I have been thinking for a long while about writing a post describing my views about the war in the Middle East. It’s not something I could toss off easily because my views are complicated.

As a Jew, I support Israel because I am painfully aware of the many centuries of Jew-hatred. My father’s father and mother fled Poland in the mid-19th century. All the Jews in their hometown (Lomza) were subsequently murdered by the Nazis. My mother and her immediate family (parents and sister) fled Bessarabia (now Moldova) in 1914 after a pogrom. Not one member of the families they left behind survived the Holocaust. Not one. Jews know in their bones that nowhere is truly safe from anti-Semitism.

After World War II, Israel became that one place where it was safe to be Jewish. A tiny speck of a nation but besieged by its neighbors, who were determined to destroy it on the first day of its existence. Surrounded by neighbors who did not believe it had the right to exist. Egypt and Jordan have made peace, and four others established diplomatic relations in 2020 (Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Sudan), but other Muslim nations have not. Saudi Arabia was about to recognize Israel before October 7. Hamas does not accept Israel’s right to exist: that’s the literal meaning of “from the river to the sea.”

I was in Berlin on October 7. It was a horrifying day as news of the atrocities filtered out. First reports said that 70 people had been murdered, then the numbers grew, as did stories of parents murdered in front of their children, entire families slaughtered, women brutally raped and murdered, grenades thrown into bomb shelters where people were hiding, homes burned with their occupants inside, hundreds of young people murdered at a dance concert, scores of people—elderly people, even babies—taken hostage. It got worse by the minute. The killers videotaped their atrocities and their joy as they murdered.

As I watched the reports on television, I learned that one of my grandsons was in Israel, visiting friends at a dive resort in Eilat where he had worked for two years as a marine photographer. I worried about him getting out safely, and he did, a week later. He told me that he had plans to go to the SuperNova concert but the friends who offered him a ride had a quarrel and broke up, so he didn’t go. Thank God.

Hamas lured Israel into a trap. Hamas expected massive retaliation and was willing to accept mass casualties of their people. Hamas not only blocked Saudi recognition but managed to put the Palestinian cause on the front pages and make themselves the victims, not the Israelis. Days after the Hamas attack, Timothy Snyder warned that acts of mass terror are a trap and warned Israel not to fall into it.

He wrote:

Terror can be a weapon of the weak, designed to get the strong to use their strength against themselves. Terrorists know what they are going to do, and have an idea what will follow. They mean to create an emotional situation where self-destructive action seems like the urgent and only choice.

When you have been terrorized, the argument that I am making seems absurd; the terrorists can seem to you to be raving beasts who just need punishment. Yet however horrible the crime, it usually does not bespeak a lack of planning. Usually part of the plan is to enrage.

Netanyahu took the bait.

I hold Hamas responsible for the egregious atrocities that ignited the war.

I hold Netanyahu responsible for ignoring multiple warnings of an imminent attack, including those from the unarmed young women in the IDF who served as observers (“spotters”) at the border and saw Hamas militants practicing for the assault (most of the spotters were murdered in the first wave of attacks).

I hold Netanyahu responsible for imagining that Hamas had become moderates as they collected hundreds of millions from friendly Arab nations. Hamas spent the money building elaborate tunnels and stockpiling weapons, not on building a good economy and public services for the people of Gaza.

I hold Netanyahu responsible for placating Hamas to prevent the creation of a Palestinian nation, which is the only just solution to the endless subjugation of Palestinians by Israel.

I hold Netanyahu responsible for encouraging Israelis to build settlements in the West Bank on land that should be part of a Palestinian state and treating those settlers as superior to the native Palestinians.

I hold Netanyahu responsible for the indiscriminate bombing of Gaza, which is killing thousands of innocent men, women, and children and reducing cities, towns, and communities to rubble. In the meantime, this ruthless campaign is making Israel a pariah state and endangering the remaining hostages.

Since October 7, I have subscribed to Haaretz and learned a great deal about the widespread antipathy towards Netanyahu. Most Israelis agree that Netanyahu must go. Close to 80% oppose him. I want him to resign or stand for election as soon as possible. I hope he is soon replaced by a leader devoted to pursuing peace with the Palestinians and a genuine two-state solution, as the UN envisioned 75 years ago. Genuine leadership would withdraw all the settlements from the West Bank, as they were withdrawn from Gaza in 2005. Genuine leadership would plan for a future of peace and prosperity for the region, not only for Israel.

The pursuit of peace requires both sides to negotiate in good faith. Spokesmen for Hamas have vowed to attack Israel again and again in the future. Hamas cannot be trusted to negotiate in good faith. They are terrorists and proud of it. No Israeli government can endure a terrorist regime on its borders. Other Arab nations will have to commit themselves to stopping Hamas terrorism. They must stop funding Hamas and collaborate to build a functional government for any new Palestinian state, a government that forswears terrorism and is committed to providing security, economic development, and public services for its people.

I stand with Israel. I oppose terrorism. I hope for a day when the Jewish state lives free of the fear of terrorism and of war, side by side with neighbors that respect its borders and that share in regional prosperity. If that day ever comes, the people of the Middle East will enjoy a new world of peace.