Reaction at October 7, not what you might think

 There exist now widespread legend that Israel met with international sympathy after the horrible attack of October 7, and only later prolonged war and reported casualties among Gazans changed how the West perceives the situation. Connected to this legend are two others: that Israel went to war with Gaza almost immediately after the attack and that Hezbollah's assault on Israel (rockets on the north of the country) was a response to the war in Gaza (mainly because Hezbollah repeatedly stated so). Let's examine all these legends.

1.  Israel had world's sympathy and support right after the attack. While obviously many people all over the world were horrified by what has happened on October 7, and many countries expressed formal condolences as per diplomatic protocol, this reaction was as far from universal as may be in similar circumstances.

On October 7, 2023 the first anti-Israeli manifestation (when the battles in Israel with the terrorists who infiltrated from Gaza were still raging) took place in London; on October 8 - in Manchester and New York. In Manchester Richard Barnard, far-left activist, co-founder of Palestinian Action (now designated as terrorist organization which is being defended by Banksy!) stated his happiness because of murder of over one thousand Israelis (at this time the number was unknown) stating: “When we hear the resistance, the Al-Aqsa flood, we must turn that flood into a tsunami of the whole world.” 

In Europe and in the US during October 2023 and later (but I focus here on the initial period BEFORE even the ground invasion started) posters of Israeli hostages were ripped off the walls and poster signs, including the posters showing the youngest hostage - 9 months old Kfir Bibas.

 While in UK and many other European places the first to applaud and celebrate the massacre were often local Muslims and far-left activists in the USA the first to condemn the victim were professors and students from the most famous (and expensive) American universities.

On October 7, when the massacre and fighting were still going on the following statements were made by some professors:

* Zareena Grewal, Associate Professor of American Studies, Ethnicity, Race, & Migration and Religious Studies at Yale University in response to the tweet "civilians are civilians" wrote: “Settlers are not civilians. This is not hard" . She is known to support BDS and condemn the co-initiative of Muslims and Jews to organize inter-faith dialogue. She is still a Yale professor despite 55,000 students calling for her removal.

* Danny Shaw, Adjunct Lecturer of Latin American and Caribbean Studies and Race, Ethnicity, Class and Gender at the City University of New York tweeted on October 16, 9 days after murderous escapade:

 

* Russell Rickford, Associate Professor of History at Cornell University on October 15, a week after the attack, gave a speech in which he confessed: "It was exhilarating. It was exhilarating, it was energizing."

*  Jemma DeCristo, Assistant Professor of American Studies at University of California, Davis called for intimidation and violence against journalists reporting on killing Jews by Hamas:

 Also on the 7th of October, dozens of Harvard students' associations issued a statement that they hold Israeli government "entirely responsible for all unfolding violence" . It is absolutely permissible to not like Israeli government or criticize it (I am among its strong critics) but holding it responsible for attack by terrorist on the citizens of Israel is equal to blaming Ukrainian government for Russian attack on Ukraine and atrocities in Ukrainian cities like Bucha. 

Student demonstrations and encampments soon followed not only expressing support for creating Palestine state (nothing wrong with this) or showing sympathy for Palestinian civilians and non-combatants (also nothing wrong with this, it is still well inside the free speech boundaries) but praising Hamas, Hezbollah and calling for genocide towards Jews and Israelis with slogans like "from the river to the sea", "globalize the intifada", "we are all Hamas" etc.

In December these led to presidents of Harvard, UPenn and MIT testifying on Capitol Hill about rising antisemitism on their campuses, an issue that has plagued institutions of higher learning. During the infamous hearing none of the three answered straightforwardly to the question "is calling for the genocide of Jews violation of the code of conduct of their respective universities". The answers were that it is "context dependent" or the speech needs to turn into conduct. Here you may read the transcript of answers to this simple question. And now imagine calling in similar way on campus and encampments, including personal threats, against Muslims, African-Americans, Hindu, homosexuals or almost anybody else. The reaction would have been instantaneous, and rightly so. Just not when it comes to Jews or Israelis.

2. Beginning of the war. After October 7 Israel started airstrikes on Gaza but the ground offensive took some time. Partially because for the first two days fighting against terrorist was taking place still inside Israel, partially because different strategies were evaluated. The land incursion started on October 27, almost 3 weeks after the attack. In this time some hostage videos were released by Hamas, e.g. of injured hostage Mia Shem, some Gazans were killed in airstrikes, a major hit to one of Gaza's hospitals was delivered by Islamic Jihad rocket falling short (and immediately Israel was accused, though later it was proved that it had nothing to do with it).

3. Hezbollah "solidarity with Gaza". On October 8 Hezbollah started its bombing of the Northern Israel claiming that it does so "in solidarity with attacked Gaza". The problem was nobody was attacking Gaza at the time, it was Hamas from Gaza attacking Israel. The rockets led to major destruction across Northern Israel, many casualties (including 12 children killed on soccer field), evacuation of some 100,000 Israelis from along northern border and finally a major war with Hezbollah in the last quarter of the previous year. Yet for the longest time and up to today the western media were repeating the narrative about Hezbollah reacting to attack on Gaza, the fundamentally untrue statement.

