We have marked the 180th day since thousands of Hamas terrorists stormed over the Gaza border into Israel and brutally slaughtered 1,200 Israelis in the worst massacre committed against the Jewish People since the Holocaust.
To add to this horror, over 100 Israeli civilian hostages, several holding dual citizenships with other countries including America, are still unaccounted for within Gaza – some suspected of being murdered by their captors; while others are being tortured, brutalized, and raped; which creates a calculated degradation of their bodies and minds through tactics of both physical and psychological agony.
This emboldens Hamas’ strategy of fear, death, and destruction which ultimately leads to Hamas’ goals of destroying Israel and decimating the Jewish people.
And to make matters worse; the International Red Cross appears to be actively ignoring, or perhaps avoiding, their responsibilities to these terror hostages. Irrespective of reasons, rationale, or lack thereof, the International Red Cross must be held accountable for their inaction.
One doesn’t need to be an expert in Middle Eastern affairs to recognize the toxicity of hate growing within the petri dishes of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism in Gaza and elsewhere. It is Hamas, a proxy of Iran; assisted by their cadre of other ideologically sympathetic terror groups, as well as fearful or subservient Palestinian Arabs, who are all culpable for these terror-centric crimes.
And to the silent bystanders across the globe who choose to neither hear nor see any semblance of this evil or choose not to speak a single word against the rapid ‘normalization’ of this evil, it is time to understand the imperative truth and do something about it: “ignorance is not bliss.”
To quote renowned author George Orwell, “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” Now is the time to be courageous, revolutionary, and tell the truth.
1. Since its inception, Hamas has committed recognized heinous war crimes as defined by the Geneva Convention of 1949. This includes transforming schools into arsenals, hospitals into armories, and heavily populated Palestinian civilian residential and business neighborhoods into munition sites. Hamas then fills these sites with innocent men, women, and children to be used as human shields. And despite multiple and repeated warnings from the Israelis for Palestinian Arab civilians to immediately evacuate the targeted areas prior to any military response, Hamas gives them no choice. These Palestinian Arab civilians, most of whom identify with Hamas, become additional victims of Hamas, whether effectively used as human shields, or executed should they attempt to flee.
2. Hamas fortuitously memorialized many of their crimes on October 7, 2023. These recordings document their indiscriminate use of torture, rape, beheadings of babies, and binding together Israeli civilians to burn them alive to the joy of other terrorists and the celebration of their eager supporters . These atrocities, together with the forcible capturing of civilian hostages, are despicable and constitute international war crimes. Yet, the world seems to willfully ignore and fail to prioritize these victims, their well-being, and the needs of their families.
3. Hamas is an Iranian-backed Sunni Islamist terrorist organization that has been in the Gaza Strip since 1988. It represents a radicalized and perverse religious ideology that implores terror, glorifies death, vilifies Jews, demonizes the State of Israel, and destroys anyone and everyone – no matter if they are Jewish, Christian, or Muslim, who oppose their ways.
4. When it comes to discrepancies between the humanitarian aid that Israel has and is facilitating, and the actual aid reaching the Palestinian Arabs in need, it is inaccurate to immediately place blame upon Israel; but rather, requires a deep dive into Hamas’ depravity. Doesn’t it seem odd that there is a lack of fuel for hospitals, yet plenty of fuel for their rockets? Why does the greater Palestinian Arab population live in poverty and Hamas leadership lives outside of Gaza in plush million-dollar homes? How did Hamas build hundreds of miles of tunnels some of which have electricity, water, and means to survive indefinite periods of conflict, yet prior to October 7, 2023, the Gazan economy was historically in shambles?
5. And lastly, like all other sovereign nations, Israel has the inherent right to defend itself, by itself. Many within the Arab world must recognize Israel’s right to exist and accept that labeling Israel as “an apartheid state” and Israelis as “ genocidal colonialists" are blatantly false and callously play into Iran’s goal of destroying Israel.
But this isn’t Iran’s end game. It’s only the first step. Don’t be surprised if much sooner rather than later, Iran’s thirst for blood and destruction comes to America and other western nations.
After the dark days of the Holocaust, the civilized world vowed “never again” but it feels like Jews and the greater world are experiencing “again.” And while today is April 5, 2024, to some it is still October 7, 2023. Our collective goal must be to ensure that tomorrow does not become November 9, 1938.
Rabbi Morris Zimbalist serves as Senior Rabbi of Congregation Beth Judea and Executive Committee Member of the Chicago Board of Rabbis, Illinois.
(With gratitude for the support and assistance of Dr. Bruce Portnoy, recognized Middle East and anti-Semitism Opinion Journalist and author of the Geo-political Thriller; First, the ‘Saturday People’, and then the…)