We need to talk. Not in whispers and disclaimers. Not by skirting around the edges of horror. We need to say something simple, difficult and Jewish.

THIS MUST END.

Gaza is a humanitarian catastrophe. Images like the one at the top of this page are not, tragically, fake. They are not inventions of Hamas propaganda. They are real and they are happening now. Thousands are starving. Many are children. Most are civilians. Many loathe Hamas as much as we do.

If your stomach turns at this, good. It should. It must. And if at the same time your blood boils at the sight of Hamas using these very same people as pawns to choke the aid routes and boost their grotesque propaganda war, that’s good too. Because both are true.

Acknowledging that Israel carries its share of the blame for the suffering on the other side doesn’t mean forgetting the hostages or the horrors of 7 October. It means recognising the humanity of other innocent men, women and children. The fact that so many around the world have shamefully and shamelessly failed to do this for innocent Israelis over the past 21 months is no excuse for us to do the same.

Jewish moral clarity can accommodate these thoughts at once. We can say, forcefully, that this war must not continue indefinitely and there can be no future for Hamas. We can say that certain UN agencies – so vocal when it comes to blaming Israel for starvation in Gaza – have refused to distribute aid unless it is on their terms, effectively putting their own principles above saving the lives they claim to value. We can say that aid must flow unimpeded and the world must wake up to the way Hamas manipulates it.

We can say that Israel has every right to defend itself and it has a responsibility – especially as Jews – to ask whether this path is achieving what it set out to.

Because after nearly two years, are we there yet? Is Hamas dismantled? Are all the hostages home?

What this moment demands is not cynicism or blame games, but leadership. Moral, strategic, Jewish leadership.

Bring them home. The hostages, the soldiers, the civilians trapped in hell.

End the war. End the starvation.

We can hold two thoughts. And we need to act on both. Now.