Sheri, I'm a new subscriber from Canada and I'm challenged to add anything new or inciteful to what is happening to Israelis. However I do appreciate your sharing this video of young Gazan children playing the role of Hamas. It's all sickening. None of us will forget what happened to the Bilbas family.
Howidi be supported for his stand against Hamas. He is most likely past rage after enduring imprisonment himself. Also he grew up in this culture so unlike us, it does not surprise him as it does us. It is not beyond what we can imagine.
I also want to note that the Bibas family and many other murders rapes and kidnappings were carried out by ordinary Gaza people, not Hamas operatives. The hostages were sold, they got money for them. So yeah, it is difficult not to blame everybody in Gaza.
In the perverse ceremony of the release of the coffins people brought their children to join in the “fun”
I must admit, however, that I was not surprised by the depravity, evil, and cruelty of Hamas and the "ordinary" civilians who carried out the atrocities and who abducted hostages. And I am not surprised any longer by how they raise their kids.
I guess what surprises me is how people can see these things and still think we have to talk with them about peace and a two-state-solution that would be the death of us (literally). It seems Howidy still believes we should believe in peace and that Lifshitz would have had he come home alive.
Oded thought we have no choice and I agree with him. We are among those who think we cannot kill 2 million people. Nothing is worth that, not even our country. Lately I have started thinking that the Palestinian state should be Jordan. 70% of Jordan’s population is Palestinian . The British should have divided their mandate into an Israeli and Arab states instead of giving Jordan to a Saudi Arabian tribe that helped the British fight the Turks
I know but I think it’s the only solution. The Palestinians tried to get rid of the Hashemites in the early 70s which resulted in the killing of a great many of them, Black September. Nobody talks about that. I think it is the only viable solution
I listened to this the other night. Idk how credible Mudar Zahran is but he says he’s the leader of the Jordanian opposition and has a hopeful perspective on a future for Arab residents of Gaza in Jordan.
I think the crux is that they think two million is worth it. Your country isn't worth it?? That line is for people with options. My feeling is that they want something 'spectacular' from Israel. They just have to keep twisting the knife. You may think I'm dramatic but there has been all this hope, as if Oct 7 didn't tell us something. I will just say that I 'knew' on that morning and there were about five dead.
Sorry Sheri, I mean the savages think 2m lives are nothing. They don't care if they are their own civilians. They know that Jews do. The Jews must choose Jews. I feel that they are cranking up the pain for your breaking point. I am sorry to sound so negative but I felt they would do something awful with the bodies and I was afraid to voice it. Just think the worst things possible of them to give you some sort of edge.
When I say you I mean we but that is so presumptious of me, but it what is in my heart.
The thing is that Israel could have prevented this attack. Israel can deal with these monsters but I believe there is a real issue of total betrayal by this government. I will write a post about it tomorrow. The real threat to israel is our present government. Seriously.
It is not the government that is solely responsible -- don't forget the Shin Bet about which there was a TV report yesterday, and don't forget the Attorney General who clips the army's wings when they want to do something significant, and more....
Perhaps yesterday his lack of rage might have been excused, but today, knowing how Ariel and Kfir actually died, how can anyone not be enraged? And speak out for them?
I saw an interesting observation the other day, even in the darkest moments of nazisms control of Europe you had those who rose against them. You had the partisans and you had the righteous gentiles who saved Jews. There is none of this in Gaza. So yes, all of Gaza is complicit. And the parents of Gaza bring the destruction down on their children as the Nazis parents brought destruction down on their children.
Sheriffs I share your anger and grief and I hold the Gazans for fully responsible and yet is there another choice than to work on reconcilation? The vast majority of the Germans was guilty of supporting the Nazi regime- and too many Nazis got away, but was there a better choice than to try to Build a different Germany, not that this was a full success, but it had some good results …
You can’t reconcile with a people who demand the death of your people and of your country. There is no partner for peace among these people and there will never ever be a 2 state solution because actually Israel nor the world has the right to divide the land Gd has given to His people!
This pogrom/slaughter/ invasion committed by the so called refugees has proven that fact. All those
not prepared to live under Israeli authority and a Jewish culture should leave and move to a Muslim country where they will be accepted and no longer be “refugees”.
I am absolutely totally outraged by what they have done. May the God of Israel avenge the blood of His own people and bring judgement on those who have committed such evil against His people!
