What were they doing
when they thought they were thinking?
Hamas attacked Israel again on October 7th. I don't feel compelled to comment on every terrorist incident in the world, nor Israel. This is just the latest outbreak of a blood feud between the descendants of Isaac and Ishmael, which has lasted about 3,800 years. I won't stop it, and neither will you.
I won't try to untangle who has the best claim to the land. To me, this is folly. Everybody has a claim if you choose the right era. Israel says God gave them this land. The Palestinians disagree.
No, I want to talk about the reaction of the Western liberals. How does one respond to student groups at Harvard and other universities worldwide who announce their support for Hamas? Personally, I'm on the side that doesn't glorify killing babies.
When Israel announced Hamas had beheaded 50 babies, leftists said, "Where's the proof?" An Israeli general declined to share the photos of dead babies, and these journalists said, "They have no proof." Then the argument became that we don't know for sure that all 50 were beheaded. As someone on X stated, "I think if your best argument is that the dead babies were only murdered, not beheaded, you've not only lost the argument, but also your mind."
When a terrorist is so impatient to kill babies that he carves one out of the womb, how does one stand in an institution of higher learning and call that heroism? Their shame would reach the skies. Every Hamas bullet that killed a dancer at a rave could have been aimed at a soldier, but it wasn't. This attack had nothing to do with fulfilling a military objective. The sole purpose was to terrorize.
Imagine being a parent and being grateful that your child had ONLY been murdered, that some greater indignity hadn't been visited on their body. The parents of Shani Louk weren't that fortunate. Shani was dancing at the Supernova rave with her boyfriend when the Hamas attacked. Later, when photos of a naked woman circulated online, her parents identified her by her tattoos. At that time, reports said she had been raped and murdered. The terrorists were apparently not done with her. They used her credit card. I know this seems like a small insult after everything else, but something about that haunts me.
Her boyfriend, Orión Hernández Radoux, hasn't been seen since then, either. Text messages sent from his phone after the attack were in Arabic. They said things like, "I spit on you," "God damn you." There were vows to "liberate Palestine" and make it "free of Zionists."
On the 7th, approximately 1,200 Israelis were murdered. No, it's not accurate. About 200 were soldiers. The other 1,000 were murdered. The 1,200 who died are approximately .01% of Israel's population, just a little more than 9 million people. If .01% of Americans had died on 9/11, there would have been over 33,000 deaths. Or 3,800 Canadians.
People claim that Gaza is an open-air prison. That is so absurd; it hurts my brain. There's a road from Gaza to Egypt, but the Egyptians closed it. It seems that Hamas isn't welcome in Egypt, either.
In 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza entirely. The people there elected Hamas to lead their government. They had a choice to make. They could have a country or a slogan. They chose the slogan. "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." For Hamas, there is no peace with Israel. As a result, it seems that Israel cannot have peace with Hamas.
So how does a modern, western liberal, however you might want to define those terms, justify what Hamas is doing? Those people who will tell you that "silence is violence" are suddenly silent in the face of actual violence. Those who tell you to "believe the victims" question everything Israel says. People say that Israel's response should be proportionate. I will let Douglas Murray have the closing word on that. The first 6:30 and last 3:00 of this video are pertinent.