Gaza’s Health Ministry said the death toll among Palestinians has passed 8,000 — mostly women and minors. It’s a toll without precedent in decades of Israeli-Palestinian violence, and it is expected to climb even more rapidly as Israel presses its ground offensive. Over 1,400 people have died on the Israeli side, mainly civilians killed during the initial Hamas onslaught (Time, October 29, 2023).
Beginnings
There is a war going on in the Middle East. A terrorist group launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7th. Over a thousand Hamas “fighters” crossed over the Israel/Gaza border; breaking down the barriers, coming through tunnels, even flying in on ultra-light gliders. They attacked some military outposts, but most of their effort was targeted to torturing, capturing, and killing civilians. 1400 Israelis were killed, some in their beds, some burned to death in their houses, some chased down in the fields and executed.
Any discussion of what’s happening now in Gaza, needs to start on October 7th. Palestinians, with good reason, can claim that the Israeli treatment of their people is unacceptable. Many Israelis, fresh from a summer in the street protesting the Netanyahu government, with good reason, might blame him for their unpreparedness. There are lots of failures leading up to October 7th.
Justice
But nothing justifies the attack on October 7th: not the long suffering of the Palestinian people, and not the political mechanizations of Bebe Netanyahu. Israelis try to explain October 7th with a term Americans (over thirty) understand: 9-11. Perhaps that age limit explains why so many young Americans seem willing to overlook the Hamas atrocities. September 11th to them is history; not the immediate, visceral loss, that older Americans feel.
To fall back on 9-11 for a moment, let me modify a “lecture” from The West Wing, an important television show of the era. It explained the nature of Al Qaeda. US was not attacked by a religion. Al Qaeda was an extremist terrorist group. The “equation” read: “Islamic Extremist is to Islam, what (fill in the blank) is to Christianity”. The answer was – the Ku Klux Klan.
To the Sea
Israel was attacked by Hamas, a terrorist group founded on the concept of genocide, killing Jews. Their “battle cry”, “…Palestinian, from the river to the sea”, is one from the very origin of Israel in 1948. The Arab goal was to drive the Jews into the sea. The nation-states surrounding Israel; Jordan, Egypt, Syria, with the support of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and most of the other Islamic states; tried to do just that. In 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973; state-sponsored armies tried to drive the Jews from Israel. They failed each time.
Hamas is not a nation, not state-sponsored. The terrorists don’t have a state-sponsored army prepared to battle at the border or the open plain. Hamas is a terrorist group, that took on some “state trappings” in attempting to govern Gaza. But Hamas never has forgotten its founding principle: drive the Jews into the sea. Hamas is to Palestinian, as the Proud Boys or the Oath Keepers are to Americans.
False Equivalence
In covering Israel’s response to the Hamas’ attack, the world media has a problem. Reporters have relatively free-rein in Israel, able to move about and interview civilians, victims and the military. While the Israeli government has a strong and even ham-handed propaganda campaign in play, reporters are often able to get past the rhetoric and obfuscation.
But reporters don’t have the same free-rein in Gaza. The Gaza reports often come from the Gaza “government”, but the “government” there is the terrorist group, Hamas. It’s not “equivalent” coverage. As bad as things are in Gaza, most of the information coming out of Gaza is controlled by Hamas, slanted to their needs, true or not.
If an F-5 tornado ripped through Central Ohio, we would take the information from the Emergency Agencies and the local health departments at face value. Those agencies are valid, simply getting out the facts. The same is not true with the disaster agencies of Gaza; they are wings of Hamas, and subject to Hamas’ goals. Any equivalency is false.
Hiding Behind Civilians
When Time or other mainstream new services quote the Gaza Health Ministry, it’s important to remember they are quoting Hamas. And one more point: Hamas uses the civilian Palestinian population as their armor, their shield to protect them from Israeli retribution. Why do Israeli bombings kill Palestinian civilians? Because Hamas is hidden among, below, and beside them. That is Hamas’ choice, and those civilians death are their weapon. The blood is on their hands as well, not just Israel’s.
In the wars a half century ago, armies marched out to attack, and dug in to defend. Civilians could escape the battlefield, fleeing before the actual warfare began. Many Palestinians did exactly that. But there is nowhere to flee in Gaza, and Hamas is everywhere. What is Israel supposed to do? Accept October 7th? What was the United States supposed to do after 9-11?