The Palestinians that live and breathe for the hate and destruction of Jews are so filled with contempt that they are not salvageable. That was true yesterday and there is no indications that their future will be otherwise.
Thoughtful article in the midst of terrible, tumultuous, and tragic times.
Two excerpts from your post: "Hamas is fully aware that their parade to return the dead bodies of babies will be used to dehumanize Palestinians and incite more violence against us". And: "They did it anyway. They just want the world to hate us more—pure depravity."
I understand the last "depravity" as reflexive, pointing back to the actions of the Palestinians and that they did it anyway. Besides, how much more can a group be dehumanized once they are. I'm not aware that varying degrees of a particular negative quality or attribute from positive to superlative (ie bad, worse, worst), can be more 'worst"' once they are already the worst.
I can find a bit of empathy for Howidy. It's clear that he cares deeply and is genuinely concerned for his fellow Arabs. His distress over their intransigence toward evil highlights the internal conflict and moral struggle he faces. I suppose the distress he feels may sometimes deprive him clarity in perspective., and catches him out in the middle.
Your point is well-taken that if he was speaking out, were there others? Where were they? Perhaps shot forthwith or tortured to death? He's lucky to be alive.
I am proud to stand by Israel as they always strive for the humane and esteem life. Not many left like that today. Thanks for your writing.
Islam teaches everyone to hate the Jews. Jews are the source of all the troubles in the world. Hamass teaches people to kill the Jews and killing Jews is their reason for being alive.
Excellent post. I don't generally comment, but I always enjoy and appreciate what you write.
But I have to say, as far as being an anti-Hamas Gazan, its entirely possible that for all his faults, which you so clearly pointed out, he is as good as it gets. It can't be easy to know that you are almost literally one in a million. And it can't be easy to be an exile. Cut the guy a little slack. It seems he is truly trying.
A long read, but very worthwhile. I’d never heard of Hamza Howidi before, but I think you’re right to question what he says.
I’m not sure if you’ve ever seen the documentary interview of Traudl Junge, who was Hitler’s last secretary. For decades afterwards, she excused her own silence because she said she was too young to stand up for herself. Then, at some point the penny dropped when she learned about Sophie Scholl, who led the White Rose movement, and that she had been killed when she was younger than Traudl herself.
Change comes when you genuinely make a reckoning with yourself. And as you say, nobody’s done that in Gaza.
Does your call for peaceful Palestinians, though I doubt you really believe there are any, to rise up against Hamas, at risk to their own lives, have a parallel with those who post-Holocaust ask why Jews didn't rise up in great numbers long before the Nazis exterminated so many?
N.B. I'm not one of the latter "those".
Viktor Frankl wrote of "two races of men … the 'race' of the decent man and the 'race' of the indecent man, … No group consists entirely of decent or indecent people. In this sense, no group is of 'pure race.'"
No. It has a parallel, if there is any, to the resistance in Europe during WW II and the righteous gentiles who, at great risk to themselves and their families under the Nazi regime, hid Jews and kept them safe.
Of course, there are Arabs who now call themselves Palestinians who want peace and good lives. I have written and will be writing about them as well.
Sheri, I'm a new subscriber from Canada and I'm challenged to add anything new or inciteful to what is happening to Israelis. However I do appreciate your sharing this video of young Gazan children playing the role of Hamas. It's all sickening. None of us will forget what happened to the Bilbas family.
I hope nobody forgets. Thanks, fellow Canuck.
Howidi be supported for his stand against Hamas. He is most likely past rage after enduring imprisonment himself. Also he grew up in this culture so unlike us, it does not surprise him as it does us. It is not beyond what we can imagine.
I also want to note that the Bibas family and many other murders rapes and kidnappings were carried out by ordinary Gaza people, not Hamas operatives. The hostages were sold, they got money for them. So yeah, it is difficult not to blame everybody in Gaza.
In the perverse ceremony of the release of the coffins people brought their children to join in the “fun”
Yes, perhaps he is beyond rage.
I must admit, however, that I was not surprised by the depravity, evil, and cruelty of Hamas and the "ordinary" civilians who carried out the atrocities and who abducted hostages. And I am not surprised any longer by how they raise their kids.
I guess what surprises me is how people can see these things and still think we have to talk with them about peace and a two-state-solution that would be the death of us (literally). It seems Howidy still believes we should believe in peace and that Lifshitz would have had he come home alive.
