COMMENTARY: Mideast massacre boggles the minds of peace-seekers

By Berl Falbaum

Depravity.

Suddenly, the issues relating to Donald Trump or Kevin McCarthy do not seem so important anymore.

Each time I try to write a column on them or other political matters, my mind keeps taking me back to Israel.

More specifically, to the word “depravity.”

As stories of Hamas’ atrocities were reported, other words surfaced, including: butchery, cruelty, ruthlessness, barbarism, pitiless.

I will not recount any of the horrors in this column. Given the nightmare hellishness of the slaughter, my fingers on the keyboard would not accept the command from my thoughts which tried to describe the inhumanity. I don’t think it makes a difference because no one can fully capture the ghoulishness of the onslaught which, at this writing, totaled more than 1,200 killed, thousands wounded, including the elderly, women, young children — even toddlers and babies — and more than 150 Israelis taken hostage.

Even TV clips which, played over and over again, failed to capture the desperation of the victims or viciousness and cold-heartedness of the perpetrators.

Worth noting: the Jewish News Syndicate makes the important point that Israel has about 134th of the population of the United States. Thus, the death toll of 1,200 Israelis is proportional to more than 41,000 deaths in the U.S.

Depravity.

I also could not grasp that in much of the Arab world, there was jubilation. They danced and sang songs, celebrating Israel’s suffering to chants of “Death to Israel.”
Young children, being taught early in their lives, the lessons of hate, laughed and hugged each other. Some brandished pistols and AK-47s.

The Times of Israel reported: From Ramallah to Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad and Cairo, people have distributed candies, danced and chanted prayers in support of the “resistance” …  In public statements they tried to defend the indefensible: massacres that defied the capabilities of the mind to process.

Then there were the demonstrations around the world, including some in the U.S., rejoicing in the savagery.  

Depravity.

I am refraining, at this point, from levying any criticism, placing blame or from seeking explanations to numerous questions which will need to be answered
eventually. These include:

—How did the Israeli (and U.S.) intelligence services fail to detect Hamas’ plans?  This siege had to be planned for months.

—Why was the Israeli military not able to stop the attack quickly once it started?

—Did the internal political crisis over judicial reform proposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu distract the government?

—Should Netanyahu resign, if not, how long can or will he survive once the war is over?

—How big a role did Iran play in planning and executing the onslaught?

No, this is not the time for political analysis, not during this crisis as Israelis are fighting for their lives. We need to focus on the tragic bloodshed and devote all our political, diplomatic, financial, and emotional resources to do all we can to stop the suffering of Israelis and the massacres of civilians. The Israel military can’t be burdened by politics; it needs to be free to pursue its military operations without worrying about political ramifications.

We can be assured that investigations will be launched; answers will be sought. It will be a painful, but necessary process. The findings will be troublesome, to say the least. And those who failed, we can be confident, will be held accountable.

The good news is that President Biden has pledged uncompromising support. His promise to back Israel was strong, and not politically ambiguous. Visibly emotional and controlling anger, Biden minced no words, describing the surprise onslaught as “pure unadulterated evil, sheer evil, indiscriminate evil and a violation of every code of human morality.”

Which brings me to some in the media which refer to Hamas as “militant” and refuse to call it a terrorist organization, including, most notably, The New York Times, arguably the most influential and powerful newspaper in the country.

This paper cannot bring itself to publish the word “terrorist” when referring to Hamas. Instead, it uses the following phrase: “... the Palestinian militant group that controls the Gaza Strip ...”

Sounds like something written by Hamas’ PR department. Perhaps it deserves some kind of award from civic organizations.

If that were not enough, in a page one story Hamas was described as “the group” — “militant” was dropped — that controls Gaza. Yes, just a group. The story ran a about a half-page and the word “terrorist” never appeared.

One wonders what it would take, how much more venal, brutal and inhumane must Hamas be before The Times would label it terrorist. As a letter writer to The Times put it:  If they (Hamas) aren’t terrorists, no one is.

I sent an email to The Times, asking to speak to someone regarding the paper’s rationale on substituting militant for terrorist, but no one responded.

Presumably The Times knows that Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S., the European Union, the U.K., and other countries.

Playing on the root of “depravity”:  The Times’ refusal to call Hamas a terrorist organization is depraved journalism.
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Berl Falbaum is a veteran journalist and author of 12 books.