You’re propagandistic because you think, despite blatant evidence to the contrary, that Israel did anything other than fight a justified war that exceeded the humanitarian standards of the Western notions of war.  Just to be clear, Israel exceeded, not violated, humanitarian standards.  It’s easy to see if you apply some critical thinking.  

 Hamas said there were 65,400 casualties from the war.  That’s an unreliable number, given that it was produced by a terrorist organization trying to score propaganda points against Israel (which apparently worked.) Hamas “backed up” that number by producing lists of names.  That number includes every last death in Gaza for the last two years, regardless of cause. Hamas acknowledged that. Hamas said its lists included non-combat deaths. That means it includes natural deaths and infant mortality that have historically been about 6,000 and 800, respectively, per year in Gaza.  That leaves 58,600 Gazan deaths from the war.  Let’s stop with the adjustments there, even though the lists are riddled with additional overcounts and errors (some say up to another 4,000 inaccuracies due things like including names of people who died pre 10/7).  So, let’s just leave the overcount of 58,600.  That number doesn’t separate out the terrorists Israel killed, either.  Israel says it killed 25,000.  So that leaves 33,600 arguably civilian deaths.  

 That means there were 1.3 civilians killed for every 1 terrorist killed. That ratio is the lowest (that’s a good thing if you value civilian life) ever recorded in any urban war, not to mention an urban environment with over 350 miles of terror tunnels in a war started by a terrorist group that admittedly uses human shields. It’s so unbelievably low.  No other conflict is close.  So there goes the whole claim of genocide, cruelty, disproportionality or any other nonsense.

 I know you’re thinking, “Israel is lying when it says it killed 25,000 terrorists.”  And that leads me to my next point.  If you believe Hamas’ numbers but don’t believe Israel’s numbers, that means you have an inclination to be anti-Israel. I don’t know how you came to think that way.  The Tidewater Jewish community didn’t teach you that.  Maybe your hatred of Netanyahu has irrationally metastasized into a hatred of Israel.  Maybe you’re ashamed of being Jewish or want your non-Jewish antisemitic friends to accept you.  

 Need more proof that you are anti-Israel?  The claim of famine is false on its face. Only someone looking for a fact-free excuse to make Israel look bad would allege it.  One essential element of the IPC definition of famine is that there are 2 deaths per 10,000 people per day from a lack of food.  If there were 1,000,000 people in Gaza City, that would mean 200 deaths per day in Gaza City. Hamas’ own report (in other words, terrorist propaganda) was 212 deaths over 7 months in all of Gaza from lack of food.  

 I don’t know how you turned out this way.  By “this way,” I mean predisposed to believe Hamas over Israel.  But I care. If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t have told you what I think.  And just to make sure it sinks in, I’ll say it again: you’re propagandistic and you’re anti-Israel.  Get your act together.  If you do, maybe I’ll listen.

A member of Tidewater’s Jewish community

Letters to the editor reflect the opinions of the writers, not of Jewish News or United Jewish Federation of Tidewater.  To submit a letter, email news@ujft.org or go to JewishNewsVa.org and click on ‘Contact’ to view the paper’s policy on letters.

Ever since Oct.7, 2023 this country (and around the world) has seen a strong upsurge in antisemitism.  Much of this originates with right-wing white supremacists and the left Muslim pro-Palestinian sectors.  But a large contingent also comes from average Americans who are convinced that the Israel Defense Forces are committing genocide, utilizing starvation as a weapon, and targeting women and children in Gaza.  This results in large part from biased reporting and misinformation propagated by the media, whether intentionally or innocently due to using sources affiliated with or sympathetic to Hamas.

Whatever the source or intention, it is negatively impacting how average Americans, traditionally strong supporters of Israel, view Israel’s war tactics and motivating them to sympathize with Palestinians.  This, in turn, not only diminishes Israel’s support for continuing the war effort and protecting its tenuous existence, but also exposes domestic Jews to verbal abuse and even violence.  Organizations such as CAMERA and HonestReporting have called out bias and incomplete coverage.  So, what for our small community to do?  

