General Dan Caine
Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff
9999 Joint Staff Pentagon
Washington DC
December 1, 2025
Dear General Caine:
A readout on your recent meeting with the Israeli Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, states:
Gen. Caine and Lt. Gen. Zamir discussed regional developments across multiple fronts … and efforts to sustain the Gaza ceasefire and prevent further escalation. The two leaders reaffirmed the strength of the U.S.-Israel defense partnership and emphasized the importance of continued cooperation to deter shared threats and ensure humanitarian assistance reaches civilians in need. (JCS News, 11.1.25)
Who are the “civilians in need”? They are the men, women, and children that the armed forces of Israel have starved, imprisoned, tortured, bombed, shot, dismembered, and incinerated. Have you chosen to forget this? Those who are unarmed and defenseless — the “civilians in need” — are among the preferred targets of the Israeli military. For instance, in 2023 the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem reported the following:
Around noon today, December 16, 2023 a sniper of the IDF murdered two Christian women inside the Holy Family Parish in Gaza, where the majority of Christian families has taken refuge since the start of the war. Nahida [Anton] and her daughter Samar were shot and killed as they walked to the Sister’s Convent. One was killed as she tried to carry the other to safety. Seven more people were shot and wounded as they tried to protect others inside the church compound. No warning was given, no notification was provided. They were shot in cold blood inside the premises of the Parish, where there are no belligerents. (LPJ News, 12.17.23)
The IDF would have us believe otherwise. After an internal review of the incident, they claimed that their troops identified three people in the vicinity of the church who were operating as “spotters” for Hamas and “guiding their attacks.” The troops then fired at them (Times of Israel, 12.21.23).
To place the above in context, not long before the attack, then-Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated: “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel; everything is closed … We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly” (Middle East Eye, 10.9.23). The IDF followed suit; a 2025 UN report states: “Since [October 2023], the bombings of the Israeli Air Force have caused the destruction of about 170,000 buildings, including most of the hospital infrastructures, schools, and [UN relief agency] facilities” (UN Human Rights Council, 6.24.25).
Has anything changed, General Caine? Israel continues to be ruled by people who specialize in spilling blood. Palestine is being crucified—look at its history—yet you cooperate in the name of defense. For 77 years the State of Israel has been a moral failure of the lowest order. What is the most recent ceasefire but a relative pause in the carnage, carnage that is lucrative to those who pull the strings?
General Caine, you should question the nature of your partnership just as you should question yourself. If you believe the lives of the women named above have no value, if they mean nothing to you and your counterparts in Israel—after all, they were only two Christian women—you are gravely mistaken. No matter how much you try to erase it, the past remains, though it remains in a manner that is beyond your recognition at the moment. I believe this will become clear to you in time. Amnesia is an anesthetic that makes your work easier, but your task is to remember. It is wrong to forget the face of the victim. The “multiple fronts” on which you are focused are reflections of the divisions within you.
When was the last time you questioned those you serve? And who do you really serve? You have been trained to orchestrate violent forces with maximum efficiency, but were you ever trained to listen to your conscience? If so, what became of your training? What do you see when you look in the mirror? Look carefully—in time, something may be revealed to you.
Your next assignment should be along these lines. Undertake a reconnaissance mission of a higher order. Search out your self. The walls, the multiple fronts, the lines of demarcation, the battle zones, the hidden forces—where are they, exactly? Where do they come from? Look inward, and look deeply. As it stands, you are looking in the wrong direction. While you observe your “enemy”—or what appears to be your enemy—you fail to see your self. Your real enemy eludes you by hiding within.
I’ve singled you out, but I recognize you are one of many. Too many of us, myself included, have lost our sense of direction and are prey to a collective amnesia. This is an old story. We—all of us—should summon the courage to look into ourselves lest we forget our real allies. This is not as difficult as it may appear.
Sincerely,
Anthony M. Pasqualoni
St. Mary Church
New Haven, CT
