A Liberal Israeli perspective of the War
Let me tell you a story about N. She was 17 years old. N was gang raped before they put a bullet in her head. Fortunately they murdered her parents first, so at least they didn’t have to watch.
I write this to trigger you, to shock you out of your stupor, and to give context - ideally to the many people who are ignorant to the situation, or have pre-disposed viewpoints, or are just now waking up to the reality.
What you are seeing on the news in your country is about 5% of what we are hearing here in Israel. Here in Israel we are shocked anew every five minutes from new stories of the magnitude of the genocide that happened here (and is still happening).
Make no mistake — this is an attempt at Genocide in its most evil and vile form. This is not a tit-for-tat war situation. This is an unprecedented attempt to murder civilians simply because they are Jewish. That is what Hamas intended to do. The gang rape and the kidnapping is just frosting for them.
How do I know? Because Hamas says so. Constantly. For years. It even says so in their original charter.
Therefore, if you support Hamas you it means you also support gang rape, murder, kidnapping of innocent children, killing elderly and civilians, and death to all Jews. Full stop.
This also has nothing to do with Freeing Palestine. How do I know? Because had Hamas not done this, the people in Gaza would not be under attack right now. Hamas is the worst thing to happen to the poor people in Gaza. For 15 years Hamas has neglected the population they claim to support. They built thousands of miles of bomb shelters throughout Gaza and lock the population out. They use civilians as Human Shields (very well documented and see below) and send the people of Gaza to die so they can gather more clickbait of dead bodies for their socials.
Therefore, if you support Hamas it means you also support the continued oppression of the Palestinians in Gaza.
Let me tell you a story about L, a father of three girls (9,6,1) from a small Kibbutz in the south. L is currently living with his family in our apartment in Tel Aviv. We volunteered our flat to give them a place to live.
L spent 5 hours in a shelter and was able to escape north.
L’s best friend lived next door on the Kibbutz, a father of four young kids. 2 of those kids were murdered in front of him. The other two are currently hostages in the Gaza Strip. One is 2, the other is 4. They are most likely murdered as well.
Israel is far from perfect, especially over the last year. As a liberal Israeli I have much to say about the government, and this crisis is no different. Israel has made major mistakes in the past, and continues to mistreat the Arab-Israel population (looking at you Smotrich and Ben Gvir).
The incompetent Bibi government is filled with racist ultra-nationalists who have been pushing the envelope of hatred. The current government decided to move soldiers protecting the Gaza border to the settlements, to “protect” the ultra-nationalists. There will be a reckoning when this is over.
The crazies in the Bibi Government also create anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic sentiment with their words and actions. It is not a shock that Anti-Semitism is on the rise everywhere. The words and action of people like Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir give justification.
The sad irony of Israel right now is that many of the people on the front lines, and those in the background, are are the same people who have been labeled as “anarchists” and “traitors” by the fascist Bibi cronies in government because they have been protesting for over 9 months to save Israeli democracy.
Over the last several days, dozen of donation centers have opened across Israel, all of them organized by local communities at the grass roots level, including logistics and transportation to the front line soldiers and medical personnel. All the while the crazies in the Bibi government do nothing and continue to prove their incompetence.
Let me tell you about my good friend I. His parents are still missing and unaccounted for. So is his cousin. And his cousin’s 3 kids. They are probably lying in the grass right now dead, some of the many bodies who have still not been identified.
But there is a vast difference between what Israel has done in the past and what Hamas is doing now. And this is where my liberal ideals hit a wall.
Ever noticed how you don’t see videos on social media of Israeli soldiers shooting at people? Israelis also don’t kidnap children and gang rape teenage girls. Israelis also don’t celebrate in the streets when their enemies are killed.
Israel also doesn’t behead babies.
There is no “fine line” in this situation. There is no “yes, but” or justification for all of these horrendous atrocities. I have seen plenty of videos of various Palestinian “supporters” who refuse to condemn these Crimes Against Humanity and try to contextualize Hamas in some historic lens. This is Bullshit. If you are not able to see how what Hamas has done (and is doing) is vastly different than anything Israel has done, you have some serious moral reckoning to do. (Bret Stephens has a good piece on the nuance of this in the NYT.)
And here I call out all the various movements and organizations and protests around the world. I see you — we all see you. Your hypocrisy is on full and proud display to the whole world. All of your pandering about Palestinian Rights is nothing more than straight up Anti-Jew hatred.
How do I know? Because you are not able to see the difference between supporting Palestine and Genocide. Because none of you have publicly denounced the actions of Hamas for what they are.
You really want to help Palestinians? You do everything in your power to remove Hamas and free the Palestinians in Gaza from their oppressors who have NEVER tried to broker peace and have never done anything to build up the infrastructure and economy and welfare of Gaza. You do everything in your power to remove those who foment violence from positions of power because they abuse that power to oppress Palestinians.
You can support Palestinians without supporting terrorism.
And the same concept goes for the Israel.
You really want to help Israel? You remove the extreme ultra-nationalists like Smotrich and Ben Gvir and their cronies from influence on policy. You do whatever you can to put back in power people who are pro-peace, pro-democracy, and pro-equality for all citizens of Israel of all religions. This is what I have been protesting for over the last nine months.
Both sides need to do whatever they can to get those who instill violence and hate out of the sphere of the public eye.
Hate breeds hate.
And in the meantime, take a long hard look in the mirror and ask yourself — what are you really supporting?
