Unless you are living under a rock, which could be a relief these days, you know that innocent Israelis were brutally attacked by the terror organization, Hamas early this past Saturday morning. Like ISIS, they did what barbaric terrorists do: they targeted innocent women, children, babies, men, and elderly people in their homes and at a peace-loving outdoor music fest. Images of beheaded babies, burnt children’s bodies, mass rapes, torture, kidnapping, overwhelming death and destruction are preceded by trigger warnings from news outlets. Can we ever be prepared for such sadism, brutality, and calculated hate? Arguably, the Nazis prepared us Jews, and we swore: Never Again.
Never Again is now.
And yet, the lessons of history, the pogroms, the holocaust, and more recent horrific terrorist massacres elude many individuals who excuse and condone this atrocity with qualifiers such as, “but the Israeli government is….” Feel free to insert your verbs, nouns, and excuses. Any human being who condones an attack on innocent civilians lacks a moral compass. Israelis are not their government. They have been protesting tirelessly for nine long months against this government’s policies. These innocent Israelis, many of whom are liberal and oppose their government, were slaughtered for one reason only: They were Jews.
If you can find a justification for beheading a baby in her bed in front of her parents, you lack a moral compass. Hamas is not the Palestinian people. Hamas holds the Palestinian people captive. I refuse to believe that innocent Palestinians in Gaza want Hamas to take the funding they receive and use it to build tunnels and buy weapons. People want clean water, immunizations for their children, good hospitals, and education. Now, they too, will come in harm’s way because of Hamas.
I repeat. Because of Hamas.
Hamas is not a social justice cause. Hamas is a terrorist organization. Supporting Hamas is collusion and complicity. Supporting Hamas is immoral and soulless. Supporting Hamas is delusional and uneducated. If you care about the Palestinians, then work to free them from the clutches of living under this terrorist regime.
I can dive deeper into a history and geopolitics lesson, but I am afraid it will fall on deaf ears. All you have to know is that when you support a terrorist organization or justify their actions with “yes, but…” you have blood on your hands. There’s never a time that murder, rape, beheading, or kidnapping is morally justifiable.
If you can justify death as a symbol of resistance, you are morally corrupt.
If you think Hamas speaks for the Palestinian people and is helping in any way, you need education.
If you think beheading babies in front of their parents or any other context is justified, you need some serious help.
Israel will persevere because we have no choice. And this too, shall come to an end. In addition to the moral depravity of the woke mob justifying this nightmare, those who stand silent among us add insult to injury.
When this is over, I will never forget the support I received from near and far. From friends I haven’t spoken to in years, from friends of friends who barely know me. I will also continue to feel profound disappointment towards the rest. The silent. The ambivalent.
Martin Luther King said, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
Stand up. Never again is now.