We Are Past the Point of No Return
If there is anything these past few days have shown me, it’s that people have entrenched themselves deeper into their stance, for good or bad. Among the many, many things that this week has been for Israel, I believe it was also drawing a line in the sand, and giving those on the wrong side of history a chance to move over. A very small number of those have. The vast majority of those have not.
What we witnessed this past week, people are saying not since the Yom Kippur war of 1973 have we heard of anything like this happening to Israel; I would say not since the Hebron massacre of 1929 have we heard of anything like this happening to Jews in the region. I reference that massacre because the Jews were utterly defenseless, and though Israel is far from defenseless, for those first few hours, there was no adequate defense. Something Israelis are still bewildered about now.
To me, unlike any of the other wars, this is cut and dry; or it should be anyway. I would say it’s the most cut and dry war we’ve ever seen, and we are seeing it in real time.
Yet, in real time, we have the fake activists, and quite frankly, paid shills, who were completely silent as Israeli civilians were kidnapped, raped, murdered, and much, much worse. Again, please never forget that not only did Hamas members commit all of these gross atrocities, they filmed themselves doing it.
While all this, the professional propagandists did not say a peep. Nothing. The only thing some of them said, like the one who calls himself ‘Lowkey’ on Twitter, posted a fake video stating that Hamas only kidnapped combatants and would release non-combatants back to their homes. I would love for him to look my friends in the face and tell them that their child is in fact, not missing or dead.
My wife was there just as the war started, and she was able to help start an initiative to help with what’s been happening. Our family has also been assisting from here. This is real. She was there. It happened and is still happening now. Hamas filmed themselves. People celebrated. Celebrities like pornstar Mia Khalifa tweeted things like "Babe wake up Palestine is getting liberated," and mocked video of Israelis fleeing from attackers.
The Chicago chapter of Black Lives Matter tweeted in support of “Palestine” supposedly, but used a graphic of a glider. If anyone is not familiar, this was how the Nova Music Festival in Israel was shot up and over 260 Israelis were killed.
That’s not support for the Arab Palestinians. That’s support for Hamas. That’s support for slaughtering innocent civilians.
Even BLM’s “apology” wasn’t an apology at all.
And then you have people on Twitter celebrating this massacre with “Happy October!”
Mind you, with the exception of BLM’s fake apology, all of this is happening before Israel responds to Hamas.
What is happening now is gaslighting at the highest level.
The one that irks me the most is the dead babies. Babies were slaughtered by Hamas, and the Hamas apologists on social media are apparently offended and disputing that babies were beheaded. No one is disputing that they were killed, but the big thing now is whether or not they were beheaded, or killed some other way. Yes, because G-d forbid we’re not accurate on the way they were killed. It’s almost demonic how much the focus has shifted on this.
Now you have sob story videos, articles, and statements being written decrying Israel’s “military aggression” as if it just came out of nowhere. Palestinian influencers are posting to instagram of how difficult it is to move around, and how bombs are falling and structures are being destroyed, children are dying, etc.
None of these videos are even mentioning what started this war in the first place. None of them are even complaining about Hamas literally busting in guns blazing with no plan for their own residents in Gaza.
I’ve found that there most certainly are Arab Palestinians in Gaza crying out against Hamas, but they are often murdered. Just as recently as this past summer, Gazans took to the streets again. At that protest, one of the protesters was quoted saying:
“We are protesting against poverty and unemployment. The entire people took to the streets because they are fed up with the situation. We are angry not only against Hamas, but the Palestinian Authority as well.”
-Salah Naim, political activist from Khan Yunis
Those voices get suppressed regularly. The only voices that come out of Gaza that get national attention are the ones Hamas allows to come out.
The gaslighting comes now from those who first either celebrated, or said nothing while Israelis were being slaughtered, but are outraged at Israel’s response. Almost as if Israel is supposed to allow Hamas to destroy her. And because Hamas controls the voices that come out of Gaza, it is not far-fetched at all to say that what many of us see from so-called “Pro-Palestinian Activists” on social media is state sponsored propaganda funded by Hamas and others.
Even with all of this, what happened this past week could not have been any clearer. And our response to it is paramount, and I might even say, eternal. Yes, we have reached a point of no return. Some people have made small shifts. Others, more dramatic. Arab Israeli, Nas Daily tweeted this:
Personal Thoughts: (not for everyone, feel free to skip) For the longest time, I struggled with my identity. A Palestinian kid born inside Israel. Like…wtf. Many of my friends refuse to this day to say the word “Israel” and call themselves “Palestinian” only. But since I was 12, that did not make sense to me. So I decided to mix the two and become a “Palestinian-Israeli” I thought this term reflected who I was. Palestinian first. Israeli second. But after recent events, I started to think. And think. And think. And then my thoughts turned to anger. I realized that if Israel were to be “invaded” like that again, we would not be safe. To a terrorist invading Israel, all citizens are targets. 900 Israelis died so far. More than 40 of them are Arabs. Killed by other Arabs. And even 2 Thai people died too. And I do not want to live under a Palestinian government. Which means I only have one home, even if I’m not Jewish: Israel. That’s where all my family lives. That’s where I grew up. That’s the country I want to see continue to exist so I can exist. Palestine should exist too as an independent state. And I hope to see the country thrive and become less extreme and more prosperous. I love Palestine and have invested in Palestine. But it’s not my home. So from today forward, I view myself as an “Israeli-Palestinian”. Israeli first. Palestinian second. Sometimes it takes a shock like this to see so clearly.
Those who are lost, are more lost now. They’ve chosen their path. Leave them. Do what you need to do to preserve the integrity of your family.