Commentary: "Yeah but ..."
The question of the day: Why is something that is simple to comprehend able to elude so many college level students, many of their teachers and professors, university administrators and even long-time members of the media, who are trained in doing research, to seek the truth and to report it objectively?
Hamas is a terrorist organization and its members are murderers.
Hamas has been labeled as being a terrorist organization by the Government of the United States, the European Union, Argentina, Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, Paraguay, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
If anyone has a hard time believing in “labels” such as “terrorist organization” then we suggest they view Hamas by its actions. The actions of Hamas are not secretive, they are verifiable, on video in real time and in countless news reports for everyone to see. When Mr. Yahya Sinwar, one of the leaders of Hamas, spoke with Dr. Yuval Bitton, the Israeli doctor who saved his life about Hamas and Israel, Mr. Sinwar said, “Hamas sees the land we live on as the holy land, like, this is ours, you don’t have a right to live in this land.” Regarding the chance for a two-state solution Mr. Sinwar said, “Never, because this is the land of Muslims, not for you.”
On October 7, 2023 Hamas committed one of the most heinous atrocities against women anyone could imagine. Hamas targeted young girls, young women, elderly women, baby girls with the intent to sexually mutilate them, chop off their heads, butcher their genitalia, kidnap them, rape them relentlessly, either murder them or impregnate them and torture them mentally as well as physically in the most brutal manner. Hamas did this. These are indisputable facts. Google it if you think otherwise.
The protestors may likely say, “Yeah but that happened so long ago and even if it really happened, we should look at what those horrible Israelis, those horrible Jews have been and are doing to all of those innocent and angelic Palestinians since then. And why isn’t what the Israelis are doing called genocide and why aren’t they forced to stop doing it immediately.”
I am going to tell you why. Prior to invading Gaza, Israel issued unprecedented evacuation warnings to the Palestinians to seek refuge prior to a pending ground invasion by daily postings online for a month accompanied by leaflets and phone calls. Similar warnings are given prior to bombing specific areas under Hamas control including warning shots and the releasing loud non-lethal bombs so Palestinian civilians have time to vacate. No other country ever took similar precautions to avert civilian deaths and these actions clearly disproves the claim of genocide. Hamas on the other hand encourages Palestinian civilians to ignore the Israeli warnings and to remain as human shields in areas Israel designated as targets. In addition, on at least nine different occasions from 1937-2020 Palestinians rejected Israel’s proposals to co-exist. Prior to Israel’s statehood there were 1.3 million Arabs living in the West Bank and Gaza compared to 4.6 million today. There were 156,000 Israeli Arabs living in Israel in 1948 compared to over 2 million today. Does that seem like genocide? It certainly does not!!!
Furthermore, on May 20, 2024, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu stated, “Israel is waging a just war against Hamas, a genocidal terrorist organization that has perpetrated the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Hamas has massacred 1200 Jews, raped Jewish women, burned Jewish babies, and taken hundreds hostage. Israel will continue to wage this war in full compliance with international law. We will continue to take unprecedented measures to move innocent civilians out of harm’s way and to ensure that humanitarian assistance reaches those in need in Gaza.”
We have to label Hamas and those Palestinians who support them for what they really are … pure evil. If murdering, kidnapping and sexually assaulting women was the only atrocity Hamas committed would it not be enough to have made them a pariah among the people and nations of the world? It certainly should have.
How could any responsible person profess support and acceptance of Hamas knowing these facts to be true?
How could any self-respecting journalist not hold Hamas and its supporters responsible for their actions and neglect to hold them accountable for all that happened as a result of their crimes against women?
There simply cannot be any “Yeah but” reactions to such immorality and evil doings.
Hamas declared that it will commit these same atrocities against women again and again.
Protestors might respond “Yeah but we must protest Israel’s reaction, not the crime that precipitated it.”
To which we say, “Baloney!” The world or the community must be laser focused only on what Hamas did, and what it promises to do again, regarding sexually abusing, killing, maiming, raping and enslaving mainly Jewish women, but in reality any woman they can get their hands on.
These crimes committed by Hamas are crimes against humanity and very much against women.
We must ask why don’t professional journalists all over the world bring that up each and every time they report about actions that followed the October 7,,2023 outrageous and lethal assault by Hamas against innocent and defenseless Israeli citizens and their guests and family members from around the world in addition to “peace activists”?
