this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2026
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The Jewish Electorate Institute found that 55% of Jewish respondents said that they opposed the war, 32% approved and 13% were undecided.

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[–] WalleyeWarrior@midwest.social 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I imagine because most Jewish Americans aren't Zionists, as any who are would move to Israel.

[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Also, minor detail but Judaism doesn't when viewed from a secular perspective as a system of philosophies really argue that this kind of violence is justifiable.

Plenty of religious people are full of shit, all of them are as hypocritical as I am as a non-religious person, but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of people who engage genuinely with Judaism or any other religion with a long history on a basis of morality and philosophy as well as faith....which also doesn't mean that religion isn't a political structure subject to the same corrupting tendencies any other political structure is.

the below quoted from a self described Zionist Rabbi to demonstrate this point

Nevertheless, expressing my doubts out loud about whether Israel is prosecuting the war [edit: GENOCIDE] justly is uncomfortable. Either from newsreels or from having been there in person, we recognize that protests against the war in Vietnam here in this country were often met by counter-protestors screaming ‘America, love it or leave it.’ When a country is at war, however, all people of conscience should feel uneasy, and should have questions, and doubts. I have questions, and doubts. I, and Judaism, give you permission to have questions and doubts.

Our first three sources on page 1, from the Torah and Talmud, state unequivocally that Judaism believes in the right for individuals to defend themselves from mortal danger. This principle becomes the basis for why it is morally permitted in Judaism for a state to defend itself in wartime. Suffice it to say that there is no question as to whether Judaism believes in a right to a defensive war. It does. Israel has a right and an obligation to defend its citizens from attack. Full stop.

But the question becomes a bit more complex when one asks what constitutes the boundaries of a defensive war. Sources 3, 4 and 5, from Sanhedrin 72a, Yoma 82a and an 18th C halachic commentary by the Noda BeYehuda, tells us that one may kill someone that is pursuing another, or ourselves, to do harm, and that saving a life - pikuach nefesh - is the most important mitzvah there is. The term in Hebrew for someone who is pursuing another to cause harm is a rodef. However, on a national or international scale, the right to attack a rodef is not unrestricted. If a terrorist group attacks or is en route to do harm, one may certainly kill the terrorists in order to protect the innocent. However, the terrorists that one intends to kill must be, in the legal language of the Noda BeYehuda, lifaneinu - before us.

This idea of fighting terrorists who present an active threat raises broad concerns that have been raised over and over again over the past 30 years both in America and in Israel. If one decides that a terrorist group - Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS, Fatah, Al Quaida - is a mortal threat to state security, then it logically follows that they are a rodef and can be attacked whenever and wherever they are. Jewish law does not necessarily allow us to simply declare an open ended war on terror - there must be a clear and imminent threat. In the current Gaza war, that has occurred - Hamas committed unspeakable acts, and were they not confronted, more Israelis would have been harmed. This clear and imminent threat, however, is always before us, and the lack of clarity on when the threat ends creates the conditions for Israel to engage in a perpetual war in Gaza, in the kind of quagmire conflict that has been disastrous for other countries throughout history.

...

The war in Gaza has resulted in many thousands of innocent casualties - men, women, and children. And one might say to themselves ‘well that’s war’ or ‘we have no choice’. But one might also say, as many did during the US war in Vietnam, or the War in Iraq, or in WWII regarding the bombing of Dresden or the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that a moral army ought not to kill innocent civilians. It is hard to watch Israel wage war, and to know that it must fight back against Hamas, and also know that casualties incurred in fighting Hamas are incongruous with the moral expectations of our religious teachings.

...

It is right and good to be a Zionist, and to believe that Jews have a right to live on this earth, alongside every other people, in our homeland. It is also right and good to have an unbreakable moral code that tells us how to treat others. It is a terrible thing when those two things are in conflict with one another. I pray that those two currently contradictory things come into alignment and harmony soon, that war end, that the hostages come home soon; but until that comes, I remind us all that the moral clarion call of Torah is not suspended, even at the most difficult hour. Shabbat Shalom.

https://www.rabbimarkashergoodman.com/writings/morality-and-war-israel-and-gaza