The Israel-Hamas War.
On October 7th 2023 an event of unfathomable horror took place. Hamas declared war on Israel in the form of a genocidal sneak attack. 1200 Israeli civilians of Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Thai, Hindu, American backgrounds, and more, were targeted and mercilessly killed by Hamas. Thousands more were wounded. Another 240 were taken hostage into Gaza. This is what started the Israel-Hamas War.
This was the largest number of Jews murdered on a single day since World War II. There are still 107 hostages trapped in Gaza, and Hamas is threatening to kill them all.
Bitter feelings.
We are all consequences of the time and place in which we were born. Many Palestinians have vastly different life experiences and outcomes than Israelis do, often for the worse. Gaza is a dangerous place to live. There is considerable poverty, infrastructural, and political decay. Palestinian people can’t move as freely as people in other countries can. There is a lack of decent education, which would empower Gazans to improve their lives and surroundings.
By many metrics Israelis have a better standard of living and more mobility than Palestinians do. There are obvious inequities, but there is no proof that these are Israel’s fault. Unfortunately there is no solution that could satisfy both sides. Israel, like any country, has made mistakes. It has blundered in its approach to Palestinians. There is a Palestinian man who swore an oath of peace only to see his daughter killed by the IDF. Peace demonstrators have been shot by the IDF. Any blood that is wrongfully spilled is a senseless tragedy. These are all valid disputes, but there is absolutely no justification for the October 7th slaughter of Israelis.
What fuels the Israel-Hamas War.
Palestine is a more dangerous place to live primarily because of its government- Hamas. Hamas is a violent terrorist group with the sole intent of obliterating Israel. It was voted in as the official government of Palestine by its people in 2006. Hamas is largely responsible for the condition of Gaza. Hamas regularly takes aid designated for Palestinians, and uses it to wage terrorism, neglecting the Gazan people.
Before October 7th Gazans didn’t have clean drinking water, and this is a direct result of Hamas prioritizing building tunnels instead of investing in Gaza’s water treatment. Hamas is largely responsible for the schooling, or lack thereof, in Gaza.
In addition to neglecting the people Hamas purports to represent, it has no qualms about putting Gazans in harm’s way. It regularly shoots missiles from densely populated areas and places like mosques, apartment buildings, schools, and hospitals. There truly is no honor or dignity among a majority of Hamas terrorists.
The roots of the Israel-Hamas War.
Israel has been a point of fierce contention from the time it gained statehood in 1948. A term that gets maligned in discussions about Israel is Zionist. Zionist comes from the word Zionism, and is merely the belief that Jewish people, as an ethnic and religious minority, need a homeland and safe haven. Jews have had a consistent presence in Jerusalem and the surrounding area for 2000 years.
Starting in the mid-1800s Ashkenazim Jews, Jews with European backgrounds, began immigrating to Palestine and buying its land. This spurred resentment and increased anti-Semitic sentiment and violence in Palestine and Europe as well. As more Jews immigrated tensions began to rise. Arabs perpetrated numerous pogroms called intifadas against Jews starting as far back as the 30s. Each intifada grew in intensity.
These are facts that are crucial to understand to put the Israel-Hamas War in proper context.
The morning of Israel’s Holocaust.
The Israel-Hamas War was initiated on October 7th, 2023 at 6:30am. Hamas unleashed its attack from Gaza, firing missiles. Jews were celebrating the week-long holiday Sukkot, a harvest festival which is supposed to be one of the most joyful Jewish holidays. As people were awakening or still asleep, sirens were initiated to alert Israelis to go to the nearest bomb shelters. An estimated 2,200 rockets were rapidly fired into Southern and Central Israel, aiming for Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
The Iron Dome is a self-defense system Israel has relied on for years.
It was designed to deflect rockets, but it had never been tested like this before. The Iron Dome was overwhelmed by the sheer volume, which was part of Hamas’ plan.
As the missile onslaught was happening, Hamas terrorists and Palestinian civilians were bulldozing a fence separating Gaza and Israel. Once they broke through the floodgates were opened. Countless trucks filled with ammo, weapons, zipties, and terrorists drove into Israel. Additionally, terrorists flew into Israel with motorized paragliders, raining terror from the sky.
The Supernova Sukkot Gathering.
Some of the first victims of the Israel-Hamas War were the attendees of the Nova trance music festival. Young people gathered for a weekend of dancing and electronic music devoted to the message of peace. Young people were camping out, and awoke to the sound of sirens. They fled to seek shelter, but soon found they were surrounded by Hamas trucks.
A hail of bullets were fired indiscriminately at attendees from the ground and from the sky by Hamas paragliders. These young people were unarmed and completely vulnerable. They frantically ran into the desert seeing no other option. Two girls survived by hiding behind some trees. Others were not so lucky. Some went into a bomb shelter that Hamas threw explosives into, which is a violation of the Geneva Convention. Others were kidnapped.
It is important that the world knows of the horrors witnessed in the Israel-Hamas War.
