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Israel’s “starvation plan” for Gaza.
The world rushes to judgement
By GREGORY MASON (May 28, 2025) Israel’s re-imposition of a blockade on food and other necessities of life flowing into Gaza produced the expected hail of condemnation from the usual suspects. Typical was the reaction by Alex de Waal writing on UnHerd (May 22, 2025), a blog that prides itself on swimming against the current. De Wael writes:
“It seems monstrous, as we watch children in Gaza wasting before our eyes. But in truth, the weaponisation of food in counterinsurgency is nothing new.”
He continues to place Israel’s current blockage in the same category as infamous starvation programmes intended to demoralize a population, such as the British campaign of the fifties to suppress the Malayan counterinsurgency. This is a crude characterization of Israeli goals and motivations for the renewed military push into Gaza and the blockade on food aid.
Benny Morris, the noted Israeli historian, also expressed doubts about this strategy, although in a more nuanced tone than de Wael. Writing in Quillette magazine (May 24, 2025), he stated:
“Meanwhile, Israel’s international position dramatically worsened. EU member states and Canada have imposed minor sanctions against the Jewish state and threaten worse. Observers in Jerusalem have warned that Israel faces an international relations “tsunami.” In Washington, Israel’s staunchest ally, President Donald Trump’s aides, speaking anonymously, told The Washington Post that a break with Israel is likely if it does not end its war-making in the Gaza Strip.”
And more concretely on the withdrawal of food, fuel and medical supplies on March 2, 2025, he writes,
“Western public opinion and European governments are driven by daily TV clips from Gaza showing dead and dying women and children, though never dead and dying combat-age males. They are also influenced by worsening humanitarian conditions on the ground—Trump has even spoken hyperbolically of “a lot of people starving,”
The allegation that Israel has starved the Gaza population is a fabrication. According to the World Food Program, 94.000 tons of food can feed one million people for four months. During the first months of 2025, up to the most recent Israeli blockade, Gaza received 380,000 tons of supplies, sufficient to feed its population of 2.1 million for eight months. What happened to the extra supplies?
In a word, Hamas intercepted the supplies, allowed some to dribble to the civilian population, but then sold most to local merchants at widely inflated prices, to pay salaries to its fighters and acquire more military equipment. This expropriation has been an open secret for years. Hamas has diverted all the well-meaning aid from the West to create the military infrastructure and to support the lavish lifestyles of its political leadership in Qatar. For example, the late Ismail Haniyeh was estimated to have a net worth of $4 – $6 billion at the time of his assassination.
The current Israeli call-up of 30,000 reservists and deployment of regular troops into Gaza was triggered by the refusal of Hamas to agree to the release of 10 hostages, the cessation of all hostilities, and to lay down its arms. It did not occur out of a vacuum.
Israel’s stated goals for the current action in Gaza are to recover all hostages (estimated dead (39) and alive (20), control of Gaza militarily, the complete elimination of Hamas, and forcing the civilian population into areas where they can receive food aid without interference.
Notably, while the Geneva Convention requires all combatants to care for civilian populations, if one party subverts the distribution of aid, the other parties are no longer obligated to provide food aid. Under this criterion, the diversion of aid by Hamas appears to have obviated Israel’s legal requirement to distribute aid to Gaza,
But legality and political reality diverge especially when it comes to Israel. Quite simply, Israel has always struggled with public relations and communication. In contrast, the messages of Hamas have a fertile field of skepticism by much of Western media that seems ready to believe the worst of Israeli intentions. The recent statements of Starmer, Macron, and Carney neatly capture this deep confusion among Western leaders. Recent developments regarding food supplies to Gaza may force these virtue signalers to reconsider their stance; however, that’s a slim chance.
A hopeful development, if anything about Gaza can be promising, is the creation of a US-based NGO, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which will manage food distribution to the civilian population under the protection of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). After initial glitches triggered by Hamas interference, aid appears to be flowing to the civilian population. IDF reports cautiously claim that the limited capacity of Hamas to impede food distribution, as well as increased boldness of the population to defy Hamas, indicate its weakness.
As with everything about Gaza, the food aid situation is volatile, but some grounds exist for cautious optimism that mass starvation has been averted.
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NELLA MARGRITHE ESKIN NOVEMBER 14, 1946 – AUGUST 27, 2025
It is with great sorrow that the Eskin family reports the passing of Nella Margrithe Eskin, beloved wife and devoted partner of Michael Eskin, on August 27, 2025.
Nella, the only child of the late Kasiel and Rosa Kessler, Holocaust survivors, was born in a displaced persons camp in Fohrenwald, Germany, in 1946. The family first moved to Baltimore as refugees in 1949 before settling in Chicago, where Nella graduated from Roosevelt University with Bachelor of Science degree.
In 1969, she met Michael, and three months later they were married in Chicago in March 1970. They shared a wonderful marriage of over 55 years, during which they raised a family of four boys and created a home that was always full of song, food, guests and Yiddishkeit. Sadly, their eldest son, Katriel, passed away in 2015. Nella is survived by her other three sons, Josh, Ezra and Daniel, and their families as well as Katriel’s wife and family. She was a devoted wife, mother, and grandmother to her husband, sons, and ten grandchildren, and a loving daughter to her mother, Rosa, who passed away in 2020.
A lifelong scholar, she earned an MBA from the University of Manitoba in 1995. Nella was a very pious and learned woman who was also a wonderful artist, music lover, gardener and cook. She passed her love of music, art, storytelling and learning to her children, teaching each of them piano and instilling in them an enduring appreciation for the arts that continues to this day. She was an incredibly warm woman and made every gathering feel special, every guest feel valued, and every meal feel like a celebration of love and friendship.
