Letter: In Support of an Arms Embargo

The following comment was offered on a petition being circulated by Jewish Voice for Peace, supporting an embargo on sending U.S. weapons to Israel.

I am a Jewish-American, with Cantors and Rabbis in my family’s history.
As a child, I donated to plant trees in the Negev.

Some of my family did not survive the Holocaust; I am named after one of them. We understand “Never Again”.

What I understand is that no group, no family, no tribe, no people should suffer genocide or a holocaust, and that includes the Palestinian people who live and suffer under Israeli rule. 

Taking one side is unbalanced, short-sighted, and useless; no good can come of standing only with the Israeli people or only with the Palestinians. 

As a Jew, I cannot condone American military support bowing to the far right-wing Israeli government under Netanyahu. Bebe is determined to destroy infrastructure in Gaza, cause maximum suffering, render homeless, starve, and perhaps exterminate generations of Palestinians in Gaza (and also the West Bank). We can’t close our eyes: of the 42,000+ killed (so far), 70% of those deaths are women and children.

No person of conscience, whether Jewish or not, whether religious or not, can sanction such abuse of power or military might. Let’s be clear: there will never be peace under Netanyahu; he’s not interested in a cease-fire or in acknowledging that the Palestinians have any rights at all. He’s only expanded his aggressions in the Middle East, with no end in sight. No wonder most of the Arab states wish to see Israel destroyed. Netanyahu’s war posture makes the Israeli people unsafe! 

Remember when the whole world was with us after 9/11? That support faded when Bush started a war on the wrong country, based on false intel on the existence of WMD. We killed many, many Iraqis. For a while, Israel, too, had support from much of the world after the October 7 massacre. That sympathy turned to rage, once Israel went way beyond self-defense to a war of domination and aggression.

America can do so much better! Let’s not help the IDF take so many innocent lives. America has leverage which it is not using! As a Jew, I’m horrified that America could be allied with such destruction and dehumanization of a long-suffering people. 

The Palestinians are my brothers and sisters; we are both Semitic peoples with a shared ancient land, and a shared ancient history. We Jews say ‘Shalom Aleichem’; they say ‘Salaam Aleykum’ – they are the same words of greeting – “Peace be unto you”. And the word peace is also in the name Jeru-salem which means ‘the City of Peace’. Would it not be wonderful to create policy that encourages peace-making? War is stupid and tragic; we must use our leverage and power to back away from this ongoing catastrophe, withdraw the use of our weaponry, and instead lead with wisdom and love.

Dinah Kudatsky

Dinah Kudatsky is a resident of Amherst