An Open Letter to My Non-Jewish Readers

This is the actual abduction of the Bibas family

Dear Non-Jewish Readers, 

On October 7th, Israel was attacked not by an army, not by an air force, not by a navy, but by a roving band of terrorists who murdered kids at a music festival, people in their homes, parents in front of their children. Over 1,160 people were murdered in cold blood. Over 250  hostages ranging in age from 9 months old to 86 years old were abducted to Gaza. 

6 months later, 134 hostages remain in Gaza, amongst them, 11 of are foreign nationals, 8 are American. No one really knows who is alive and who is dead. Shiri Bibas, and her sons, Ariel and Kfir, were claimed by Hamas to have been killed. Yarden, her husband and father of the boys, was taken separately and is thought to still be alive. 

But no one knows for sure. 

Let me repeat that: NO ONE KNOWS FOR SURE.

Here's a fun-filled fact. Hamas could stop this war any time it wants. Piece o'cake. Israel has said it every day in every way. RELEASE THE HOSTAGES and the war stops. If Hamas released them tomorrow, the war would stop on a dime. 

But that would be a problem for Hamas. They WANT to be victims. They want to blame everyone and every institution for their failure to establish a country. Being a victim is so much more fun. You don't have to do anything. You get to stand there and look pathetic while you spend every fucking dime to get to reinforce your tunnels and buy missiles to fire on civilians because no one thinks firing thousands and thousands of missiles on civilians who happen to be Jews is a problem.

IF Hamas released the hostages, countries across the globe, including Israel, the US, and maybe even a few Arab states, would be stepping up to help the Palestinians rebuild their country. Oops. Excuse me. It should  BUILD an actual country since Hamas never bothered with an economy or a government before this. Now that the network of tunnels has been exposed, it would be harder to divert funds to rebuild that network while the civilian population is starving, right? 

But screaming FREE PALESTINE doesn't really recognize that Palestine needs to be freed from Hamas, which is really the issue. But no one wants to talk about that part. Why would they? It would mean that the Palestinian people are opting for a real country. So far, that does not appear to be the case. 

Insisting that Israel is committing genocide in Palestine is another piece of abject stupidity being funded by Islamist groups like ISIS, Iran, and Islamic Brotherhood. Allow me to disabuse you of that concept with numbers. 

1. If Israel want to commit genocide against the Palestinians, it would've been over in a day or two. Okay? Clearly, that's neither their target nor their intent, but admitting that doesn't make for a good chant.
2. If Israel wanted to commit genocide against the Palestinians, the population of Gaza would not have grown exponentially since 2005. With a high birth rate (28 per 1000 people in Gaza. ) When Israel left Gaza in 2005, the population was 1.3 million. The most recent estimate is 2.1 million, not quite twice as many people as when Israel left. 
3. Does Israel want to take Gaza back? Hell, no. They want Hamas out so the daily missile barrage will cease. And yes, it's still going on. See Newsweek.
4. Arab Israelis currently make up about 20% of Israel's population. Those who hold Israeli citizenship have the same legal rights as any other Israeli. Is it perfect? No.  Are there problems and issues? Sure, just like minority populations in any other western country. But women fare far better in Israel than any other Arab nation. 

5. 

   Half Shekel coin issued by the Jewish rebels in 67–68 CE
   Letters are in Paleo-Hebrew.

   Israel is the poster-child for DECOLONIZATION. After more than two thousand years of facing east toward Jerusalem to pray, standing at the remnant of Solomon's Temple, continuously living in the land, Jews began to buy back their traditional homeland from the Ottomans. Piece by piece, land was purchased, developed, farmed, and the seeds of an economy were sown. Hebrew, the language of the Bible, our holy books, and our liturgy was resurrected as our daily language, replacing Yiddish and Ladino and other dialects that once divided us. The first modern currency, Israeli Pound (or lira yisraelit,) officially reverted to the shekel, our traditional monetary unit, in 1980.
   

It's pretty widely established that the goal of Hamas is to obliterate Israel and remove all Jews from Israel and the globe. The ADL published Hamas in its own words:

Statements by Hamas officials make clear the terrorist organization’s commitment to destroying Israel and killing Jews and Israelis around the world. 

