan/Iranian Foreign Ministry/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
A new agreement between Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog does not guarantee inspectors’ access to Iranian nuclear sites and Tehran wants further talks on how inspections are carried out, the country’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.
Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reached a deal on Tuesday on resuming inspections at sites including those bombed by the US and Israel but gave no specifics, and Tehran said the deal was off if international sanctions were re-imposed.
“I have to reiterate the agreement does not currently provide access to IAEA inspectors, apart from the Bushehr nuclear plant,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told state TV in an interview.
“Based on reports that Iran will issue in the future, the nature of access will have to be discussed at an appropriate time,” he added.
Diplomats said the devil would be in the details of Tuesday’s agreement. No joint press conference was held in Cairo to provide details on what the IAEA has been calling “modalities” regarding the resumption of inspections.
The agreement comes against the backdrop of an ongoing threat by European powers to re-impose international sanctions against Iran that were lifted under a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and major powers.
The IAEA‘s Grossi said in a statement on Wednesday that the “technical document” agreed provided for “a clear understanding of the procedures for inspection, notifications, and implementation.”
“These include all facilities and installations in Iran and also contemplates the required reporting on all the attacked facilities, including the nuclear material present at those.”
While Iran‘s enrichment sites have been badly damaged or destroyed, it is less clear what has happened to the stockpile, which includes uranium enriched to up to 60 percent purity, a short step from the roughly 90 percent required for weapons-grade.
Araqchi said the IAEA‘s board of governors’ meeting on Wednesday would be crucial concerning how cooperation with the IAEA develops.
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Israel Attacks Sanaa, Al-Jawf in Latest Strikes on Houthis in Yemen
Smoke billows following an Israeli air strike in Sanaa, Yemen, Sept. 10, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
Israel struck the Yemeni capital Sanaa and the northern province of al–Jawf on Wednesday, with the Iran-backed Houthis rebels who control much of Yemen saying it killed nine people and wounded 118 others in an initial toll.
The strikes are the latest in a series of attacks and counterstrikes between Israel and Houthi terrorists in Yemen, part of a spillover from the war in Gaza.
The Israeli military said it had struck military camps, the headquarters of the Houthi military “propaganda” department, and a fuel storage site.
The Houthi’s military spokesperson denied in a statement later that Israel targeted missile launchers. “Its strikes targeted purely civilian targets,” he said.
He added that two newspapers were targeted, with journalists and passers-by falling between dead and wounded.
Sanaa residents told Reuters the attack was on a hideout between two mountains that is used as a command and control headquarters. The extent of any damage was not immediately clear.
The Israeli strikes also targeted the Houthi defense ministry, witnesses said.
The attack came days after an Aug. 30 strike on Sanaa killed the prime minister of the Houthi-run government and several ministers, in the first such assault to target senior officials.
“The strikes were carried out in response to attacks led by the Houthi terror regime against the State of Israel, during which unmanned aerial vehicles and surface-to-surface missiles were launched toward Israeli territory,” the Israeli military said.
The Iran-aligned Houthis, an internationally designated terrorist group, have attacked vessels in the Red Sea in what they describe as acts of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza.
They have also fired missiles towards Israel, most of which have been intercepted. Israel has responded with strikes on Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, including the vital Hodeidah port.