Hamas’ plan was to massacre children
![Pictures of Israeli children captured by Hamas or missing (Screenshot: ynet.co.il)](https://res.cloudinary.com/hb0stl6qx/image/upload/w_900,c_scale,q_auto,f_auto,dpr_auto/v1697389898/AIN/ynet-screenshot-children-captured.jpg)
In a stunning cache of documents found on dead Hamas terrorists in southern Israel, it was discovered that the original plan of these butchers was to “target children and young people from Sa’ad, a religious kibbutz in the Negev,” about 13 kilometers (8 miles) from Reim, the site of a nature party where 260 attendees were slaughtered like hunted-down animals.
Included in the documents found were “maps specifying the location of kindergartens and schools, plans for how many to kill and to take hostage as well as detailed escape plans. Documents also contained orders for two highly trained Hamas terror units to surround and infiltrate villages and target locations where civilians, especially children are likely to be.”
Simultaneous to this discovery was the very disturbing news that some media outlets, formerly reporting the war from a sympathetic perspective towards Israel, even exhibiting great emotion during their coverage, are now beginning to change their tune and suggest that the Jewish state should consider that it may be accused of “committing war crimes.”
Herzog, when asked by a CNN correspondent at an international press conference held in Jerusalem, pulled no punches and harshly responded by saying: “You’re really bringing up the question of whether Israel is engaged in war crimes when you’ve just watched all the Israeli Jews being butchered by Hamas? Babies being murdered in front of their mothers, mothers in front of their children? It’s astonishing.”
Likewise, on MSNBC, if it hadn’t been for the clear and precise explanation of Israeli spokesperson Eylon Levy – who appeared in an interview explaining why a jumbo jet with provisions for Gazans is not being allowed in, despite repeated requests by the World Health Organization – it’s likely that viewers would have used this bit of twisted information as, yet, another reason to show the world that Israelis are the evil ones in this war.
However, Levy detailed how Hamas had blown up the Erez Crossing entry into the city just a few days ago, meaning that the only way in, at this point, is through the holes in the fence made by the terrorists when they invaded Israeli territory.
Then there’s the ever-predictable Washington Post, always on the side of their preferred victim, which is not Israel, bolstered by their headline, “We Cannot Stand by and Watch Israel Commit Atrocities.”
![Pictures of Israeli children captured by Hamas or missing (Screenshot: ynet.co.il)](https://res.cloudinary.com/hb0stl6qx/image/upload/v1697439971/AIN/74bc3c64-3a37-442c-84e4-992f9604fd31.jpg)
Finally, U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar was forced to remove a post on X, formerly Twitter, where she attempted to use a 2013 photo of dead Syrian children to make it look as if they were Gazan victims of the present Israeli war.
Most sane people would have a normal expectation that when events are so black and white, as are those surrounding an invading army of Hamas terrorists whose aspirations were to slaughter innocent children, there would be no equivocation or ambivalence as to who the perpetrators of evil are.
Yet, protests taking place on university campuses, as well as other populations worldwide, continue to look the other way when it comes to the unspeakable atrocities, truly falling into the category of heinous war crimes that the side they defend has committed in cold blood.
How does anyone who claims to be sympathetic toward Palestinians close their eyes to babies, toddlers, young children, teenagers and even young adults being targeted and viciously murdered? Are there no tears for them because they are members of the Jewish people? Do their lives count for less? What are we supposed to believe when all of the empathy only runs one way?
It used to be that civilized nations were able to easily differentiate right from wrong, evil from good and war crimes from self-defense. That is how they formed alliances to fight world wars together in order to put an end to tyranny.
But now, those lines have been blurred, very conveniently, to accommodate political agendas and preferred narratives that do not merit a defense of any kind but rather the strongest and sharpest condemnation possible.
In this case, it doesn’t seem to matter to Palestinian/Hamas supporters that “Hamas had been systematically gathering intelligence on each kibbutz bordering Gaza and creating specific plans of attack for each town, including the intentional targeting of women and children.”
Why isn’t the global sentiment of worry over languishing Gazans, who are being used as expendable pawns, resulting in the condemnation of their own terrorist leaders who obviously care nothing about them? Why is there not a full-throated expression of revulsion by media outlets, without apology, for the threat which those same people are under – not at the hands of Israelis who simply want to live their lives in peace, but rather the brutal killers who run their corrupt government?
Doesn’t the fate that awaits Gazans, the same which was committed on all the murdered families from the southern kibbutzim, make them equal partners in terror and death?
The fact that there is such an unjust balance of scales brings us to only one conclusion. The lack of unambiguous support for Israel is not one borne out of political or ideological differences but rather the result of the citizens of Israel being part of a despised ethnicity which is too loathsome to even shed tears over the loss of newborn life which barely got started.
Even now, as I write this article, a very dear Christian friend from Belfast, a city which I had the privilege of visiting in 2018, as I stood in awe of just how many Catholics and Protestants love and revere Israel, has told me she is on her way to a prayer vigil in support of Israel but hopes to stay safe as there are large pro-Palestinian groups demonstrating there.
Sadly, I told her that this is our new reality – a world where evil is a relative term, designated to whomever the world chooses as deserving of the label. Gone are the days when actions determined what constituted wickedness and malevolence. Everything is now whatever you want it to be.
But no one can ignore, with impunity, that “the plan was to massacre children” because the side you are on says everything anyone needs to know about who you are and whether or not you possess a working conscience, a feeling heart and a sound mind!
If you are a parent or grandparent, regardless of your political leanings, you cannot favor the murder of children who have not yet learned how to form words. If you are still young and single, despite your political leanings, you cannot justify the murder of whole families which you, likely, hope to be a part of one day.
Finally, if you are a human being, who cares anything about decency and morality, you, too, cannot believe that there is a political justification for eradicating an entire group of people from the face of the earth, because that is just as evil as a plan which aspired to massacre innocent children!
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A former Jerusalem elementary and middle-school principal and the granddaughter of European Jews who arrived in the US before the Holocaust. Making Aliyah in 1993, she is retired and now lives in the center of the country with her husband.