I appreciated hearing the perspectives of Joanne Bregman et al. in their letter to the editor from October, but I want to point out that the assumptions that were made about what fuels terrorist activity and how to stop it are not rooted in research. Military strategies may disable terrorist organizations temporarily, but the ideologies behind the organizations cannot be eliminated through bombs or military means.1 Only the multifaceted and complex work of addressing the roots of a long-standing conflict will produce a lasting and sustainable peace into the future.2
This task is anything but simple, but it is of course worth it. And the longer that we let these brutal attacks continue on all sides, the harder the work towards a resolution becomes. Let’s demand a ceasefire and begin that work now. We can strive for a more peaceful future for all in the Middle East, while simultaneously giving Israel a better chance to achieve true security for its own citizens and for Jews around the world.
In the opinion piece I wrote in the September issue, I never drew a moral equivalency between Hamas and the Israeli government, but I do believe that the loss of each innocent life is a dire tragedy, no matter if they are Arab or Jewish. I hope we can agree that we need to do everything in our power to protect innocent life, and especially to protect young children, no matter who they are. The strategy that Israel continues to carry out and escalate in Gaza, and now in Lebanon as well, is not just devastating to the communities that have been targeted (and will be for generations to come), but it is also immoral according to Jewish teachings and it is counter-productive to building a truly safe and secure Jewish state.
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