How can humans be so cruel in the way they treat other humans. I am speaking specifically about the way Hamas militants massacred Israeli civilians and children in addition to soldiers in their surprise attack on southern Israel last week. Shooting babies and toddlers, women and the elderly in addition to soldiers was not enough. They had to decapitate some of the children and soldiers and burn some of the Israelis to death. Thousands of rockets were also launched indiscriminately into Israel, most of them intercepted by the Iron Dome defense shield. All Israelis were valid targets for Hamas, no matter what the age or gender, civilian or soldier. This was the largest atrocity perpetrated against Jews since the Holocaust.
In addition to the butchery of 1-2000 Israelis, Americans, Thais and Europeans, about 200 Israelis, American and French tourists were taken hostage and brought back and hidden in the warrens of Gaza.
The Israeli intelligence and military were caught completely flatfooted by this attack, but since then, the IDF has been mounting fairly continuous air attacks on Gaza, killing many civilians as well as Hamas operatives and supporters. The Israelis have also imposed a siege on Gaza, cutting off electricity, food, medication and water from the enclave. International organizations have chastised the Israelis for imposing collective punishment on the Palestinians in Gaza, but they chose Hamas as their government in the first place and a majority of Gazans still support them. The Israelis have also said they would lift the siege if the hostages were released, but Hamas has not yet responded to this offer publicly.
Hamas and many Palestinians view the Jews as non-human, the way the Nazis did during the Holocaust. That is the only way one can explain the massacre of Jewish civilians and non-combatants and the desecration of the bodies that Hamas perpetrated. Many religious and militant Muslims perceive non-Muslims as infidels who deserve no mercy. The Palestinians also view the Jews as European colonists in Israel, even though historically the Jews were there first before they were driven out. Many Jews also see the Palestinians in Gaza as supporters of Hamas since they voted for them to rule Gaza and polls still show that Hamas has majority support.
Thus, neither Hamas nor Israelis view each other as fully human, but as adversaries who can be destroyed at will.
Yasir Arafat had an opportunity in 2000 with mediation by Bill Clinton to form an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza with 95 percent of what he had wanted from Israel. He turned it down. Since then, the enmity between the Israelis and Palestinians has grown only worse, with both sides viewing the other as inhuman. No matter what the Israelis do to Hamas and Gaza, I can’t imagine a way for the situation to improve unless both sides accept the humanity of the other.
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Posted at 09:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: , massacre, brutalizing, demonizing, Gaza, hostages. Hamas, Israelis, nonhuman, Palestinians, torture
Political junkie, Vietnam vet, neurologist- three books on aging and dementia. Book on health care reform in 2009- Shock Therapy for the American Health Care System. Book on the need for a centrist third party- Resurrecting Democracy- A Citizen’s Call for a Centrist Third Party published in 2011. Aging Wisely, published in August 2014 by Rowman and Littlefield. Latest book- The Uninformed Voter published May 2020