Marty Glickman was, in Gurock’s evaluation, one of America’s greatest Jewish athletes. With the patriotic holiday of Thanksgiving approaching, I’d like to direct your attention to another remarkable American and proud Jew, whose life is described here by Dovi Safier:

Paul Schutzer was born into a traditional Jewish family in Boro Park in 1930. When he was ten years old, he started taking pictures with a broken camera he found in the garbage. Years later, after studying to be a painter and a lawyer, he realized that what he really wanted to do was be a photographer. He traveled the world for Life, visiting Israel numerous times and took many photographs in the country.

Schutzer went to the American South in 1961 to accompany and photograph the Freedom Riders. Then, during the Vietnam war, Schutzer embedded with a unit of Marines participating in an amphibious assault on Cape Batangan. His colleague Michael Mok described the scene thus:

Machine-gun fire was hammering away, and while the Marines gave their weapons a final check, Paul took off his steel helmet and put on a funny-looking hat, sort of like sailor cap turned inside out, on which he had stenciled the Star of David. He explained it was a kova tembel (fool’s hat) such as they wear on the kibbutz in Israel. “If I am going to die,” Paul said, “I am going to die under my own colors.” Then, just before the bow doors clanged down, he said, “L’hayyim,” which means “To life.” This was the first Hebrew word Schutzer taught me. Since we survived the landing and what followed, it was not the last.

Schutzer was killed by a landmine while covering the Six-Day War.

For some time, opponents of U.S support for Israel have been urging the White House to end the war in Gaza, or simply calling for a ceasefire. Douglas Feith and Lewis Libby consider what such a result would actually entail:

Ending the war immediately would allow Hamas to survive and retain military and governing power. Leaving it in the area containing the Sinai-Gaza smuggling routes would ensure that Hamas can rearm. This is why Hamas leaders now plead for a ceasefire. A ceasefire will provide some relief for Gazans today, but a prolonged ceasefire will preserve Hamas’s bloody oppression of Gaza and make future wars with Israel inevitable.

For most Gazans, even when there is no hot war, Hamas’s dictatorship is a nightmarish tyranny. Hamas rule features the torture and murder of regime opponents, official corruption, extremist indoctrination of children, and misery for the population in general. Hamas diverts foreign aid and other resources from proper uses; instead of improving life for the mass of the people, it uses the funds to fight against Palestinians and Israelis.

Moreover, a Hamas-affiliated website warned Gazans last month against cooperating with Israel in securing and delivering the truckloads of aid flowing into the Strip. It promised to deal with those who do with “an iron fist.” In other words, if Hamas remains in power, it will begin torturing, imprisoning, or murdering those it deems collaborators the moment the war ends. Thereafter, Hamas will begin planning its next attack on Israel:

Hamas’s goals are to overshadow the Palestinian Authority, win control of the West Bank, and establish Hamas leadership over the Palestinian revolution. Hamas’s ultimate aim is to spark a regional war to obliterate Israel and, as Hamas leaders steadfastly maintain, fulfill a Quranic vision of killing all Jews.

Hamas planned for corpses of Palestinian babies and mothers to serve as the mainspring of its October 7 war plan. Hamas calculated it could survive a war against a superior Israeli force and energize enemies of Israel around the world. The key to both aims was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. . . . That element of Hamas’s war plan is working impressively.