Professional journalists must not ignore the catalyst when reporting the news if one is an honest journalist who understands that his or her audience, without being provided context, can be deceived and manipulated. Or, maybe it can be ignored if it is only Jewish women who are victims and not women in general. That would mean that Jew hatred could very well trump the truth. A horrible thought but perhaps an accurate one these days.
Protestors might say, “Yeah but Israel is wiping out the Palestinian people, destroying their homes and hospitals, starving them to death and preventing aid from reaching them.”
Our response to these Palestinian protestors, who are at the same time the Jew haters, and the America haters, and those who choose not to see that Hamas as being responsible for everything that followed their evil scheme to kill as many Jews as quickly as they could is that there was a relative peace and ceasefire in place until Hamas chose to break it with its attack on October 7, 2023.
There is, of course, “the elephant in the room” that is also conveniently ignored by some of the professional journalists, college campus protestors and of course those who hate Jews and those who hate Israel. Hamas, in its charter, in its words and in its deeds has the destruction of the State of Israel and every Jew living there as its top priority. Their charter also included similar treatment for all Christians because Jesus Christ was Jewish. And for good measure, if any person who identifies as a part of the LBGTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer/questioning, asexual) community and who loves Hamas and their Palestinian supporters so much, wishes to go to the Palestinian territories to show their solidarity, they would truly be putting their lives at risk but not from Israel, that has a thriving LBGTQ+ presence, but from Hamas that bans such activity, considers it unlawful and persecutes those who identify as such.
Hamas has also diverted money provided by the international community and world organizations specifically earmarked for the benefit of the Palestinian people to instead purchase missiles, rockets and arms to attack and destroy the people of Israel. Hamas used these funds to build a massive network of terror tunnels instead of hospitals, schools and housing for its people. It stole this money, as it is currently stealing truckloads of food, fuel and relief meant for the Palestinian people who live there.
Hamas members hide among their own people, their Palestinian neighbors, who it uses as human shields as it continues to launch rockets into Israel to this day and instead of surrendering, it is demanding an immediate and full ceasefire. In the interim, Hamas has turned down every proposal to return the people they kidnapped and enslaved for a temporary ceasefire arrangement.
There is no “Yeah but” response to this that holds water.
I contend that there is no other country in the world, America included, that would allow a terror organization such as Hamas to continually bomb its people and target its women as Hamas has done without seeking the 100% destruction of such an organization or its unconditional surrender with its leaders prosecuted and held accountable for the crimes they and their members committed.
There is no “Yeah but” response to this.
When faced with a terrorist army vowing the destruction of one’s country and the murder and mutilation of its citizens, “from the river to the sea”, meaning its entirety, the only response any nation in the world would have has to be total victory regardless the cost. When victory is at hand in such circumstances a full ceasefire is not an option. A full ceasefire would represent a “Get Out of Jail Free” card for the Hamas terrorists. It would also guarantee that Hamas gang rapes and murders will happen again.
There is a video that recently surfaced that had been seized by the Israel Defense Forces of Jamal Hussein Ahmad Radi, 47 and his 18 year-old son, Abdallah, describing them finding a Jewish woman screaming and crying on October 7th in a house at Kibbutz Nir Oz near the Israeli-Gaza border that was attacked. “My father raped her, then I did and then my cousin did and then we left but my father killed the woman after we finished raping her”, Abdallah confessed in the video.
There is no “Yeah but” response to such evil, there is only the necessity for professional journalists to report it fully and for those who support Hamas to face the facts and re-educate themselves.
It is imperative that the truth be told about who Hamas really is. It is time for the cobwebs to be removed from before the eyes of our young men and women and their educators charged with providing their students with all the tools necessary to see and understand situations clearly.
Hamas is not just a terrorist organization when it comes to their desire to destroy the State of Israel, but also in its mistreatment and disrespect of their own Palestinian brethren, including women, children, the elderly and babies, as these evil villains willfully use their Palestinian brethren as human shields while they cower and hide in their tunnels planning and preparing their next attack.
Eliminating Hamas and its leaders will provide the best hope for Israelis and Palestinians to live side by side and prosper.
Henry Levy, Publisher