• Ismail Haniyeh in 2020: He explained that Hamas rejects ceasefire agreements by which, “Gaza would become Singapore,” preferring to remain at war with Israel until a Palestinian state is established from the River to the Sea: “We cannot, in exchange for money or projects, give up Palestine and our weapons. We will not give up the resistance... We will not recognize Israel, Palestine must stretch from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea.” 
• Hamas official, Hamad Al-Regeb in an April 2023 sermon: He prayed for “annihilation” and “paralysis” of the Jews whom he described as filthy animals: “[Allah] transformed them into filthy, ugly animals like apes and pigs because of the injustice and evil they had brought about.” Al-Regeb also prayed for the ability to “get to the necks of the Jews.” 
• Hamas Political Bureau Chairman Saleh Al-Arouri in an August 2023 interview:  He expressed Hamas’ desire for “total war” with Israel: “Therefore, we are convinced that if a total conflict begins, the airspace and seaports of this entity will be shut down, and they will not be able to live without electricity, water, and communications.” 
• Ahmad Abd Al-Hadi (Hamas representative in Lebanon) in an October 12, 2023 TV show laid out Hamas’ expectation that it would be Israel that would sue for peace and indicated that a ceasefire is part of Hamas’ overall strategy, but said that he was not at liberty to say what exactly Hamas has planned for the next step after a ceasefire. He also stated that October 7 had achieved its intended purpose of landing “a blow to the normalization (of relations between Israel and Arab countries).” 
• Hamas member, Ghazi Hamad on October 24, 2023: “Israel is a country that has no place on our land […] because it constitutes a security, military, and political catastrophe to the Arab and Islamic nation.” (October 24, 2023, LBC TV (Lebanon)). He also vowed to repeat the October 7 attacks “time and again until Israel is annihilated,” and expressing a desire to “sacrifice martyrs” (referring to Gazan civilians) for Hamas’ ideological aim of destroying Israel. 
• In a speech before the International Union of Muslim Scholars in Doha on January 9, 2024, Ismaeel Haniyeh, chairman of Hamas's political bureau, called the October 7 massacre the “advanced [battle] front of the Ummah.” Calling for “financial jihad” (donations to Hamas) and “jihad of the teeth” (physical jihad), he asked the international audience, “Who wishes to invest in building the jihadist generation to liberate Jerusalem and to unite the blood of the Ummah with the blood of the people of Gaza, Jerusalem, and Palestine on the land of Palestine for its liberation and the liberation of Jerusalem?” 

Statements by Hamas officials also make clear the terrorist organization’s disregard for the loss of civilian life not only in Israel but also in Gaza. 

• Hamas senior leader Khaled Mashal stated on October 19, 2023 that he views the current loss of civilian life in Gaza – brought about by Hamas' strategy of using human shields – as essential: “No nation is liberated without sacrifices... In all wars, there are some civilian victims. We are not responsible for them.” 

• Hamas senior leader Ismail Haniyeh, commenting on the loss of civilian life in Gaza on October 26, 2023: “The blood of the women, children and elderly […] we are the ones who need this blood, so it awakens within us the revolutionary spirit.”  

I've left the links intact in case you want to see more.  Some of it is pretty terrifying, but you have to understand....it's not just about Israel and Jews. When they finish with us, they are planning to go after the rest of the non-Islamic world. And some of the Islamic world as well..the part that doesn't agree with their brand of sectarianism. (Gee, doesn't that sound a little like the Christofascists in our world? I thought so.)

Meanwhile, what's happening to the people of Gaza is reprehensible, made worse that Hamas refuses to do anything to help them as evidenced by the statements above. The targeting of WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN relief workers is equally inexcusable and the reaction of Israelis should drive home the point that they are not happy with how the war is being conducted by Netanyahu. Their collective anger with their own government should demonstrate that not all Israelis are supporting the government, and that like anything else in the Jewish world, there are enough divergent opinions for everyone to have one. 

The Times of Israel reported recent polls showing 71% of Israelis think Netanyahu should resign. This is not a surprise. Israelis are unhappy and the hostages are at the center of that anger. Do not make the mistake of thinking we are a single voice led by a single voice, Jews are great at arguing. Just look at the Talmud. It's what makes us strong. 

We are not sheep. We are  not lemmings. We are not the Jews of 1930s Europe. We have reclaimed our homeland and we're not going anywhere, so disabuse yourself of that notion. What Hamas did was to declare war on us, and by G-d, they got one. Now they stand there blaming us for the destruction, yet no one is talking about the missiles and the tunnels, the suicide bombers or the threats to wipe us from the earth. 

But they are the victims.

I don't think so. 

The victims are the Israeli kids at a music festival, families at home in their beds, children who watched their parents murdered, and parents who watched their kids die. 

The victims are the Palestinian children offered up as blood sacrifice to the gods of greed and power while their parents stood by and did nothing to stop Hamas from using them as human shields. 

The victims are the Jewish kids on college campuses being attacked and covered in a hatred they did even know existed. 

And the biggest victim of all? 

Truth. 

Newspapers don't print it, they spin it. TV presenters don't ask questions, they set traps for interviewees, then manipulate the footage. Politicians don't talk about what's really happening; they only talk about what will get them donations and votes. 

We are knee deep in this bullshit and there isn't a clear path out. 

And for the record, April 7th marked 6 months. Today, April 8th, 2024. was Day 183

THE WIFELY PERSON'S TIP O'THE WEEK

Release the hostages.