A day does not go by without some politician or talking head demanding that Israel worry about killing fewer Palestinian civilians. Sorry, while we do not wish for human suffering, the Palestinians have brought upon themselves everything they are currently suffering.
You live in Chicago and you’re in the kitchen making a steak. The TV in the background is blurting out the news. Suddenly, there is a news flash. “A jumbo jet with over 300 people has crashed into multiple residential buildings. Details to come.” You stop what you’re doing and wait for the report to continue. Let’s imagine two scenarios:
1. The crash was in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.
2. The crash was in Chicago, a few blocks from your kids’ school.
In the first instance, you would feel bad for those killed and wounded, but you would probably go back to making dinner and think no more about the event. In the second case, you would frantically start making phone calls and probably rush out of the house to see if your kids are okay and if anyone you know was harmed.
Such a reaction is normal. Professor Mike Sandel of Harvard is a bigshot. When I had his course on Moral Reasoning 40 years ago, he was an assistant professor. Professor Sandel had a theory of “justice” that involved a person having concentric rings of interests and connections: family, job, country, religion, etc. These rings move according to the situation at hand. An example he brought forth back in the day was Mujaheddin from Afghanistan asking you if you were a freedom-loving person. The response was 'Yes, I am.' He'd then counter, 'So come fight with us against the Soviets!' But the natural response was, 'Well, my family, country and job come before my ring for foreign freedom lovers, so sorry guys.'
We all feel closer to some than to others. And sometimes a religious obligation trumps work, or work trumps a family event. That is normal. But every night for the past six weeks we have been treated to some news host, or even Kamala Harris, demanding that Israel be more careful and invent bullets and bombs that can only kill card-carrying Hamas members. I will not deny that the Palestinian people in Gaza are suffering. One can see the destroyed buildings, their moving south with their belongings and the taking apart of aid trucks out of desperation. The IDF today estimated 2 civilian shields killed for every Hamas terrorist. While the Palestinians are suffering, they alone are responsible for their plight:
1. Hamas started the war. I think that Colin Powell called it “the Pottery Barn Rules”. You break it, you pay for it. Everything that happens in Gaza is on them. Everything.
2. The Palestinian population was and is ecstatic about Jewish suffering. Remember the Palestinian civilians (including the old guy with a walker) shown on CCTV coming into Israeli settlements to steal, rape and take captives? Remember their wild reception in Gaza of Hamas barbarians and the raped women they brought back in their trucks?
People here in Israel generally feel towards the Palestinians EXACTLY what the latter feel towards Israelis. No, Israelis do not hand out candies when Palestinians are killed en masse, but the Palestinian suffering is something of their own making. If Israeli tanks and planes for no apparent reason on 10/7 simply went into Gaza to kill civilians, I hope that I would be at the front of any protest, demanding an end to the killing. But details matter, and Hamas started the war, and those Palestinians with the mule-carts are the same ones who spit on the Israeli women abused by Hamas psychos.
The media and politicians often like to leave out or bend details, as they can then push forward whatever agenda they have. I remember during the Trump presidency Forbes touting immigrants who had been super-successful and had made it big in the US. Their list included Sergei Brin of Google and Jan Koum of WhatsApp. Wonderful. Those immigrants were LEGAL immigrants who filled out the forms, paid the fees, stood in line, and completed the legal process to enter the US. They have nothing to do with the millions illegally entering the US with few skills and little education.
An Israeli-Russian captive succeeded in escaping his Hamas handlers and was hiding for four days. He reported after his release that Palestinian citizens turned him over to Hamas. A UNRWA teacher held a captive in his house. A woman with a gunshot wound was treated by a veterinarian. The Palestinians started the war and were enthralled with the killing, raping, and plundering. Now that Hamas is receiving its comeuppance, the world demands that Israel treat Palestinian human shields with kid gloves. Sorry. As Kurt Schlichter always writes, if the Palestinians want to protect their citizens, then let Hamas put down its weapons and stop fighting.
Those demanding so much from Israel are antisemites. Why? Because when Syrian civilians were being slaughtered by the Assad government or Uyghurs were being abused by Chinese authorities, they said nothing. They did not form some BDS movement or demand a halt to the killing and torture. But when they can stick it to the Jews and demand that Israel fight an impossible war against a cowardly enemy that hides in population centers, then they are marching endlessly.
Israel does not kill civilians. It actually puts its soldiers into harm’s way to reduce civilian deaths. But civilians will continue to suffer and die as long as Hamas is still around. So blame Hamas and not Israel. It will make the war end more quickly when the murderers realize that they have lost their fans in the West.