Since October 8th, 2023 I was clear that my concern and priority were the numerous children in Gaza. I knew Israeli wrath would be bad for the children of Gaza but I had no idea it would be so bad. These days I sometimes find myself just crying thinking about suffering needlessly inflicted on so many. The what-ifs in my mind go back to me as a young college student perplexed by the endless violent conflict in the Middle East. I did not know history, nor was I particularly curious about the history of this country that I was told I should care so much about. I accepted a lot of what was told to me but at the same time my gut told me something was wrong. If I were young today I would be among many fellow Jews who agree with me that something is indeed wrong and I would easily be able to find more information about the history of the region and how it ended up the way it is.
It has been almost 2 years since the day on October 7th when horrific war crimes were committed** and the Israeli army continues to kill and harm and starve young innocent children while insisting they are doing it all as part of some defense plan. But anyone with even half a brain knows that what they are doing has little to do with defense or protecting their citizens or eliminating Hamas. I am pretty sure that their actions have endangered Jews all over the globe and Israel has created a new group of angry men. Nothing justifies what they are doing. And the war crimes just continue day after day ….from medics being shot at close range and then buried with a bulldozer in a mass grave to cover up the crime, to the withholding of medication and food and aide to the perpetual displacement of people. Aid workers have been killed. Outside neutral observers have reported on all of the above. And Israel continues to do something called “Hasbara” which is basically propaganda to support their bad behavior.
**It has been pointed out that the world might never actually know what happened on that day. Was the Hannibal Directive started up again? Who killed who? We know that many who raided the festival were not actually part of the Hamas Army and the initial action.
I don’t know what to think of these people who refuse to see the genocide, many who I know personally including family members. Are they racist? Perhaps. Last spring I could not believe I had to question a man who used to live down the street from me and who I felt was a role model for a liberal progressive activist Jew. He posted things claiming the mother’s in Gaza did not love their children like Israeli mothers. Well I question how much the Israeli mother’s love their children when they send them off to fight a cruel and dangerous war. A war that might result in them being a participant in war crimes that will forever taunt their soul.
A video came across my stream of Gazan children being children. The videos were similar to the ones I have on my phone of my own grandchildren. They were performing for the camera, being silly, being loving to each other, enjoying life, dancing, eating and doing what children do. And it pointed out that all the children in this reel were now DEAD. YUP. None of them will have an opportunity to grow up and it is heartbreaking. So I shared it hoping to make those who still think that what is happening in Gaza is OK because “Israel is defending itself” wake up and see the crime that is being committed against the children. It happened to also be the same day that I woke up to the news that a young couple had been shot dead leaving the Israeli Embassy by a young man shouting “Free Palestine”. Now the death of this young couple is indeed tragic. And the fact that the shooter had access to a weapon and was so distraught by the endless death these past two years that he felt he had to engage in some violent action is also tragic. But many of the details about the crime had yet to be reported on. I had no idea who the couple was. Were they Jared Kushner types who fantasized about a luxury condo on the shores of Gaza, or were they people who did not deserve this violent end?
Meanwhile my niece and her fiancee started posting pictures of this couple and comments about how it is was an act of anti-semitism. And they want everyone to be enraged by the perceived growing antisemitism. Just the term anti-semitism makes me cringe these days because of how it is has been weaponized by those in politics. And being anti-Israeli is not the same as being anti-Jewish. In fact even Hamas before October 7th wrote in their mission statement that they had no qualms with Jews but their issue was with Israeli Jews and its occupation and apartheid treatment of Palestinians. And then I was shocked to get a message from my niece asking me why I did not share about this couple but I shared a reel of Gazan children who had died. We had a brief discussion over text message where she insisted Hamas is to blame for the children’s deaths and the death of this couple. She accused me and everyone protesting the war and shouting “Free Palestine” as being part of the problem and why this young man committed this crime. She accused those protesting and chanting on college campuses for instigating him to commit this crime. I found it unsettling that she refused to see the purposeful starvation of children that is happening at this moment as disturbing and morally wrong. The next morning I wrote her an email and said if she thinks all those who speak out against Israel are “Hamas” or supporting “Hamas” than maybe she doesn’t want me or for that matter my kids and their families at her wedding because we are all against this and maybe she feels we are all Hamas.
She backtracked a bit. Said she was of course against the war and wanted us at the wedding. It will be interesting.
Last night the NYTimes published an op-ed piece by a muslim man who was close friends with the young woman who was murdered. It turned out the world lost a good one when she was shot and killed. She was indeed doing what she could to work for peace and build bridges between Israelis and Palestinians. She was troubled by the war as well. The person who wrote the op-ed asked that people not politicize her death. I think he was worried about exactly what my neice and her fiancee did. I found this disturbing since my neice is a nurse and her fiancee a doctor. I would have thought they would have had more sensitivity toward the family and friend’s before posting her face on social media. I sent them the article. Since then, they thankfully have no shared any more posts about her murder.
