In her May 7 column [”Tribe of Radical Allies Against Hate (TORAAH)”], J.M. Sorrell claims to be an ally of Jews, but her type of “allyship” does immeasurable harm. Jews are not monolithic. Jews share as wide a range of ideologies as any group, including far-right authoritarianism, and are just as capable of evil. To deny this is to deny our full humanity, as Jewish Currents editor Peter Beinart points out. No group is pure. I wish it were true that victims of oppression could never themselves become victimizers, but history shows us over and over again that this is, tragically, not the case.

Whether or not one accepts that Israel was founded as a settler colonial state, it has become a highly militarized, apartheid state that is now hell-bent on the ethnic cleansing of all Palestinians from both Gaza and the West Bank. Sorrell claims to be so moved by the suffering of Jews; where is her empathy for the suffering of Palestinians? Gaza has been turned into nothing other than a concentration camp. For the past 10 weeks Israel has blocked all food, medicine and basic necessities. Israel is bombing starving people in tents, living amidst rubble. In the past 24 hours another 106 Palestinian lives were snuffed out. The picture of Israel that Sorrell paints is pure fantasy. Does Sorrell ever read the Israeli, English-language press? From Ha’aretz to the Times of Israel, all daily report on, but only a few commentators decry, the naked, brutal aggression and genocidal rhetoric coming from nearly all Israeli politicians, from Labor to Likud. As a Jew I cannot stay silent.

Mara Dodge

Easthampton