[ [link removed] ]End the War | Free the Hostages | Surge Aid

Friends,

Our community is facing a painful moment of moral reckoning – one made
even harder by the spin, deflections and calculated distractions churned
out daily by Netanyahu and his backers and repeated ad nauseam online.

That’s why we’ve put together this resource: A guide to the misinformation
and talking points we hear again and again – with clear, grounded
responses to cut through them.

It’s a time for tough conversations – with our communities, our loved ones
and ourselves. We hope this guide helps you meet those conversations with
clarity and conviction.

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Four Ways To Make Yourself Heard in Challenging Conversations

🔄 Reflect Shared Values and Concerns: Especially if a talking point is
frustrating, take a beat to acknowledge the genuine concern behind it.
Sharing underlying values builds connection and makes your response more
likely to be heard.

💡 Frame Corrections as New Information: Share facts as something you’ve
learned, not as as ‘gotcha’ moment. Keep the conversation personal, rather
than a fact-dumping contest.

🔍 Name The Game: When you hear blame-shifting or misleading information,
step back and reject the tactic and its goals – to evade accountability,
sow doubt or delay action.

📣 Amplify Israeli Validators: From hostage families to security experts to
peace advocates, there’s a chorus of Israelis calling for a war-ending
hostage deal and a surge in aid – voices that can carry more weight amid
those who distrust of the UN, foreign critics and other sources.

How to Respond to Common Misinformation and Talking Points

“Israel needs to continue the war to defeat Hamas.”

* We all want Hamas gone and unable to launch attacks ever again – but
experts say Hamas is now severely degraded and no longer poses a
significant threat to Israel.
* Former heads of Mossad and Shin Bet say the idea that more war will
defeat Hamas or free hostages is a [ [link removed] ]“lie” and a “fantasy” that only
serves “messianic zealots” – who see it as a step toward occupying and
resettling Gaza – and Netanyahu who relies on them.
* IDF Chief Eyal Zamir said this is a [ [link removed] ]“black hole” and warned Israel
is [ [link removed] ]“walking into a trap.” 
* The US learned these lessons the hard way from Vietnam, Iraq and
Afghanistan. 
* A majority [ [link removed] ]74% of Israelis support a war-ending hostage deal.
Another [ [link removed] ]recent poll found 76% of Israelis have lost trust in
Netanyahu’s government, 61% believe that the current strategy won’t
return hostages and 52% blame the government.
* You can’t beat something with nothing. The best way to defeat Hamas
for good is to cut a deal to get hostages out now and end the war, get
neighboring states and moderates to stabilize the situation in Gaza
and build government and security structures that marginalize Hamas. 

“If Hamas released the hostages, the war would end tomorrow.”

* The hostages should never have been taken and should be released
immediately – but this sounds more like a talking point designed to
justify endless war rather than a strategy to get them home.
* We should keep pressure on Hamas, but we should also listen to hostage
families and [ [link removed] ]former Israeli security officials who are calling for
Netanyahu to take a more reasonable negotiating position that could
end the war. 
* Netanyahu is [ [link removed] ]trying to prolong this war because extremists in his
cabinet would rather occupy and settle Gaza than get the hostages
home. They are motivated by a religious belief in conquering all of
Biblical Israel, not Israeli security.
* The best way to get the hostages home is to put a clear deal on the
table to end the war in Gaza in exchange for all the hostages and
Hamas agreeing to stay out of the Gaza government – we need to press
for that rather than letting Netanyahu put forward unreasonable
demands such as Israel holding half of Gaza in perpetuity.
* Netanyahu has thus far refused to put forward that kind of deal.

“No country has ever been expected to feed its enemy during a war.”

* I know it can often feel like Israel is being held to a higher
standard and so much criticism is extreme – but families struggling to
feed their kids aren’t the enemy. We have to live up to our values. 
* International law should be upheld by everyone, and it prohibits
blockades of aid. No country should be allowed to use starvation as a
weapon of war. I disagree with senior Israeli leaders who have said
[ [link removed] ]aid blockades are a valid tactic.
* When the US was fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria we invested heavily in
humanitarian assistance to feed the population – Israel can do the
same.
* Security officials have warned that obstructing aid may actually help
Hamas because when food is scarce, Hamas can hoard it and use it to
exert power.

“Hamas is to blame for any starvation because it steals humanitarian aid.”

* Hamas deserves a massive share of the blame and clearly has absolutely
no regard for their own people – but that cannot justify blocking aid
to millions of innocents.
* Critical members of Netanyahu’s coalition, including [ [link removed] ]Israel Katz,
[ [link removed] ]Amihai Eliyahu, [ [link removed] ]Bezalel Smotrich and [ [link removed] ]Itamar Ben-Gvir have
openly said Israel should and is blocking food to Gaza. I’m worried
this talking point is being used as a justification for those plans.
* It is a fact that Israel blocked all food and medicine into Gaza for
78 days from March to May of 2025.
* A US [ [link removed] ]government investigation found “no evidence of systematic
theft” of aid. 
* Senior Israeli officials [ [link removed] ]told the New York Times they had found no
evidence of systemic theft, and that UN systems were “largely
effective” in providing aid.
* If we want to reduce the value of aid to Hamas and ensure the
vulnerable also have access to what they need – the answer is to flood
the zone with regular, reliable aid.