If you’ve kept up with the coverage in The Virginian-Pilot, you can’t help but notice that they use reports from the Associated Press, which has problems of its own.  The AP has been accused of employing Hamas operatives as “reporters” and slanted journalism.  And, as has been shown in the past, journalists operating in Gaza are “expected” to report in a supportive manner, otherwise they are shown the door or, worse, the point of a gun.

Examples include:

1)  Casualty numbers reported daily as given despite many experts concluding that the tallies don’t add up and Hamas has a history of distorting the facts to suit their purposes.

2) Using “witnesses” as reliable sources.

3) “Without providing evidence” always accompanying Israel’s claims, never Palestinian contentions.

4) Sensationalist headlines and pictures, particularly of “starving children” who then turn out to have pre-existing diseases.  There never is a retraction once the truth comes out.

5) Reporting anti-Netanyahu demonstrations while ignoring pro-Netanyahu ones.

6) Putting the responsibility of feeding Gazans and their misery on Israel rather than Hamas.

7) Misrepresenting international law.

8) Referring to traditionally anti-Israel NGOs as “humanitarian organizations.”

9) Quoting the UN without adding that they have been accused of anti-Israel bias for decades.

10) Selection of words – Israel “seizes” control of Gaza rather than “takes” control.  West Bank “resistance” rather than “terrorism.”

11) Emphasizing Israel’s attacks on hospitals, schools, refugee camps despite proof that Hamas is operating there.  It’s always “Israel military claims, despite not supplying evidence.”

12 Excessive use of quotation marks to describe Israel claims, never Hamas claims, as if to signify that Israel’s allegations cannot be serious or believed.

13) Hamas’ cross border raid always described as an “attack.”  Terms massacre, burn, behead, rape, stab never used.

14) Stories that turn out to be misleading or false never result in a retraction.

We, as a Jewish community, need to address this problem.  Every day that goes by without presenting our concerns to the newspaper results in more Hampton Roads residents convinced that Israel is a pariah state and local Jews are evil for supporting it.  Action should be initiated sooner rather than later.

Sheldon Fineman

Virginia Beach

Letters to the editor reflect the opinions of the writers, not of Jewish News or United Jewish Federation of Tidewater.  

Coverage of Israel’s war with Hamas has been endlessly frustrating, which is not surprising given the one-sided anti-Israel bias exhibited by most major newspapers during the past 40 years.  

 This portrayal of Israel as the Oppressor and Palestinians as the Oppressed has prompted the protesting on college campuses. How many of these protestors know about the Palestinian’s hateful charter with the stated purpose of eradicating the Jewish State and how many are aware of the numerous opportunities for peace that the Palestinians have managed to refuse since the end of the 1967 war initiated by the surrounding Arab states?  

 The Gazan death toll, while tragic for non-combatants, is derived from the untrustworthy Hamas Health Ministry and is always characterized as being mostly women and children, with no mention of the thousands of terrorist combatants included in the total.  Israel has neutralized 18 of Hamas’ 24 battalions, a fact that never gets reported.  

 When will the first intrepid reporter reveal why there are women and children residing in homes that Israel targets as the sites from which rockets were launched or because they are the homes of Hamas operatives?  Why aren’t the Hamas combatants making sure their families are residing elsewhere?  Why aren’t they moving their families into the tunnels they’ve spent hundreds of millions of dollars intended for humanitarian purposes to build?  Does Hamas require women and children to stay with their combatant husbands and sons?  

 The world needs to understand that Hamas’ stated strategy to end the Jewish state is to make Israel unlivable for Jews.  Their tactic is constant and indiscriminate rocket fire into Israel and now, murderous infiltration. It is a known fact that Hamas fights while embedded in schools, hospitals, and homes. 

Both Israel and Gaza will be better places without Hamas.  

Jay Klebanoff

Virginia Beach

An edited version of this letter ran in The Virginian-Pilot. 

Elizabeth Murphy

Thank you so much for accepting my article to the Jewish News on the new Keilim Mikvah, the mikvah for immersing vessels. I have received several comments on how much people appreciated seeing this article featured and knowing that we have made the mikvah more accessible and easier to access.

I do want to mention that I erroneously did not give credit to Shira Itzhak who deserves joint credit for her contribution to the Mikvah alongside her husband, Shmuel Itzhak.

I hope we will be able to share more good news from The Norfolk Mikvah in the future.

Esty Gruen