Reflections On The Rabbis’ Statement About Starvation In Gaza
By: Rabbi Heshie Billet
I was stunned by the declaration authored by Rabbi Yosef Blau and signed by eighty rabbis, in which they spoke in the name of Orthodox Judaism and censured the State of Israel for raising “the specter of coming starvation in Gaza.”
I know Rabbi Blau to be a Torah scholar and a man of excellent character. He and his colleagues all love Israel and care deeply for its well-being. However, in my opinion, not enough thought and research were employed in formulating their declaration. I believe it to be a misleading and irresponsible document.
Among the signers of the letter are diaspora rabbis who have not experienced the war and its consequences in the way that residents of Israel have. Other signers are residents of Israel. I believe that only residents of Israel, all of whom have felt the pain of war and loss of life therein have the right to sign manifestos critical of war-related issues in Israel. Everyone should be especially cautious before publicizing a document whose factual veracity has not been verified. So as the rabbis say: “Wise men should be cautious with their words.” Sometimes that means that silence is preferred, especially when making a declaration regarding something about which the writer has no firsthand information.
In fairness, the statement of Rabbi Blau and his colleagues did support the legitimate right of Israel to fight the Gaza war. Hence my remarks are not about the war, but about what they allege to be Israel’s moral shortcomings in this war and the unrelated matter of “extremist settler violence” that they included in their manifesto.
As mentioned above, I have not been to Gaza and cannot say definitively that there is no starvation. Neither have the eighty signatories been there to affirm firsthand any starvation there. Yet, they are the ones alleging starvation in Gaza.
The photos we see in the press of Palestinians in Gaza do not depict starving human beings as the photos of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto did. Hamas is very skilled in propaganda. It was they who were screaming about the famine in Gaza. Yet, even Hamas did not show pictures of groups of emaciated skin and bone individuals like we saw from the Holocaust.
Individual photos of specific emaciated individuals, such as the one that turned out to be of a child sick with a long-term individual illness, published on the front page of The New York Times, do not verify famine. Such photos may be old, staged, or simply falsely used by creators of propaganda.
Even The New York Times “corrected” the starvation story that went with the photo, but not on the front page of the paper where they first published the picture.
One of the sources used by the letter writers is the Israeli journalist, Haviv Rettig Gur, who was in Gaza and expressed some concern about the possibility of some Gazans being hungry. He acknowledged the abusive control used by Hamas to commandeer the food sent in for humanitarian aid for their own purposes, and also for the purpose of selling it at outrageous prices to enrich themselves. He also reported that some Gazans are hoarding food. Like most Israelis, Regev is not in the Strip regularly and has not visited all parts of the Gaza enclave.
What is objectively clear is that there have been many drops of food by parachute into the Gaza area, and there are caravans of 18 wheelers bringing food and other supplies into Gaza daily. There was a 77-day suspension of aid to Gaza, but appropriate precautions were taken to ensure that enough aid was already in Gaza before the suspension.
Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, explicitly responded to the rabbis’ allegations. “Gaza must not be allowed to reach a state of famine—a policy Israel has implemented continuously and assiduously. Israel is doing everything in its power to alleviate the humanitarian situation.
To date, Israel has facilitated the transfer of well over 2 million tons of humanitarian aid into Gaza, including over 1.6 million tons of food—a quantity far exceeding the minimum requirements defined by aid organizations relative to the size of the population. In this context, I will specifically address the claim regarding a period of time during which Israel did not facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza. Prior to the 77-day suspension of aid deliveries, over 25,000 trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered Gaza, constituting an average of 4,200 trucks per week (between January 19 and March 1, 2025)—well above the amount needed to sustain Gaza during the ceasefire suspension” (end of Leiter quote).
If the population is not receiving food, it is because of UN incompetence and corruption in its distribution. Indeed, Israel has gone to extraordinary measures to create safe zones where people can collect the humanitarian aid.
We live in the age of social media. Anything that is written can be sent all over the world in an instant, whether it is true or false, accurate or misleading.
Hence, the statement of the rabbis reached The New York Times, whose current editorial and news policies are decidedly anti-Israel and antisemitic. On August 26, the Times published a front-page article with the headline, “Rabbis emerge as growing voice of criticism of Israel’s tactics in Gaza. Among the recent public letters was one from dozens of Orthodox rabbis demanding ‘moral clarity’ to what they called a humanitarian crisis.”
The rabbis used the hackneyed, over-abused, and often misused phrase “tzelem Elokim,” reminding the public that all human beings, including Gazans, are created “in the image of G-d.” Their implication is that Israel has forgotten about this, and these rabbis are coming to publicly remind the democratically elected government of Israel of this fact.
