On the day that Israel broke the ceasefire with bombing raids that killed over 400 in Gaza, veteran Israeli journalist Amos Harel wrote this:

“Israel knowingly violated the cease-fire agreement with Hamas — with American approval — because it didn’t want to fully meet the terms it had committed to two months ago. … Israel’s operation in Gaza will be justified as a necessary step to break the deadlock in negotiations while simultaneously fulfilling Netanyahu’s promise to defeat Hamas. (But) the hostages could die before Hamas is defeated, if it’s defeated at all. Above all, this is about urgent political goals that the prime minister won’t admit to publicly: restoring Itamar Ben-Gvir and his far-right Otzma Yehudit faction to the government, passing the budget and stabilizing the coalition.”

Indeed, Ben-Gvir immediately announced that his party is returning to the governing coalition, insuring Netanyahu enough votes to pass his budget and whatever else he may want — including, perhaps above all, legislation that would keep the Prime Minister out of jail.

But recent polls show that nearly half of Israelis don’t believe Israel can achieve its war aims, well over half want Netanyahu out of office, and 73% want a complete end to the war.

Prominent opposition political leader Yair Golan charged that Israel’s soldiers and the hostages in Gaza are pawns in Netanyahu’s survival game. Golan called on Israelis to “erupt in rage to save the hostages, the soldiers, and the State of Israel from the hands of this corrupt and dangerous man.”

An organization of mothers of Israeli soldiers said, “We will not allow our children to be body armor for a government that has lost the public’s trust.”

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said, “The Israeli government has chosen to abandon the hostages,” adding that “military pressure endangers both the hostages and the soldiers.”

One released hostage, Omer Wenkert, lamented, “The feeling that we are being abandoned is the deepest I have ever experienced.” Another, Liri Albag, asked: “What about those (hostages) who were left behind? … Once again their lives have become pawns in a game, instead of something that must be protected at all costs.”

Dani Miran, father of a hostage in Gaza, explained: “It’s horrifying. All the hostages who returned testified that their greatest fear was IDF bombings — they felt them up close. As long as my son and others are there, the worry is immense.” Released hostage Eliya Cohen said resuming the war is a “death sentence” for the remaining hostages.

Michael Milstein, an Israeli analyst of Palestinian affairs and a former senior officer in Israeli military intelligence, said what should be obvious to anyone who has followed this conflict over the years: “I don’t think it’s likely Hamas will be ready to give up their red lines.” Hamas has one “red line” above all: a permanent ceasefire, an end to Israeli attacks on the people of Gaza. “I’m quite concerned,” Milstein added, “ that within a few days, we will find ourselves in a limited war of attrition: ongoing airstrikes but no readiness from Hamas to give up.”

Lest we think this is some faraway conflict that does not involve us, please remember that Donald Trump gave advance approval, in public as well as in private, to this latest Israeli onslaught. Whatever you may think of Trump, he is head of the executive branch of our own government — yours and mine — and he has given Israel billions of dollars worth of armaments and ammunition, paid for with our tax dollars. In this situation as in so many others, silence is tacit approval.

Sadly, our representative in Congress, Joe Neguse, has not yet shown any public concern about Israel’s killing upwards of 60,000 Gazans. Neguse did vote FOR massive military aid to Israel and FOR a resolution falsely stating that “anti-Zionism is antisemitism.”

Neguse’s phone numbers: 202-225-2161 (DC) / 303-335-1045 (Boulder)

Or email him: neguse.house.gov/contact.

Ira Chernus lives in Longmont.