Scott Gurvey's Public Offerings

For two weeks I have wanted nothing more than to look to the sky and scream like a banshee. Even though I long ago concluded I would never get an answer.

For two weeks I have sat down to write. And been unable to start. I am supposed to write. That is what I do. I am supposed to explain, to educate, to stimulate thought and debate. But nothing came. It has been as if the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel placed my brain into suspension and froze my fingers.

How do you explain the inexplicable? What lesson can be learned from a demonstration of cruelty so overwhelming that it leaves one shell shocked both literally and figuratively? Except that human history includes so many examples of this kind of barbarism that I must wonder why we should be allowed to continue to defile the planet by our very existence.

As I begin to see through my rage, I have come to understand a proposition which has been the subject of innumerable philosophical debates, to remain silent is to be complicit. Some people call this the bystander effect. And much of the debate seems to me to be giving the silent people a pass. I can’t do that for myself. It seems like a dereliction of duty. If you disagree that’s between you and your conscience. Just stop reading. Find some lighter fare, like my columns on space flight or the best movies and leave me to make some points that need to be made.

There is no moral equivalency between the Israelis and Hamas terrorists.

None. Nada. Nil.

On October 7, as many as one thousand Hamas terrorists broke through the wall Israel had built to protect itself from the crazed lunatics who controlled Gaza and who had sworn that they would wipe the state of Isarel from the face of the earth. The monsters shot their own video as they marauded through the small towns in the area, all on land originally assigned to Israel in the Partition Agreement approved by the United Nations in 1947.

To distract the Israelis, already preoccupied with the observation of a religious holiday, Hamas fired more than five thousand missiles at Israel. These are not precision weapons. These are the weapons of terrorists. They fall indiscriminately on the civilian population.

The atrocities perpetrated in this massacre of mostly civilian Israelis by Hamas, included the reported slaughter of children and the elderly, the rape of Israeli women, and the beheading of babies. Israelis were burned in their homes. Hundreds of teenagers and young adults attending a music festival were mowed down by terrorists with machine guns. All are war crimes to be sure and crimes against humanity without equal. The massacre has been verified by reputable, independent investigators. Human Rights Watch. ABC News. Fox News.

By the end of the attack the Hamas assault had killed over 1,400 civilians and soldiers, more than 5,000 were injured and another 210 people were taken hostage. Israel is a small nation. It was as if 50,000 Americans had died on September 11, 2001.

These images leave any civilized human shaking. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showed the pictures to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, according to a post by Netanyahu’s office on X, formerly Twitter. “Warning: These are horrifying photos of babies murdered and burned by the Hamas monsters. Hamas is inhuman. Hamas is ISIS.” 

In his own news conference, Blinken described what he had seen:

“It’s beyond what anyone would ever want to imagine, much less actually see and, God forbid. A baby, an infant riddled with bullets, soldiers beheaded, young people burned alive in their cars or in their hideaway rooms.

“I could go on, but it’s simply depravity in the worst imaginable way. It almost defies comprehension. And as I’ve been saying to me in the most immediate future, harkens back to ISIS and some of the very things we saw when it was on its rampage that thankfully was stopped. So, I think for any human being to see this, it’s really beyond almost anything that we can comprehend, digest.”

Blinken, ABC News video

While I have been speechless, I have seen countless numbers of talking heads on cable news and at demonstrations in American cities and on some college campuses around the world quick to respond. I will have none of it. No whataboutism, no bothsidesing, no gaslighting, no dog whistles. We have seen the face of evil, pure and simple.

The amount of misinformation, disinformation, and out and out lying is of epic proportions. As I gather my wits, I will begin writing about the long-tortured history of this land and of the people who live there, especially of the Jewish People, who archeological evidence traces to Kings David and Solomon of Judah around the 10th century BCE.

The Here and Now

I’m certain the above will provoke outrage from a few. I’ll get to them at a future date. For now, one thing is paramount. There is not a nation in the world that can tolerate, or should be expected to tolerate, the presence of terrorists at their gates, sworn to achieve their destruction. Israel is no exception.

No government is fit to rule unless it can provide the most important assurance we ask of those to whom we delegate authority. The assurance that it will protect us from harm.

I understand the terrible hardships the people of Gaza are facing. In 2006 Israel pulled its soldiers out of Gaza and dismantled all its settlements, giving Gaza’s people control. In 2007 the people of Gaza elected the Hamas terrorists to lead them. All the deprivations in Gaza, and all the violent attacks across the border into Israel, are the result.

I would hope some workable agreement can be advanced that will minimize the already tragic impacts on the Gaza residents. But I am not optimistic. There are two million residents of Gaza. Hamas is said to have 30,000 fighters. All the people of Gaza have to do is force Hamas out and release the hostages. Then the world can move on to a reconstruction plan for the Gaza strip.

But the barbarians of Hamas must be rendered unable to strike again. Ever. By whatever means is necessary.

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