We live in a world of slogans. “Free Palestine!” people shout on the streets of New York and London, but from whom?
“From the river to the sea!” they continue, but from which river and which sea? “Humanitarian aid,” but in what way is it humanitarian? In a world with a three-second concentration span, don’t ask too many hard questions. The slogan is what matters.
I had a hard training in my twenties as a strategy consultant with one of the top firms in the UK. A key strategic tool that we used was called “stakeholder analysis.” This involved looking at a decision from the perspective of all the potential stakeholders who would be affected by that decision: i.e., customers, employees, shareholders, and more.
So, let’s do a stakeholder analysis of the blockade of the Israeli crossing into Gaza at Kerem Shalom, to prevent the delivery of so-called “humanitarian aid” to the Gazan people. This will explain why my son and I, and hundreds of Israelis affected deeply by this war, are attempting to block the convoys of food and fuel being delivered to Hamas in Gaza.
Firstly, let’s consider the Gazan people. I believe that most of them are innocent and would like to live a good life in peace, but they have been living in fear under a totalitarian jihadist regime for 20 years. Furthermore, the radical terrorists who rule them are their brothers, cousins, and children. If Israel were able to put pressure on the people by causing a fear of famine, by withholding aid for a week or so, I believe that this would be more than sufficient to encourage the parents, cousins, and brothers of the terrorists to force them to hand over the Israeli hostages, to surrender and begin the process of rebuilding a better future.
If this does not happen, and the war continues as it has, tens of thousands more Gazans are likely to die in the ensuing battles. Surely a week of fear of famine and a swift end to Hamas is preferable to that? We know that most of the humanitarian aid goes to the Hamas terrorists, enabling them to fight another week with fuel and food, and with the goodwill of their people, who are prepared to pay them inflated prices to buy their portion of the free aid.
Taking Israelis into consideration
NEXT, CONSIDER the Israeli people. We would all prefer Hamas to surrender and hand back our hostages next week, without having to enter into another suicidal ceasefire agreement where we release the enemy’s psychotic murderers in exchange for our hostages and allow the enemy to regroup, putting the lives of our soldiers at greater risk when they return to the battlefield.
Who could be against a short-term blockade of our enemy? Only President Joe Biden. Biden is coming up for re-election and it is unpleasant for him to be connected to a war in the Middle East where Israel is fighting for its very existence.
It is unpleasant that “innocent children” are dying in battle, even though the US has been funding UNRWA schools that educate those very children how to kill Jews for the past 20 years (i.e. for their whole lives). If Biden could just stave off any unpleasant warfare for the next few months, then maybe he would have a chance of being reelected.
I’m neither a Democrat nor a Republican. I am, however, a Jew. I don’t need Biden to explain to me what is “humanitarian,” nor do I need the UN, nor the “Court of Spurious Decisions” in The Hague. After four months of fighting in Gaza, the most humanitarian action at this point is a short blockade to put pressure on the Gazan people to finish this war.
Nothing but a complete surrender and a return of our hostages should be considered humanitarian from now on. So, let’s leave Biden to worry about his own problems, and let’s blockade the “Hamasitarian” aid being trucked in at Kerem Shalom, and end this war once and for all, with a good outcome for all. Peace for the Gazans, a homecoming for our hostages, and a return to normal life for our soldiers and the refugees from our northern and Gazan borders.
The writer, a rabbi, is an educator living in Efrat, and has been designated by the Israeli government as a special envoy for social initiatives. His book Transforming the World: The Jewish Impact on Modernity has been republished in English and Hebrew in memory of his wife Lucy and daughters Maia and Rina, who were murdered by terrorists in April 2023.