There is a pervasive theory that these claims are exaggerated or fabricated by Israel as malicious propaganda against Palestinians. This claim is easily discredited however due to the countless videos that were taken by Hams themselves and were posted online. There are additionally testimonies from Hamas terrorists that confirm it. One of the incidents that fueled this theory was a headline about 40 beheaded babies in a nursery. Evidently there was only one beheaded baby, but the others had been butchered. The witness never said there were 40 beheaded babies, but someone heard that.
The horrors mentioned up to now are only the tip of the iceberg. As this hell on earth unfolded, more Hamas slaughter was carried out elsewhere. Hamas did not discriminate by age, gender, ethnicity, or religious affiliation. Kibbutz Nir Oz is a community situated very close to the Gaza border. 180 of its 400 residents were tortured and murdered in the most malicious ways. Entire families were wiped out or broken. Terrorists systematically went from house to house, setting them on fire. Every house in Israel is required by law to have safety shelters. Israeli families were effectively trapped inside of their shelters as their home burned around them.
One family survived this ordeal in the most brutal way imaginable. A husband and wife trapped with their baby knew that if they stayed any longer they would die from smoke inhalation. They made the difficult decision of braving the fire with their baby. The mother and father wrapped their arms around their baby as tightly as they could and walked through the fire. When they emerged from their house all of their bodies were severely burned. They somehow managed to hide from terrorists and survived, although with extreme health complications and a lifetime of trauma.
Women and children were raped and butchered, while fathers were bound, powerless to defend them.
A little girl’s legs were hacked off. One woman was gang raped as her breast was chopped off. The terrorists then mockingly threw it around like a toy before shooting her pointblank in the head. One man had his stomach cut open, and terrorists proceeded to remove his liver and eat it in front of him. In one case, an Israeli woman was gang raped as her baby was put into a fully heated oven, and was forced to listen to the wails of her baby as they baked to death. Parents and children were ziptied together, and set on fire. We will never know if they were alive or dead when their bodies were set ablaze. There are burnt bodies that were thought to be of only one individual, but are being found to be two bodies through dna analysis.
The harrowing accounts of sadistic violence on that day go on and on and on. It is important that the world knows the gruesome details of what happened to understand the all-consuming, avaricious hatred that fueled this orgy of sadistic torture and violence. Although Israel has made strategic errors that have sometimes impacted the lives of Arabs for the worse, there is absolutely no justification for torturing and killing the most vulnerable and innocent civilians in a population.
Why the Israel-Hamas war is necessary.
War is one of the most horrifying events that exists in the human psyche and in reality. It brings immense suffering and doesn’t discriminate between the young or old. Israel didn’t ask for this war however. Israel has made many attempts through the years to establish a Palestinian state and every single one was denied by the Palestinians. It has tried the “land for peace” strategy to no avail. In 2006 Israel extricated itself and all Jewish people from Gaza in the hopes that would foster goodwill toward Israel. That didn’t though. The crux of the problem goes much deeper than a mere dispute over land.
Hamas indoctrinates Gazans from such a young age and so thoroughly that many are willfully blind to the psychological damage it wreaks on their own people. Instead of teaching children the alphabet and numbers, children are taught that the highest aspiration is to die a martyr. Farfour, a Palestinian knock-off of Mickey Mouse, is a character on a propaganda show for Gazan children. Farfour is killed in one of the episodes when he is stabbed to death by the IDF. Gazans have been groomed from the time they learn to speak to hate Israel and Jewish people.
If you want peace prepare for war.
What did Gaza do when Israel removed all Jews and ended its occupation? It destroyed ready to use factories left by the Jews who evacuated because they were made by Jews. International aid meant for Palestinians is routinely taken by Hamas to feed their bloated wallets. Donated pipes were made into missiles instead of being used to transport drinking water. Much of the relief aid meant for Palestinians went to building the extensive network of terror tunnels where hostages are still trapped. There is at minimum 186 miles of tunnels. Each mile of tunnel cost a colossal amount in Palestinian aid and resources.
You cannot mandate hatred out of a people. People will feel the way they do about anyone they want. When hatred is acted on with such severe violence there is no amount of reasoning or bargaining that will assuage. This war could have mostly been avoided had Palestinians ousted Hamas. Either out of fear or sheer hatred for Israel they chose not to though. The only feasible option is for Hamas to be annihilated. There likely won’t be peace for a long time, but the only chance for it is if Hamas is destroyed and Gaza is de-Nazified.
Israel did not start this war, but it certainly has to finish it.
The Israel-Hamas War is not about Israel. It is primarily about the anti-Jewish, anti-human ideology that fuels Hamas and is opposed to life itself. It’s opposed to all of the values that enabled democracy; morality, creativity, sensitivity and intelligence. Hamas doesn’t have any use for democracy. It wants to mutilate what’s beautiful because it makes certain individuals feel inadequate. Hamas not only wants to destroy life itself, but desecrate it along the way. If we condemn Israel for meting out justice we are endangering human beings everywhere.
People who say that hell isn’t a real thing or place are mistaken. The hostages that are still trapped in the tunnels of Gaza are living there now. The Brooklynites team aches everyday for the swift and safe release of the remaining hostages.
Read more about the events of the October 7th attack on Israel:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Hamas-led_attack_on_Israel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamas
Read more news:
https://brooklynites.nyc/synagogues-vandalized-in-manhattan-beach/