Letter: A Fictional Famine?

Dear Letter to the Editor:

In the recent letter entitled: Letter: A Fictional Famine of Pre-Existing Conditions (Boulder Jewish News, 8/20/2025), the author lists 10 examples of Gazan children whose photos were in the media showing their emaciated bodies. The author claims that because these children have pre-existing conditions they are not suffering “exclusively” from starvation, as if this excuses their starvation. The clear implication of this letter is that famine in Gaza either does not exist or that the media is making a mountain out of a molehill. I can only imagine that this matters to the author because he believes, as do most people, that starving children as a tactic of war is immoral. What I cannot understand is how the fact that these children have a pre-existing condition somehow excludes them from concern about starvation. I also cannot understand how the photos of these 10 children negates the idea that there is widespread starvation in Gaza at this time. Every report coming out of Gaza from international sources, except for those by the Israeli government, agrees that there is famine and starvation. The author claims that the journalists who published these photos did so for the express purpose of “engendering hatred against the Jewish people.” Would the author change his mind about this if he could see that the children and other civilians are actually starving? If the Israeli government wants to disprove this, they should allow international journalists into Gaza.

Furthermore, if you look at this logically, the amount of food aid going into Gaza was much greater before the war. Now that Gazan farms and food production has been bombed into oblivion, it stands to reason that MORE food aid would be needed to sustain life there even though the population has diminished by over 60,000 people who have been casualties of war.

The United States was once an enemy of the Germans and the Japanese, but after WWII, the US helped to rebuild those countries, and they are now our allies. If the US and Israel were to follow a similar path in Gaza, there could be a chance at long lasting peace. I understand that the situation in the middle east is complicated, and war, history and land disputes go back way before Oct. 7^th. I am not saying this will be easy to resolve. But starving the population of Gaza is against the Geneva Conventions and, more importantly, it is not consistent with Jewish morality. It will also not make Israel or Jews in the diaspora safer in the long run.

Sincerely,

Andi Jason
Boulder, CO