By
Madeleine KandoOn October 7 2023, the terrorist group Hamas butchered 260 young music lovers at the Supernova Music Festival Negev Desert. They left 1,200 Israelis dead and 2,800 more wounded. Clearly they had ‘kill as many as you can’ on their mind.
The sheer brutality of it all left me breathless. The next day, there were pro-Palestinian and left wing groups celebrating that atrocity. In Manhattan, in London, at Harvard University and other campuses, the chant was: “the Israeli regime is entirely responsible for the violence’.
I spoke to some neighbors, trying to make sense of what just happened, the sheer brutality of the attack. What I heard was ‘It’s terrible, yes, but what about the poor Palestinians?’
It almost seemed like a brainwashed response. I am a liberal and so is most of my neighborhood, but can liberals not call a spade a spade? Can they not see beyond their binary worldview of the oppressors versus the oppressed? I am all for the underdog myself, but mass murder should not be condoned by blaming Israel for imposing an “apartheid” regime on Palestinians. That response requires a much more detailed knowledge of the long lasting Palestinian/Israeli conflict, than my liberal neighbors have.
Obviously, Hamas does not want peace. It wants to destroy Israel, and always has. No matter what the cost. Why would Hamas tell the Gaza population to stay in their homes, while Israel clearly warned them of an imminent attack?
What upsets me most is how some of us, in the West, are no longer able to recognize evil when it raises its ugly head. In our zeal to be politically correct, to defend the weak, we put the blame at the feet of the Jews. Being an Israeli is tantamount to being an evil, oppressive person. If some of them get butchered, so be it. That is the price they have to pay just for existing. leave comment here
5 comments:
I agree with you 100% Madeleine Kando!
Thanks for articulating this and further bringing home the point that there is no moral equivalent to justify the evil that Hamas carried out. We must look beyond the binary and see the deeper issues if there will ever be reconciliation. Grievances over land is one thing, but slaughtering innocent people is simply wrong.
Well written!
Gail
Hi Madeleine,
I agree with you 50%. It is clear that the terrorist acts of Hamas are as terrible as an be. And the resulting suffering is heartbreaking. It is evident and important to say.
So far the 50% I agree.
However it is also important to understand why Palestinians voted for Hamas and rejected the Palestinian Authority(PA). It has everything to do with the results the reasonable approach brought the Palestinians. Humiliation, living in deplorable hopeless circumstances, with people who drain their sources, cut down there generations old olive orchards, take their ground and often their lives, illegally by international law can do so with impunity and in wealth.
It is not a just cause for such a massacre. But is important for Israel and the western parties that support it to understand where the support for hamas came from. Because even if every hamas member will be killed, it will not bring peace, it will only bring more misery.
It is debatable whether Hamas is better for Gaza than the PA. Is there any way to nuance the source of Gaza’s problems and not lay it all at the feet of Israel? Hamas is clearly not in favor of normalization and has rejected international efforts to that end. With devastating results for the Gaza population, which relies heavily on international donations. You can not be a terrorist organization whose main objective is to destroy another country, and be a functioning government at the same time.
PS. Apologies. Gaza is not a country, it is a territory.
What an excellent essay, Madeleine! This is obviously a very complex and nightmarish historical situation. There seems to be no end of suffering and hatred on both sides. With no end in sight unfortunately. But we agree that terrorism must always be condemned and fought against if necessary. However, it is also true, as Gandhi said, "An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind." What an awful conundrum.
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