Oded thought we have no choice and I agree with him. We are among those who think we cannot kill 2 million people. Nothing is worth that, not even our country. Lately I have started thinking that the Palestinian state should be Jordan. 70% of Jordan’s population is Palestinian . The British should have divided their mandate into an Israeli and Arab states instead of giving Jordan to a Saudi Arabian tribe that helped the British fight the Turks
That has been tried....to get recognition for Jordan as the Palestinian state. Not going very well.
I know but I think it’s the only solution. The Palestinians tried to get rid of the Hashemites in the early 70s which resulted in the killing of a great many of them, Black September. Nobody talks about that. I think it is the only viable solution
I listened to this the other night. Idk how credible Mudar Zahran is but he says he’s the leader of the Jordanian opposition and has a hopeful perspective on a future for Arab residents of Gaza in Jordan.
https://youtu.be/Z9FkrYuO3gQ?si=rqr9XbqLMQSe87fU
Mudar is a fraud. I did a lot of research on the man and here is the last article I wrote about him.
https://www.israeldiaries.com/mudar-zahran-eden-jordan-palestine/
I think the crux is that they think two million is worth it. Your country isn't worth it?? That line is for people with options. My feeling is that they want something 'spectacular' from Israel. They just have to keep twisting the knife. You may think I'm dramatic but there has been all this hope, as if Oct 7 didn't tell us something. I will just say that I 'knew' on that morning and there were about five dead.
I don't think I understand what you mean here: Two million is worth what? They want something spectacular from Israel? Sorry, help me out here.
Sorry Sheri, I mean the savages think 2m lives are nothing. They don't care if they are their own civilians. They know that Jews do. The Jews must choose Jews. I feel that they are cranking up the pain for your breaking point. I am sorry to sound so negative but I felt they would do something awful with the bodies and I was afraid to voice it. Just think the worst things possible of them to give you some sort of edge.
When I say you I mean we but that is so presumptious of me, but it what is in my heart.
The thing is that Israel could have prevented this attack. Israel can deal with these monsters but I believe there is a real issue of total betrayal by this government. I will write a post about it tomorrow. The real threat to israel is our present government. Seriously.
It is not the government that is solely responsible -- don't forget the Shin Bet about which there was a TV report yesterday, and don't forget the Attorney General who clips the army's wings when they want to do something significant, and more....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peres%E2%80%93Hussein_London_Agreement
It was tried, and Yitzhak Shamir blocked it. The first intifada, the second intifada, four Gaza wars, Oct 7th, all of it could have been avoided.
Perhaps yesterday his lack of rage might have been excused, but today, knowing how Ariel and Kfir actually died, how can anyone not be enraged? And speak out for them?
I think they are different than we are, they must be
Their culture is for sure
I saw an interesting observation the other day, even in the darkest moments of nazisms control of Europe you had those who rose against them. You had the partisans and you had the righteous gentiles who saved Jews. There is none of this in Gaza. So yes, all of Gaza is complicit. And the parents of Gaza bring the destruction down on their children as the Nazis parents brought destruction down on their children.
exactly. I was thinking the same about the righteous gentiles and the resistance in Nazi Europe
It’s not collective punishment when they are all complicit. It’s just war.
Gaza delenda est.
Sheriffs I share your anger and grief and I hold the Gazans for fully responsible and yet is there another choice than to work on reconcilation? The vast majority of the Germans was guilty of supporting the Nazi regime- and too many Nazis got away, but was there a better choice than to try to Build a different Germany, not that this was a full success, but it had some good results …
You can’t reconcile with a people who demand the death of your people and of your country. There is no partner for peace among these people and there will never ever be a 2 state solution because actually Israel nor the world has the right to divide the land Gd has given to His people!
This pogrom/slaughter/ invasion committed by the so called refugees has proven that fact. All those
not prepared to live under Israeli authority and a Jewish culture should leave and move to a Muslim country where they will be accepted and no longer be “refugees”.
I am absolutely totally outraged by what they have done. May the God of Israel avenge the blood of His own people and bring judgement on those who have committed such evil against His people!
May our Gd rise up and defend His people
Yes Nicholas, there is another choice. One that Hamas and the Gazan population demand.
The utter destruction of Gaza. Gaza must cease to exist, just like the philistines who used to live there.
The Palestinians can go wherever will accept them, or become stateless, or dead.
No need to paint Gazans as terrorists when numbers tell the story more accurately:
https://www.jns.org/three-in-four-palestinians-support-hamass-massacre/
The Palestinians that live and breathe for the hate and destruction of Jews are so filled with contempt that they are not salvageable. That was true yesterday and there is no indications that their future will be otherwise.
