Just when I thought Hamas had exhausted its seemingly never-ending supply of savagery and depravity, it got even uglier.
Unlike procedures surrounding prisoner swaps in Israel, the scenes from Gaza are bone-chilling. To be clear: Israel continues to release the most violent and brutal criminals in these exchanges. Their abominable criminal resumes are too lengthy to list here. In contrast, Israeli hostages include families taken out of their beds in pajamas, young women, families, grandparents and babies, lucky enough to not have been beheaded and burned in their homes. Foreign nationals have been dragged into Gaza as well. Today marks 482 days in captivity, with so many left behind.
Israel demanded safer and less public future releases of hostages after the brutal scenes from the last weeks, but this morning’s display not only proves that negotiating with Hamas is a futile, disappointing and unfair battle, but that their barbarism knows no bounds.
Kan News reported that the hostages were taken to the site of the ruins of Sinwar’s house for the obvious purpose of inciting anger and chaos. Throngs of Palestinians were alerted to the location and procedures of this exchange and surrounded Hamas vehicles so densely that the Red Cross was prevented from approaching at an appropriate distance. Hostages were surrounded by a sea of crowds chanting, wielding cellphones, and taking selfies. While militants donning uniforms with covered faces and carrying weapons are petrifying, what scares me the most are the countless ordinary citizens in plain clothes, with their children in tow, cheering on Hamas and jeering an 80-year-old man with a heart condition struggling to walk and a petite and petrified young woman in tears, surrounded by monsters who brutalized her for 482 days.
Each release during this last deal was fraught with psychological warfare, including displaying the hostages in makeshift army uniforms, parading them onto stages and forcing them to wave to menacing crowds. The ‘completion certificates’ emblazoned with the words ‘release decision,” and the pathetic goody bags, are one final way to psychologically traumatize and torture these innocent victims. There is no end to Hamas’s cruelty and abuse.
When I first moved to the US a few months before my freshman year in high school, a new friend asked me if I believed there would ever be peace in the Middle East. It was the fall of 1982 and I was afraid to tell her that I feared not, but that I would never stop hoping and praying for peace.
Am I a pessimist?
There is no shortage of videos of Palestinian parents taking their kids to the streets for displays of hatred and intolerance, so it is hard for me to think otherwise. When countless “textbooks” and T.V. shows geared towards young children indoctrinate pure hatred, I wonder how and when a true change in DNA and psyche is possible?
And yet, I continue to hope.
But today’s scenes chipped away at all my dreams for living peacefully side by side. Today’s spectacle drove home a true “us versus them” dichotomy that illustrates that enough “innocent” Palestinian civilians and the next generation have been wholly indoctrinated and fully buy-in. Maybe not everyone. But far too many.
It doesn’t have to be this way. On October 6, 2023 Israel did not occupy Gaza. Hamas was fully in control after Israel withdrew. “Occupation” you say? Please educate yourself. “From the River to the Sea,” means that Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and living-side-by-side is not the goal. A total destruction and annihilation of the Jewish state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea is the goal.
None of this had to happen. Even the surrounding Arab states are sick to death of misguided Palestinian philosophy and tactics. Unfortunately, the “death” part is prominent on both sides.
A few years ago I was at a work event with my husband. I was approached by an employee who found out I was Israeli and wanted to talk.
He opened with, “You’ve been talking to my wife about our children and I hear you’re Israeli.” I smiled and nodded, expecting a friendly get-to-know-you chat.
“Surely, as a mother, you understand why Palestinian mothers support their children becoming suicide bombers? They’re desperate.” He said.
Rarely at a loss for words, I stared at him agape, finally aware that I had not made a sound. I excused myself mumbling something about not doing this at a work event, much less at a mutual friend’s home, and walked away shaken.
I wanted to say, “No. I don’t understand. I am the grandchild of Holocaust survivors. I suffer from significant intergenerational trauma and under no circumstances would I support my children killing themselves or anyone else. Ever.”
Philosophical differences are one thing. Lord knows they’re at the center of our lives here in the US and certainly in Israel. But this goes far deeper. I’m reminded by Golda Meir’s quote, which still rings true today:
“When peace comes we will perhaps in time be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our sons, but it will be harder for us to forgive them for having forced us to kill their sons. Peace will come when the Arabs love their children more than they hate us.”
So while I’ve been up since 3 a.m. watching the news from Israel, crying with pure joy and relief, and feeling a sliver of my heart open making room for hope, Hamas’s latest display reminded me that it’s us versus them, as always.