“Humanitarian agencies are leaving aid to rot on the other side of the
border.”

* I agree that it’s infuriating that people are dying of starvation and
treatable diseases when food and supplies are sitting in trucks less
than a mile away in some cases – but this is misinformation being used
to muddy the waters, not solve the problem.
* Hundreds of aid workers have been killed in Gaza and aid agencies have
a duty to keep their workers safe – that includes coordinating with
the IDF to ensure safe delivery. 
* Refusals to coordinate, arbitrary restrictions, extreme desperation,
armed gangs, damaged roads and repeated strikes on convoys have made
delivery [ [link removed] ]even more difficult. 
* “If Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel decided tonight that
every Palestinian child in Gaza should have breakfast tomorrow, it
could undoubtedly be done,” wrote one famine expert in the [ [link removed] ]New
York Times. The Israel I believe in would make that decision.

“Israel is letting in more aid now than it was before the war.” 

* I’m glad we agree that Israel should be generous and that starving
civilians is wrong – but this is a misleading talking point. It is
true that less humanitarian aid was needed before the war, but that’s
because commercial goods and local farms were operational. 
* Around 500-600 trucks of goods and supplies entered Gaza each day
prior to October 7. That number has been cut to 100 or 200 trucks – or
almost zero for some periods.
* I’m worried that people say misleading things like this to justify the
unjustifiable. 

“Egypt could open the border to aid at any moment.” 

* I know it feels like too much blame is placed on Israel, but this is
misleading. 
* Israel maintains effective control of the Gaza-Egypt crossing in
coordination with Egypt and other authorities and [ [link removed] ]has bombed in
and around the border crossing. 
* Even if Egypt fully opened Rafah, trucks can’t cross without Israeli
clearance, supplies have to pass Israeli checkpoints and distribution
would require IDF support.

“There is no starvation in Gaza.” 

* I know it’s difficult to trust information coming out of Gaza – one of
the problems is that Netanyahu is not letting journalists in – but the
reporting and evidence are overwhelming.
* For [ [link removed] ]several months, Netanyahu’s government blocked all
humanitarian aid – including food and medicine and baby formula and
childhood vaccinations. That has an impact. 
* Israeli human rights organizations are also [ [link removed] ]protesting and
[ [link removed] ]suing the government to try to get more aid in – even Israeli
veterans and former leaders in the IDF and intelligence agencies have
[ [link removed] ]called for more aid. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
[ [link removed] ]has said that this is a violation of international law. 
* We cannot trust the spin on a government which has said it has the
right to block humanitarian aid and has done so – Netanyahu’s
government is not credible. 

“The whole world seems to be biased against Israel, you can’t trust any of
it.”

* I agree there are a lot of anti-Israel voices out there – but you’re
talking to me right now.
* I care about this out of care for the soul of the Jewish people / out
of love for Israel and concern about its future / because I cannot
look away from the moral crisis we face. 
* I’m inspired by the groups in Israel speaking out – the hostage
families and peace advocates and former generals – many of the same
groups that were campaigning to defend Israel’s democratic future from
Netanyahu before the war. 
* We can’t let our love for Israel or our distrust of its critics blind
us to reality: The reality is that starving civilians and pursuing
endless war is not just terrible for the families like yours and mine
in Gaza – but also for young soldiers sent there, for hostage families
who want a deal, and for Israel’s standing among nations and with the
diaspora. 

Want to go deeper on Humanitarian Aid? Download our myths and facts guide
here >>

Amplify Pro-Peace Voices in Your Social Networks

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* Substack Follows: [ [link removed] ]Jeremy Ben-Ami | [ [link removed] ]Ilan Goldenberg

Resources to Share

[ [link removed] ]Israeli Security Chiefs: ‘End the war and bring the hostages home!’

[54]ALT TEXT FOR IMAGE

[ [link removed] ]J Street Speaks with Gaza Humanitarian Foundation Whistleblower Tony
Aguilar and Israeli Activist Tania Hary

[56]ALT TEXT FOR IMAGE

[ [link removed] ]J Street Speaks with Israeli Voices Against the War[58]ALT TEXT FOR
IMAGE


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J Street is the political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy
Americans who want Israel to be secure, democratic and the national home of the
Jewish people. Working in American politics and the Jewish community, we
advocate policies that advance shared US and Israeli interests as well as Jewish
and democratic values, leading to a two-state solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.



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