Israel’s story is intertwined with my family’s: my grandmother was born the same year that the United Nations recommended the Partition Plan, and she moved to Israel shortly after. A few months before the Six-Day War broke out, my father was born just south of Tel Aviv. During my gap year, I lived in the neighborhood of Tel Aviv where my grandmother grew up.

This personal history, along with my religious beliefs, has shaped my desire for a Jewish state in our ancestral homeland. Some people, including me, would call that Zionism. 

I am revealing this not only because it’s important to understand my perspective, but because I am in a unique position to express my opinions. I exist due to the fact that Israel was a safe place for my grandparents after the Holocaust. 

Yet, despite my ties to Israel, I cannot sit by as I watch its military mercilessly attack Gaza. There is no excuse for the level of destruction that has occurred against the innocent civilians who live there. The war must end. 

Here are my major grievances with the war in Gaza:

1. The war is being fought for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s personal gain, not for the good of Israel. 

While Netanyahu may claim his goal is to rescue the hostages, this is demonstrably untrue. Some Israeli officials have alleged that Netanyahu has foiled agreements to bring them back. Margalit Moses, a freed hostage, has refused to meet with Netanyahu for this reason. 

According to a poll conducted by Israeli network Channel 12, 70% of Israelis prefer a ceasefire and the release of hostages over continuing the war. Tens of thousands of Israelis, including many of my relatives, attend weekly protests to make their wishes heard. Unfortunately, their cries have fallen on the deaf ears of the most far-right government in Israeli history. 

The war is personally beneficial to Netanyahu. It allows him to retain the support of the ultra-right and avoid accountability for his role in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. Some Israeli officials have pointed out that Netanyahu’s government facilitated Qatar’s funding of Hamas and ignored the warnings of an incoming attack. A national reckoning will come when the war is over, and it is in Netanyahu’s interests to push back this date.

2. If the war’s goal is to defeat Hamas, it was fated to fail from the beginning. 

Netanyahu’s other stated goal is to defeat Hamas, which I, too, believe to be a terrorist group. Gazan civilians have been taking to the streets to protest Hamas’ rule, with people shouting this week, “To those with Hamas, be aware the people of Gaza will dig your grave.”  

It doesn’t take a military strategist to realize that killing all Hamas fighters is an impossible goal. Instead, the gruesome Israeli retaliation will end up instilling a deep hatred for Israel in the Gazan children who will grow up without limbs and parents, sowing the seeds of further turbulence in the region. 

3. The Israeli government does not care at all about the Gazan people. 

Millions of innocent people are suffering in Gaza. Nearly half of Gaza’s population is children, who had nothing to do with the atrocities of Oct. 7 — their only crime was being born. The Israeli government, however, clearly does not care about the lives of innocent Gazans. 

Earlier this week, Netanayhu explained that he would resume aid into Gaza after nearly three months of deprivation not because children were starving, but because Israel was losing support worldwide. Similarly, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said, “Civilians in Gaza will receive a pita and a plate of food and that is it.” Starvation is thus a policy of war. 

The Israeli government’s apathy toward Palestinian civilians is especially clear from activity in the occupied West Bank, with frequent attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians. Netanyahu’s government has supported expansion of these settlements.

4. It is not antisemitic to say that innocent people should not die. 

A few weeks ago, I was horrified to see The Free Press publish a piece titled, “The Gaza Famine Myth.” The article came from the same group of people who were rightly upset when the world denied the crimes that Hamas wrought upon Israel on Oct. 7. In other words, they want to be believed when atrocities occur to people they support, but when that group is associating with perpetuating atrocities, it must be a lie. 

I was equally appalled to see the advocacy group StopAntisemitism publish a hit piece on Ms. Rachel, a content creator for children with nearly 15 million YouTube subscribers, in the “Antisemite of the Week” section of their website. Her supposedly problematic behaviors included raising money for Gazan families and stating that Israel is blocking aid to Gaza. The organization called this “Hamas propaganda.”

StopAntisemitism later stated that Ms. Rachel had not been named “Antisemite of the Week,” but kept her on that section of the website alongside the likes of Kanye West for “organizational cohesiveness.”

Let me be clear: certain elements of the protests against Israel are antisemitic. Drawing attention to the plight of Gazan civilians is not. I understand, and support, Ms. Rachel’s actions. 

To mourn innocent lives is not political. It is an act of humanity.

Accusations like StopAntisemitism’s dilute the actual meaning of antisemitism, which runs rampant in the United States. After I wrote this piece on Wednesday night, two people were shot and killed at an event for young Jewish professionals at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington D.C. When antisemitism is used as an excuse for suppressing speech or stifling sympathy, the public stops believing claims of it. 

A problematic complication of this dynamic is that many of the people wielding the accusation of antisemitism aren’t Jewish at all, but certain Christians motivated by political gain, like those at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. The New York Times recently published an investigation of the foundation’s Project Esther: A National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism, a playbook for politically combatting pro-Palestine protesters. 

While the White House has not explicitly said they are using this playbook to target college protests, the federal government has used many of the strategies originally put forward, like revoking protesters’ visas and stripping funding from universities. 

I am no stranger to criticism myself. In September, I wrote a piece in the Chicago Sun-Times accusing Republicans of hypocrisy on antisemitism, and I received emails saying I am a “Hamas supporter” and a “convenient idiot.” I disagree on both counts. While I can tell you that I think Hamas is a terrorist group, you’ll have to take my word for it that I’m not an idiot. 

Rude accusations, however, will not stop me. Although I wasn’t born in Israel like my father, it is still a fundamental part of my personal story. When it comes time to pass it on to my children, I will tell them about the people who were murdered on Oct. 7, and the subsequent massacre of Gaza in retaliation. I want to be able to tell them that I opposed this mass death. 

Talia Winiarsky is a Weinberg junior. She can be contacted at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this op-ed, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected]. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.