“Put the Urim ve-Tummim in the breastpiece, so they may be over Aaron’s heart whenever he enters the presence of the Lord. Thus Aaron will always bear the means of making decisions for the Israelites over his heart before the Lord” (Exodus 28:30). 

 According to the Bible, priests would ask the breastpiece “yes” or “no” questions with two sticks — the Urim ve-Tummim. In preparation for battle, they would cast the sticks on the breastpiece. If they turned up black, the Israelites would stand down. If they turned up white, they would proceed into battle with the knowledge that they were following the will of God.

Unless you are a theologian, you may be hearing these words for the first time, yet they are enshrined on our university’s crest: Urim ve-Tummim in Hebrew; Lux et Veritas in Latin. These words are Yale’s North Star, and guide us beyond its gates.

 Our alma mater does not merely train us to be repositories of knowledge but to think critically and pursue truth. Beneath towering spires and along elm-lined streets, we are prompted to question consensus and are reminded that truth is often hidden beneath layers of bias and ideology. We are reminded of our predecessors’ mistakes, and are encouraged to bring truth to light even when it is inconvenient. 

 As we cast our eyes on the escalating Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the ethos of “light and truth” becomes ever more relevant. An ocean away from the fighting, we have an individual responsibility to understand this conflict before we attempt to educate our peers. Rapidly circulating infographics, viral posts and polarizing narratives — often devoid of context or comprehensive understanding — amplify oversimplified views. Platforms teem with biased and outright false information, promoting simplistic narratives that maximize engagement. Yale has equipped us to fight this information war, yet as every military historian knows, no plan survives first contact with the enemy. 

A few starting points, then, in my view for the soldier on the front lines of this information war: 

  1. The conflict is not about “white supremacy.” Israel’s diverse population, comprising Jews from Middle Eastern, North African, Ethiopian, European and various other backgrounds, alongside significant Arab, Druze and other minority communities, contradicts the notion of it being a monolithic bastion of “white supremacy.” In fact, recent studies have shown deep genetic links between Israeli Jews of all stripes and Palestinians. 
  2. Catch-all terms like “colonialism” or comparisons to anticolonial struggles do not capture the reality of the conflict. Israel was established with broad international support to restore a Jewish homeland following centuries of antisemitism, unlike colonial endeavors undertaken by imperial powers in foreign lands in pursuit of power and profit. Comparisons to anti-colonial struggles from the past, therefore, do not accurately capture the goals and motivations of the Palestinian struggle for self-determination.
  3. The population of Gaza did not “choose” Hamas leadership. Elections have not been held in Gaza since 2006, and nearly half of its population was born since then. Intra-Palestinian political conflicts are fierce, and many Gazans hope for a better future without the murderous yoke of Hamas leadership. 
  4. Hamas is not a “resistance organization” fighting for Palestinian liberation. Even neglecting its horrific crimes against Israeli civilians, Hamas positions military installations within civilian infrastructure, uses Palestinian civilians as human shields and abducts, tortures and murders Gazans suspected of collaborating with Israel. Its original charter blames the Jews for the French Revolution, imperialism and both world wars, and categorically rejects any peaceful resolution in favor of armed resistance. 

Our distance from the conflict inhibits our ability to understand its complexities. Many Yalies, driven by a sincere commitment to ideals of freedom and justice, admirably champion the rights of oppressed groups around the world. In the murky waters of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, however, even the noblest of observers can be led astray by propaganda and the mirage of oversimplified truths. Hamas has mastered the art of misinformation, cynically intertwining legitimate Palestinian grievances with its nefarious objectives. When students amplify certain simplified narratives — like framing the conflict in Americanized racial terms or neglecting to differentiate between civilians and combatants — they fall prey to Hamas’s deception and obfuscate public discourse on the conflict. 

While human nature tempts us to situate our beliefs within a black-and-white moral framework, Yale teaches us to think more deeply. Lux et Veritas commands us to suspect Manichean divisions of the world into realms of good and evil that gloss over complexities and ignore the pain and suffering of those written off as “evil.” Recent events show that when everything can be boiled down to simple dichotomies — oppressor-oppressed, settler-native — the world becomes Manichean and murdering parents in front of their children can become an “act of resistance.” Couched in the language of “justice” and “liberation,” this is a deeply perverted way of viewing the world and exercising moral judgment. 

Unfortunately for us, we lack a mystical breastplate to provide unequivocal answers to moral dilemmas. Our Yale education is thus designed to teach us how to navigate a morally nebulous world that lacks easy divisions between good and evil. In their absence, we must unite in the pursuit of truth over narrative. 

If your belief system leads you to cheer on people kidnapping women and children, beheading migrant workers,murdering entire families in their homes and proudly posting these atrocities for all to see, question your belief system. If your commitment to the cause of “decolonization” leads you to take a terrorist organization at its word when it blames Israel for striking a hospital without a shred of evidence, question your priors. If your revulsion from these acts leads you to wish destruction on hundreds of thousands of innocent people trapped in Gaza between a terrorist organization and an unfolding military invasion, question how you lost your humanity. As we cast our eyes on a deteriorating situation abroad, the ethos of our Yale education becomes ever more relevant. With no Urim ve-Tummim to guide our decisions, the best we can do is stick to Lux et Veritas. 

AARON SCHORR is an Ethics, Politics, and Economics major in the class of 2024 in Grace Hopper College. Contact him at aaron.schorr@yale.edu

JAKE GARZA SEYMOUR is a Global Affairs and East Asian Studies major in the class of 2024 in Morse College. jake.seymour@yale.edu.