Let’s start with a simple truth: If humanitarian organizations truly cared about Palestinians, there would have been one unyielding demand every single day for more than 600 days: Release the hostages. That simple, urgent truth should have been the rallying cry of every world leader, echoing from every newspaper and every television screen.
Instead, more than 100 NGOs issued a statement condemning Israel that conspicuously fails to mention Hamas, terrorism or the 50 hostages, dead and alive, that stew in Gaza as their families agonize. This staggering omission reveals their true priorities—not Palestinian dignity or Israeli security, but performative outrage tailored to blame only one side. The war could have ended months ago if these groups had exerted pressure on Qatar to force its Hamas allies to release the captives. Their silence is a betrayal, prolonging the conflict and deepening the very suffering they claim to alleviate.
This is not neutrality. It is complicity.
Many humanitarian groups are enablers of Hamas’s propaganda machine. They know that every word they utter and every action they take is contingent upon the goodwill of terrorists who weaponize the subsequent opprobrium heaped on Israel. The deceitfulness of organizations like UNRWA that allowed their facilities to double as terror bases should have irreparably tarred their reputations; instead, they remain cloaked in a halo of undeserved righteousness.
Israel has made critical missteps in this war. It backed itself into a corner, believing that the world would tolerate a siege on Gaza long enough to work. It misjudged Hamas’s grip on the population and misunderstood how thoroughly Gazans have been indoctrinated or intimidated into submission. It misread global sympathy, assuming that the horrors of Oct. 7 would not be so quickly erased from public memory.
Instead, the world has moved on, thanks in no small part to a media ecosystem that has willingly served as Hamas’s press office.
We’ve seen this movie before, from the fabricated story of a mutilated baby in the First Lebanon War to the al-Dura hoax of the Second Intifada. Today’s version features viral images of “starving” children, one later exposed by a journalist as a child with cerebral palsy whose healthy family was cropped from the shot, another suffering from a genetic condition flown from Israel to Italy for treatment.
These examples do not negate all Palestinian suffering. Still, they expose a media ecosystem that is not just biased but actively manufacturing a narrative at the expense of the truth.
We are in a Cartesian moment where the world thinks Palestinians are starving; therefore, they are.
Israel’s siege strategy—legal under international law—was undermined not by its military effectiveness but by Western leaders’ squeamishness. Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump both short-circuited Israel’s attempt to break Hamas through a blockade. Biden wasn’t willing to watch innocent Gazans suffer and forced Israel to end the policy before it had time to be tested. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reimposed the siege, believing Trump had less empathy, but he, too, proved unwilling to stomach the optics of Palestinian hunger and did not want European governments to seize the narrative and undermine his self-styled role as a peacemaker.
Hamas’s intransigence in hostage negotiations ruined Trump’s repeated promises that a deal was around the corner. He decided to back Netanyahu’s goal of destroying the group, but not at the expense of the images running on daily newscasts and occupying the front pages of the major newspapers. So, for the second time, a U.S. president has killed the Israeli siege strategy.
This was a strategic disaster for Israel. Hamas is strengthened, the hostages remain captive, and global anger at Israel, including the United States, is growing. A new Gallup poll found American approval of Israel’s military action in Gaza at a new low of 32%. This is driven by Democrats’ abandonment of Israel; only 8% stand with Israel compared to 71% of Republicans (up from 66% last September). Netanyahu’s gamble—that Republican backing and Trump’s return to power would protect U.S.-Israel relations—has mostly paid off. Still, the cost may be high should Democrats regain control of the White House and Congress.
Meanwhile, many progressive Jews and the ever-present “AsAJew” chorus rush to condemn Israel to signal their virtue. Like French and British leaders, they are also jumping on the two-state hobby horse, unconcerned that flooding Gaza with aid is throwing a lifeline to Hamas, rewarding it with legitimacy and proving that terrorism does pay. The Palestinians are not required to make any sacrifices, not even releasing hostages, to receive the gift of statehood. Ultimately, the prize is meaningless since there is no land on which this state can exist without Israel’s assent.
French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer may see rhetorical support of a state as a sop to quiet their progressive bases, but it will do nothing for the Palestinians. The 147 countries that have recognized “Palestine” haven’t brought that state one inch closer to existence. It remains as fictional as Narnia, Wakanda or Westeros, except potentially far more lethal.
True supporters of Israel are not fair-weather friends who abandon their ally out of fear of what their friends will think of them or the need to feign moral superiority. Israelis are not children in need of a public scolding from the Diaspora. They need solidarity, not sanctimony.
Still, given the unpleasant reality, the pro-Israel community is caught in a quandary. They know the truth: that claims of a famine in Gaza are a grotesque exaggeration, that Hamas diverts and steals aid, and that Israel, despite the lies, is not targeting civilians. Yet the facts no longer matter. This is a moment of political faith, not of reason.
Many critics justifiably blame Israeli hasbara, or PR, which is abysmal. Where are the American ambassadors who, in past conflicts, regularly made Israel’s case on cable-TV news? Some of the most articulate voices were sidelined over political disputes, while some current government officials make incendiary remarks that give ammunition to Israel’s enemies.
Regardless, PR has its limits. If you’ll excuse the treif metaphor: You can’t put lipstick on a pig. Only Israeli officials must defend their government’s actions. The rest of us must put issues in context. The problem is that the facts debunking the claims of famine and the evidence of Hamas stealing aid and sabotaging the Israel-backed aid distribution system are falling on deaf ears. We are in a Cartesian moment where the world thinks Palestinians are starving; therefore, they are.
Israel’s critics ignore the paradox they have created. Israel’s willingness to allow aid into Gaza, to facilitate humanitarian corridors, and to support international relief efforts destroys their accusation of genocide. Genocidal regimes don’t allow food trucks to roll in or hospitals to be supplied to sustain their purported victims.
The PR battle was lost on Oct. 8 when the massacre faded from headlines and the images of Palestinian suffering took its place. But that does not mean we must surrender to this narrative.
Instead of jumping on the bandwagon to assuage guilty feelings, Jews need to show backbone and stop worrying about what the goyim and their progressive friends will think. It is past time for the “AsANon-Jews” to speak for the hostages who have been starving for more than 600 days. Let the UN, Doctors Without Borders, WHO, Oxfam and the rest of the hypocrites organize aid and medicine for the 20 Israelis clinging to life in far worse conditions than any endured by Gazans. Until then, their silence on the hostages will continue to speak louder than their condemnations of Israel.
