Kansans who care about Palestine must face harsh realities about Hamas | Opinion
There are times when joy and anguish arrive hand in hand. Since Hamas released its last 20 living hostages, my congregants and I at Temple Beth Sholom in Topeka have felt both emotions deeply. For two years, our hearts ached for the men, women and children kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. The return of these last living hostages is an answered prayer, but the coming funerals of those murdered in Hamas captivity remind us that the trauma continues.
From the heartland of the Midwest, we felt connected to their ordeal in the Middle East. Our synagogue stood with hostage families, held interfaith vigils, collected donations for Israel’s version of the Red Cross and wrote letters to the families of the hostages so they knew they weren’t alone. We displayed photos of the 251 captives — from infants to the elderly — to remind us that these were real people and not abstract political pawns.
Those who survived Hamas captivity endured unspeakable suffering. Survivors described months spent in darkness, malnourished and terrified, hidden deep in Hamas tunnels. They were traded for nearly 2,000 Palestinian security prisoners, including mass murderers. We should not mistake such exchanges for triumph: Israel brings home the innocent, while Hamas redeems the guilty.
If we want to forestall another round of violence, we must now reckon with why this war happened in the first place: the desire to destroy Israel. Hamas’ original charter makes clear that its goal is the elimination of Israel, not an independent Palestine. Its leaders have vowed to repeat their attacks on civilians until Israel is dismantled.
In 2007, Hamas seized all control of Gaza from Fatah, its rival Palestinian party, and proceeded to instigate wars with Israel in 2008, 2012, 2014, 2021 and 2023. Each round of fighting was sparked by Hamas rocket fire at Israeli cities or attacks on Israeli civilians that no country could abide, such as when Hamas operatives kidnapped and murdered three Israeli teenagers in 2014. As it appeared that normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia was in the offing, Hamas overwhelmed Israeli defenses and murdered 1,200 Israelis to prevent peace. Activists including Vivian Silver, one of the founders of Women Wage Peace, were murdered on Oct. 7 because nothing threatens Hamas more than reconciliation.
Some will argue that the last two years prove that coexistence is impossible, but history shows us otherwise. Israel’s treaties with Egypt and Jordan, and the Abraham Accords with many other Muslim-majority countries, prove that peace is achievable. The real obstacle at this point is anti-Zionism, the movement to destroy Israel. Anti-Zionism demands maximalist positions, rejects compromise, rejects peacebuilding efforts and has brought untold grief to ordinary people. Anti-Zionism states that there is nothing Israel can do, short of committing national suicide, to end the conflict. Anti-Zionism gives hope to extremists like Hamas who believe in eradication. It is time, finally, for the anti-Zionist dream to be abandoned.
We can build a better future only when the dream of destroying Israel is rejected and the hard work of compromise is embraced. Western movements that claim solidarity with Palestinians, including groups right here in Kansas, must drop their chants of erasure — “From the river to the sea” or “Globalize the intifada” — and demand genuine statecraft from Palestinian leaders. Israelis, too, will need to find leaders ready to meet such a moment. The alternative is another generation sacrificed to the false promise that one people’s flourishing requires the other’s extinction.
For my congregation, this homecoming affirms why we love and support Israel. We are not celebrating conquest. We are celebrating the lives saved. We will honor the murdered by burying them in the land they loved and by working for a future where no parent waits two years to hold a kidnapped child. That future requires consigning the dream of destroying Israel to history and beginning the hard work of building a shared tomorrow.
Samuel Stern is the rabbi of Temple Beth Sholom of Topeka.