Thoughtful article in the midst of terrible, tumultuous, and tragic times.
Two excerpts from your post: "Hamas is fully aware that their parade to return the dead bodies of babies will be used to dehumanize Palestinians and incite more violence against us". And: "They did it anyway. They just want the world to hate us more—pure depravity."
I understand the last "depravity" as reflexive, pointing back to the actions of the Palestinians and that they did it anyway. Besides, how much more can a group be dehumanized once they are. I'm not aware that varying degrees of a particular negative quality or attribute from positive to superlative (ie bad, worse, worst), can be more 'worst"' once they are already the worst.
I can find a bit of empathy for Howidy. It's clear that he cares deeply and is genuinely concerned for his fellow Arabs. His distress over their intransigence toward evil highlights the internal conflict and moral struggle he faces. I suppose the distress he feels may sometimes deprive him clarity in perspective., and catches him out in the middle.
Your point is well-taken that if he was speaking out, were there others? Where were they? Perhaps shot forthwith or tortured to death? He's lucky to be alive.
I am proud to stand by Israel as they always strive for the humane and esteem life. Not many left like that today. Thanks for your writing.
Islam teaches everyone to hate the Jews. Jews are the source of all the troubles in the world. Hamass teaches people to kill the Jews and killing Jews is their reason for being alive.
Excellent post. I don't generally comment, but I always enjoy and appreciate what you write.
But I have to say, as far as being an anti-Hamas Gazan, its entirely possible that for all his faults, which you so clearly pointed out, he is as good as it gets. It can't be easy to know that you are almost literally one in a million. And it can't be easy to be an exile. Cut the guy a little slack. It seems he is truly trying.
I agree he is well-intentioned and sincere. And I agree his position is not easy.
If he is sincere, how is he still alive?
There are Palestinians who condemns all of this but no more than 2% , I literally couldn’t continue watching this :(
A long read, but very worthwhile. I’d never heard of Hamza Howidi before, but I think you’re right to question what he says.
I’m not sure if you’ve ever seen the documentary interview of Traudl Junge, who was Hitler’s last secretary. For decades afterwards, she excused her own silence because she said she was too young to stand up for herself. Then, at some point the penny dropped when she learned about Sophie Scholl, who led the White Rose movement, and that she had been killed when she was younger than Traudl herself.
Change comes when you genuinely make a reckoning with yourself. And as you say, nobody’s done that in Gaza.
Good on ya!
Thank you. I had not heard of Junge. Thanks for telling me about her.
This is the key passage of the interview with Traudl Junge:
https://youtu.be/-aVI3gvIShc?si=CnlsR5y9QABq9jvb
thank you
Here she is, in her own words:
https://youtu.be/-aVI3gvIShc?si=ZBEDeYQh5FXP03Cp
Do you see all pro-Palestinian protesters world over as pro-Hamas?
That is what they look like today. The did not look like that years ago, but now they do. And I never use the words "all" or "none"
Yes, because that’s the truth whether you acknowledge it or not.
Does your call for peaceful Palestinians, though I doubt you really believe there are any, to rise up against Hamas, at risk to their own lives, have a parallel with those who post-Holocaust ask why Jews didn't rise up in great numbers long before the Nazis exterminated so many?
N.B. I'm not one of the latter "those".
Viktor Frankl wrote of "two races of men … the 'race' of the decent man and the 'race' of the indecent man, … No group consists entirely of decent or indecent people. In this sense, no group is of 'pure race.'"
Truth, or not?
No. It has a parallel, if there is any, to the resistance in Europe during WW II and the righteous gentiles who, at great risk to themselves and their families under the Nazi regime, hid Jews and kept them safe.
Of course, there are Arabs who now call themselves Palestinians who want peace and good lives. I have written and will be writing about them as well.
I'm from an Irish Republican family who spent many years fighting the oppressor, so I would call on anti-Hamas Palestinians to do the same.
So you are an admitted terrorist supporter. Why should anyone care what you say?
Or did I misjudge you and by “oppressor” you were referring to the IRA?
https://x.com/majedbamya/status/1892242350077882725
I put this link into my article and I commented about it. What are you trying to tell me here?
I must have missed it in your article. Just another example of a Palestinian speaking out against monsters on both sides.
Both sides?
Are we not talking about Israel and Palestine in conflict? Two sides of a conflict.