Preaching to the Choir While Children Die: The Cost of Silence on Gaza

Since the brutal Hamas attacks against Israel on October 7, 2023, and Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza, Good Faith Media (GFM) has published dozens of articles about the situation in Israel and Palestine. Although we produce both news and opinion articles on our online platforms, the reality is that we don’t have an on-the-ground presence in the Middle East. So any hard, “breaking news” coverage we might provide would simply be restating facts from established global news services.

Because of this, most of our content on this issue has been opinion-based. And it would be editorially disingenuous for me not to acknowledge that the lion’s share of what we have published has been critical of Israel’s 21-month military campaign in Gaza, as well as its continual, decades-long incursions into the West Bank.

We have sought to balance this coverage by highlighting the rising prevalence of antisemitism around the world—a trend that both predated October 7 and has accelerated since, as people leverage Israel’s military actions as cover for their hatred. We admittedly could do much more of this, including amplifying the voices of Jews who are living under heightened fear of violence. I am working to remedy this uneven coverage in the coming months.

But our coverage doesn’t just risk minimizing antisemitism or elevating the dangers faced by Jews, both at home and abroad. It also threatens to numb us to the catastrophic suffering and loss of innocent human life being inflicted on Palestinians by Israel.

In simple terms, the more we write about it, the less effective our words are.

Balancing Act

It is a tightrope. When we share content about Israel’s actions in Gaza, we are accused of antisemitism. And when we go a few days without publishing an article about the situation, we are charged with ignoring one of the most horrific military destructions of our generation.

To be clear, this isn’t a “damned if we do, damned if we don’t” situation where we throw up our hands in frustration and shout, “We can’t win.” As a Christian media organization, it is our responsibility to tell the truth consistently and with integrity. When we fail to do so—no matter how difficult the task—we should be held accountable.

What it is, however, is a recognition of two disparate realities.

First, nearly every major media outlet and political or religious figure, to varying degrees, denounces acts of antisemitism. This is largely a result of our lingering remembrance of the Holocaust and recognition that “never again” isn’t just a slogan about the “Final Solution.” It’s also about all the small, almost imperceptible antisemitic actions and allowances that can lead up to it.

Expectations have even been placed on some that their denouncements be extra loud and immediate. If Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar waits ten minutes to post her condemnation of an antisemitic act on social media, she is accused of being insensitive. If she waits 15 minutes, people begin to call for her arrest.

The second reality is that children being slaughtered and starved in Gaza—as a result of President Trump’s and Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to remove Palestinians from the region—don’t enjoy the same blanket level of concern across ideological divides. Progressive-leaning media outlets (including ours) cover their stories, while conservative-leaning outlets may passively mention them in the context of reporting about Israel’s right to defend itself.

Because of this, U.S. audiences have retreated to our extreme partisan corners, as we always do.

Left, Right, Silent

Those on the far left, often at the risk of minimizing what happened on October 7, decry what even some Jewish scholars are now calling a genocide. Those on the far right, at best, consider the catastrophic and disproportionate destruction of Gaza and loss of life an unfortunate consequence of Israel defending itself. At worst, they consider it God’s will.

The vast majority in the center remain silent, convinced of the lie that this is a “conflict as old as time” and therefore, there’s nothing we can do about it. The lie, thus, achieves the purpose for which it was invented—giving both sides a metaphorical blank check to do whatever they want.

However, as much as we desperately try, we are incapable of neutrality because, as U.S. citizens, we are signing literal blank checks to Israel. Every bomb that rips through flesh and every child who writhes in pain from malnutrition does so not just because of our permission, but because of our silence.

But for meaningful change to occur, it isn’t enough for one side of the ideological spectrum to speak out.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t expect Fox News or Ambassador Mike Huckabee or Southern Baptist pastors to begin caring about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. They have political and theological interests in the horrors continuing.

And I’m not holding out hope for the ambivalent middle who believe the issue is “too complicated” for them to have an opinion on. The best I can do for them is to harness the spirit of the late Tony Campolo and declare that almost 60,000 civilians have been killed, more are starving, “and you don’t give a shit,” and hope it jars some of them out of their complacency.

But I believe many are beginning to suspect that history will one day judge us clearly and decisively based on where we stand on what is happening in Gaza. These are people from a myriad of backgrounds—Christians and Jews, suburban moms and blue-collar dads, “compassionate conservatives” and establishment liberals.

These individuals are aware of the risks associated with speaking out. I pray they begin to consider the cost of their silence.

Until they do, the rest of us will just be preaching our sermons to the choir while children continue to die.