I want to feel sorry for the civilians in Gaza killed either by our missiles (the very few that take innocent civilians along with targetted Hamas leaders or fighters) or by their own missiles that fall short and kill their own. I want to.

But right now I find it hard to feel sorry for them.

I remember a video by a German journalist of a demonstration against Israel coordinated by Hamas in which they were dragging an old Gazan woman to join in and she was yelling at the Hamas operatives that they were worse than the Jews. I cannot find it now, but back in 2014 during the last open war between Gaza and Israel, there were articles reporting on the voices raised within Gaza against Hamas. For example, here and here and here. One might think, then, that after they had voted in Hamas in 2007 because of the humanitarian social welfare activities of the organization, now that they know the truth of it, they would behave differently today. But by what we see in Judea & Samaria (the region Jordan named, The West Bank), I have my doubts that today they would change their vote.

We learn that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas cancelled the elections scheduled for this summer because he was afraid that Hamas would win in Judea & Samaria as well as in Gaza. That means that voters in the PA — who see Hamas throw homosexuals off roofs in Gaza, who see Hamas line dissidents against the wall and shoot them, who see that Hamas leaders are as corrupt, dictatorial and inhumane as are the PLO leaders they want to get rid of — they would vote for that accursed organization to run their own lives in the Judea & Samaria section of the PA? If they would willingly vote (or vote again) for such an oppressive regime (while blaming Israel for their woes) then who am I to feel sorry for? After all, they all know that Hamas stands for Jihad against the Jewish state and if that is a more important consideration than societal welfare when placing a ballot in the voting box, should I feel sorry for someone who feels that way?

Furthermore, as my Facebook friend Brian Pikelny wrote:

I saw a video where they cheered as rockets were launched. I only feel sorry that they are so gullible and brainwashed since they were children to hate Israel. I feel sorry that their leaders are corrupt and really don’t have their best interest in mind and that the money they get from their Iranian and Qatar benefactors go to buying weapons and paying terrorists while people there are living in poverty.

Yes, there may be something to that and we could debate how much they are under the influence of mind control (like cult leaders engender) and how much they are making active decisions about their lives. A 30-second phone call between the IDF and a Gazan civilian may tilt the scales on that debate:

So, sorry, not so sorry! To disrespect their agency as rational human beings and to not hold them responsible for their actions would be to hold them to a lower standard. I expect Gazan voters to accept the consequences of their votes and the consequences of their actions yesterday and today and tomorrow. Anything else is just simply patronizing.

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p.s. You can read about the Gaza that those in the West apparently do not want to know about here. And the potential when Gazans take positive action can be seen here. When they don’t think only about how to kill Jews, that is, like the creative individuals here, we see Hamas and others lie about the supposed siege Israel has on Gaza, the seige during which the receive enough materials and funds to build the tunnels under their cities for militants rather than bomb shelters for civilians, the seige of a kind that the “oppressor” risks getting shot at while moving medical supplies and more across the border before and after which the “victim” launches missiles against the “occupiers'” civilian population, and more.

Feature Image Credit: Osps7, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Gazan civilians Hamas-Israel hostilities 2021 Operation Guardian of the Walls

Last modified: May 18, 2021