She will be sorely missed by her husband, children, grandchildren, relatives in the UK, USA, Australia, and Israel, and many dear friends. Her kindness, curiosity, and love will live on in the many lives she touched. May her memory be
a blessing.
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VIDEO: Moishele Alfonso on the new book of I. L. Peretz stories for students
לכּבֿוד דער פּובליקאַציע פֿונעם ביכל „אויפֿן װעג: זיבן דערציילונגען פֿון י.־ל. פּרץ“ — אַ זאַמלונג ספּעציעל געמאַכט פֿאַר סטודענטן — קען מען איצט זען אַן אינטערוויו מיטן ייִדיש־לערער משהלע אַלפֿאָנסאָ, וואָס האָט פֿאַרקירצט און באַאַרבעט די דערציילונגען.
אין דעם אינטערוויו דערציילט אַלפֿאָנסאָ וועגן דעם פּראָצעס פֿון שאַפֿן דאָס ביכל, און לייענט געקליבענע אויסצוגן דערפֿון. דער אינטערוויו, געפֿירט פֿון אלי בענעדיקט, איז געשטיצט געוואָרן פֿון דער ייִדיש־ליגע, וואָס האָט אויך אַרויסגעגעבן דאָס לייענביכל.
דאָס נאָוואַטאָרישע ביכל גיט דעם לייענער אַ צוטריט צו קלאַסישע ייִדיש־דערציילונגען דורך אַ זײַט־בײַ־זײַטיקן גלאָסאַר, שמועס־פֿראַגעס און קלאַנג־רעקאָרדירונגען פֿון די מעשׂיות.
משהלע אַלפֿאָנסאָ איז אַ ייִדיש־לערער בײַם ייִדישן ביכער־צענטער זינט 2019. אין 2022 האָט ער, דורכן פֿאַרלאַג „אָלניאַנסקי־טעקסט“, טראַנסקריבירט און אַרויסגעגעבן יצחק באַשעוויסעס בוך „שׂונאים: די געשיכטע פֿון אַ ליבע“. דער ראָמאַן איז אַרויס אין המשכים אינעם פֿאָרווערטס אין 1966, און ס’איז דאָס ערשטע מאָל וואָס שׂונאים איז אַרויס אין בוכפֿאָרעם אויף ייִדיש.
דאָס ביכל קען מען באַשטעלן דאָ.
The post VIDEO: Moishele Alfonso on the new book of I. L. Peretz stories for students appeared first on The Forward.
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VIDEO: Peter, Paul and Mary’s “Light One Candle” — in Yiddish
If, like me, you enjoy listening to old recordings of the iconic folk group Peter, Paul and Mary, you may want to check this out: a new Yiddish version of their Hanukkah song “Light One Candle,” sung by another talented trio — Rabbi Avram, Elisha and Sarah Mlotek. (A transliteration of the lyrics appears beneath the video below.)
The three siblings are the grown children of Zalmen Mlotek, musician and director of the Yiddish National Theater Folksbiene, and his wife, Debbie Mlotek. Rabbi Avram is a writer, Elisha is a filmmaker and Sarah is studying music at a conservatory in Israel — and just became a mom.
Their singing is backed up by C. Joseph Lanzbom on guitar and Elisha on percussion.
The original song, which was written by Peter Yarrow, became an anthem for the Soviet Jewry movement in the 1980s, symbolizing their struggle for freedom. It was translated into Yiddish by the theater producer Moishe Rosenfeld and Avram Mlotek.
“‘Light One Candle’ was one of our Bubbe’s favorite songs every time we got together for a Hanukkah sing-along,” Avram said. Their Bubbe was the renowned scholar of Yiddish song, Chana Mlotek. For many years, she and her husband, the Yiddish cultural activist Yosl Mlotek, ran a column about Yiddish songs and poetry in the Forward.
Although Hanukkah is still a month away, Bubby Chana’s grandchildren had a meaningful reason for publishing it now: This week marks her yortzeit.
TRANSLITERATION
Eyn likht shaynt far di heldishe kinder
A dank vos dos likht geyt nit oys
Eyn likht shaynt far di payn un di laydn
Di sakone’z geven azoy groys
Eyn likht flakert far korbones un laydn
Az yoysher un frayhayt zol zayn
Eyn likhtl flakert far khokhme un visn
Far frayhayt un sholem zol zayn.
Lesht nit di likhtlekh oys!
Zey flakern shoyn doyres-lang
Lesht nit di likhtlekh oys!
Balaykhtn durkh undzer gezang!
Eyn likht flakert tsu gebn undz koyekh
Az eybik mir’n blaybn getray
Eyn likht flakert far mentshn vos laydn
Oykh mir zenen nisht geven fray
Eyn likhtl flakert far zise khaloymes
Tseteyln zol undz nisht der kas
Un eyn likhtl flakert tsu haltn tsuzamen
Mit sholem un mer nisht kayn has
Lesht nit di likhtlekh oys!
Zey flakern shoyn doyres-lang
Lesht nit di likhtlekh oys!
Balaykhtn durkh undzer gezang!
Vos iz di mayse vos iz azoy tayer
Vos lebt eybik in undzer flam?
Vos iz di shvue tsu fargangene doyres
Az es lebt undzer folk, undzer am?
Mir kumen, mir geyen, mir hofn, mir gloybn
Az yoysher vet vern der klal
Dos iz der viln, dos iz di shvue
A shenere velt iberal!
Lesht nit di likhtlekh oys!
Zey flakern shoyn doyres-lang
Lesht nit di likhtlekh oys!
Balaykhtn durkh undzer gezang!
The post VIDEO: Peter, Paul and Mary’s “Light One Candle” — in Yiddish appeared first on The Forward.