Piling horror upon horror
Watching from afar as people race toward an abyss, I find it hard to know what to write except “no,” over and over. In the face of massacres that for Jews around the world brought back memories of genocide, the language of some Israeli leaders has, in turn, become murderous. Jewish and Palestinian alike, are terrified that this rhetoric will become reality.
Isaac Herzog, Israel’s president, said that the “entire nation” of Gaza was “responsible” for the attacks at a news conference last week, telling reporters, “It is not true, this rhetoric about civilians not being aware, not involved.” Herzog later clarified that civilians are not legitimate targets, but his words, coming from a member of Israel’s center-left Labor Party, were still chilling, suggesting a broad political consensus that Gazans are collectively to blame for the horror that befell Israel. “All gloves are off,” Ron Prosor, a distinguished Israeli diplomat, told Politico.
In such an environment, the ruling Israeli right, some of whose members spoke of forcing Palestinians out of Israel even before Hamas’ latest rampage, has little to restrain it. Tally Gotliv, a member of the Knesset from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, urged the use of “doomsday weapons” on Gaza.
I can empathize with liberal Jews in Israel and throughout the diaspora who feel too overwhelmed, at this moment of great fear and vulnerability, to protest the escalating suffering inflicted on Palestinians. It is not fair that events are moving too quickly to give people time to grieve the victimization of their own community before being asked to try to prevent the victimization of others.
Nevertheless, as atrocities are piled on atrocities, I hope Jews will attend to what is being threatened in our name. And all Americans should pay attention, given how much our country underwrites Israel’s military.
In Gaza, mass death has already begun. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has announced that Israel was cutting off Gaza’s water, electricity, food and fuel. The Associated Press reported that clean water has run out in UN shelters across Gaza.
Some readers, I suspect, will respond that while this is all terrible, it is also all Hamas’ fault. In many ways, I agree. Hamas’ terror is clearly the immediate cause of the hell raining down on Gaza; most countries attacked as Israel was attacked would respond with war. That does not, however, license Israeli indifference, or worse, to the lives of civilians.
Influential voices in America are intensifying the bloodthirsty atmosphere. Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) dismissed worries that mass civilian casualties in Gaza will work to Hamas’ advantage on the world stage. “As far as I’m concerned, Israel can bounce the rubble in Gaza,” he said.
To Cotton’s right, the language is even more incendiary. “If it comes down to ethnic cleansing—you want to cleanse my people, I’ll cleanse yours first,” said Joel Pollak, a senior editor at large at Breitbart News, on the webcast of leading young conservative Charlie Kirk.
We can already see where the total dehumanization of Palestinians leads. A 6-year-old boy in Illinois was allegedly stabbed to death by his landlord, who is also accused of gravely injuring the boy’s mother. According to the local sheriff’s office, the victims were targeted “due to them being Muslim and the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis.”
If this is the atmosphere in parts of the United States, it is exponentially more fevered in Israel.
Someone sent me a link to a mostly Hebrew-language Telegram group with more than 82,000 subscribers in which people had posted celebratory photographs of dead and injured Palestinians. “The people of Gaza are not innocent!” said an introductory message for English speakers.
If and when those who believe this act on it, we can’t pretend we weren’t warned.