Do they think that other rabbis, who do not share their belief that Israel is responsible for a humanitarian crisis, are unaware that all of G-d’s creatures are created in His image? I assume that they wanted to show the world that there are Orthodox rabbis who have high moral standards, in contrast to their silent Orthodox colleagues. What would Israel do without these rabbis serving as the moral conscience that other rabbis seemed to have lost? From my perspective, their statement is condescending.
During World War II, the allies carpet-bombed large parts of Germany. Many innocent civilians were killed. The responsibility for the deaths of those civilians did not lie with the allies, but rather with the Nazi government of Germany! Indeed, if there is a problem for the civilian population of Gaza, the responsible party is not the Israeli government. Rather, it is the terrorist organization, Hamas.
To make matters worse, Rabbi Blau reiterated the claims printed in his manifesto in an interview he gave from his office at Yeshiva University. The transcript of the interview was published in the online Yeshiva World News.
It has been disappointing to date that Yeshiva University has not reacted publicly to Rabbi Blau to chastise him for using his office in an academic institution to make political statements. He is retired, and his name and voice should not currently be affiliated with Yeshiva University about political matters that are not academic or related to university matters.
Then there was an added comment in the Rabbi Blau statement condemning “extremist settler violence.” There was no qualifying remark that violence by settlers against Palestinians is very rare. We all agree that when it may occur, it is not acceptable. Some settlers are guilty. But there are irresponsible people who are not “settlers” who are also guilty of committing acts of violence against Palestinians. The overwhelming majority of Jews living in Judea and Samaria (“settlers”) are peace-loving people who are neither extremist nor violent. No one denies the problem of a very small number of “hilltop youths” who may be out of control. The governing bodies in Judea and Samaria are doing everything possible to control and punish those who break the law and commit illegal acts. In fact, residents of Judea and Samaria have long been the victims of too frequent excessive Palestinian violence on the roads, in their homes, schools, shopping areas, and villages. The Rabbi Blau statement failed to mention this aspect of life in Judea and Samaria.
There is a large group of families in Israel who have lost sons, daughters, siblings, spouses, and parents. They were deeply hurt by the eighty rabbis who signed the documents. Their precious family members did not go to war to starve innocent Palestinians in Gaza, nor are they guilty of “settler violence.” They are the best of the best, dedicated patriots and defenders of family, country, peace, and security.
One last point: U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee gave an interview to CBS on August 8, 2025. He visited Gaza. Based on what he saw, he did not think that there was starvation in Gaza. Quite the contrary. Of course, what I stated about Haviv Rettig Gur is true about Ambassador Huckabee as well. He could only report what he saw at the time and in the specific place that he was in Gaza. He was not everywhere in the Strip.
In that interview, he made some of the points that I have made. It is worthwhile reading the transcript of the interview:
https://il.usembassy.gov/ambassador-huckabees-interview-with-cbs-news
He also noted the fact that the real starvation in Gaza is not of the Palestinians, but rather that of the Israeli hostages who are not being fed. This is confirmed by images and videos of the hostages sent out by Hamas themselves. I have seen them online. The eighty rabbis signed on the Rabbi Blau document expressed concern about the starvation of the Gazans in Gaza, which is possibly untrue. But they made no mention of the starvation of the Israeli hostages, which is absolutely true! The Nazis tried hiding the atrocities they perpetrated. Hamas broadcasted everything from their October 7th massacre through their cruelty to the Israeli hostages to the world. Regretfully, Rabbi Blau and his eighty rabbinic colleagues omitted this.
In sum, I believe that those who signed the declaration wanted to tell the world that Judaism has a moral compass and cares about all human beings, regardless of race or religion. Indeed, that is the case. But their timing, context, and so-called facts were out of line. Their statement was irresponsible, and harmful to Israel. They were too quick to swallow Hamas propaganda and too slow to properly research the facts on the ground. Hence, they produced a flawed, hurtful, and irresponsible statement.
To conclude, my brief response is not comprehensive but intends to call attention to the lack of sufficient research and thought in the crafting of the rabbis’ publicly posted letter. It is my hope that at least some of those who signed the document will publicly qualify their remarks and try to make amends for the damage they caused. n
Rabbi Heshie Billet is Rabbi Emeritus of the Young Israel of Woodmere and a past President of the Rabbinical Council of America. Together with his Rebbetzin, they built institutions that shaped Jewish life in the Five Towns of Long Island and beyond. Today, they live in Israel after making aliyah.