Most of you  probably remember 9/11 or at least is very familiar with its story. Now imagine for a second that on this disastrous September day, which anniversary will be in 2 more days, when the towers were burning and collapsing, people jumping from the windows, firefighters bravely running to their death, as we know now, air traffic diverted and American air space closed and phone signals in New York collapsed people in Europe, Israel, Australia, New Zealand and other places would be saying it is all US fault, all violence is  on US government (even if you didn't like it or voted for it), and actually celebrating the carnage. That your allies instead of offering help in NATO structures (the only time ever art. 5 of the treaty was activated) were organizing or at least tolerating and protecting anti-American demonstrations in front of American embassies world wide. Not later, when Osama bin Laden was killed or when the war in Afghanistan started or evolved badly, on the very 9/11 (the demonstration in London was held on October 7 and it was anti-Israeli). 

Actually, if you have hard time imagining it let me show you such celebration. This  and this is how Palestinians were celebrating 9/11.

 

The butcher from Khan Younis - who was Yahya Sinwar

 It is agreed upon that the man standing above all behind October 7 massacre (and, by the same token, subsequent war in Gaza) was Yahya Sinwar. So who was Yahya Sinwar? I believe some facts of his life tell the story of Hamas and how some (not all) Palestinians see the situation better than many other stories.

He was born in Khan Yunis in 1962 spending his childhood in refugee camp in Gaza. Way later, in Israeli prison, he talked about his childhood  recounting the struggle for food and the shortage of bathrooms in the camp packed with thousands of desperate families. But remember - at the time Gaza was under Egyptian military control already for 14 years, and what it says is that for 14 years Egypt had neither improved the conditions in Gaza nor admitted at least some people into the rest of the vast and - at the time - not densely populated country which claimed Gaza for its own (before 1948 it was part of the British mandate).

 

The above picture is Khan Younis on January 1, 1960, under Egyptian rule, but supported by UNRWA.

 

He started his affiliation  with Hamas, or rather at the time an Islamic Center - see the story of Hamas creation. Arrested couple of times by Israel - at the time Gaza was under Israeli military rule - he was promptly released climbing through Hamas's ranks. He became a founder of the Majd, a local network that sought out and killed collaborators with Israel, which later became Hamas’s internal security force. The name is an acronym for Arabic "Majmouath Jihad u-Dawa" - Holy War and Sermonizing Group. While Hamas always defined itself as a branch of Muslim Brotherhood (so in its charter written in 1988) this group was dedicated to the gathering of information on suspected collaborators. The information was passed on to the "shock committees", who interrogated and then killed the suspects. During the first intifada Hamas killed 20 Israelis and approximately 100 Palestinians whom they accused of "collaboration" (a.k.a. wanting to cease fight and live in peace).

In this part of his life Sinwar gained the nickname "the butcher from Khan Younis". He killed or ordered to be killed unknown number of Palestinians he didn't agree with or suspected to be collaborators (or just not jihadi enough). We know for sure about 4 killed by him personally, but he himself admitted killing 12 and among Palestinians the famous story goes that he not only killed one of those forcing his brother to bury the victim alive but also doing it with a spoon instead of a spade. Certainly lust for power, radicalism and sadistic inclinations were his traits.

He was also highly intelligent, focused and a great manipulator. It all added up to many who knew him as by the book psychopathic traits.

His third arrest, in 1988, led to him being sentenced for the incitement to murder and murder of two abducted Israeli soldiers and 4 Palestinians killed by him in his commander of the Majd capacity. He admitted killing 12 but the proves were certain for 4. Sentenced for 4 life imprisonments he spent subsequent years in Israeli prison studying Hebrew, learning about Israel and preparing for the time he hoped for - after his release. He also kept contacts with the outside world as his brother was high in Hamas structure as well. 

Ehud Yaari, a fellow of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, who interviewed Sinwar in prison four times described him as psychopath, yet added: "[But] to say about Sinwar, 'Sinwar is a psychopath, full stop,' would be a mistake because then you will miss this strange, complex figure. He was extremely cunning, shrewd - a guy who knows to switch on and off a type of personal charm ".

In 2008, still in prison, the dentist Yuval Bitton, taking care of Yahya Sinwar, spotted symptoms like standing for prayer then falling and drifting in and out of consciousness, complained of neck pain etc. and he suspected some brain problem. Transported to Soroka Medical Center Yahya Sinwar was diagnosed with brain tumor and underwent emergency surgery that removed the tumor and saved his life. Sinwar expressed his gratitude to Yuval Bitton at the time. Yuval Bitton's nephew was murdered on October 7, 2023 in the kibbutz where he lived.

 Three years later, in 2011, Yahya Sinwar was one of the exchanged prisoners for the return of Gilat Shalit - Israeli soldier kidnapped by Hamas from Israel in 2006. There are lots of indications that the kidnapping was orchestrated by Sinwar's brother and its aim might have been to release Sinwar which was done against better judgement of the prison officers working with him.

Sinwar disregarded lives of Israelis and Palestinians alike. He was the only one who mattered and set standards in his mindset. When after releasing he gained the highest position in Hamas inside Gaza he masterminded attack on October 7. The attack was thought to destroy the road to mutual recognition of Arab countries and Israel (the treaty with Saudi Arabia was about to be signed) and Sinwar didn't expect any other Israeli answer than the one he got, nevertheless he believed it to be worthy to commit crimes and massacre and bring about the destruction of Gaza and death of thousands of Palestinians in order to prevent peace. Asked in the aftermath of October 7 he stated that Hamas did nothing wrong on October 7, and would do it again, and harder, if given the chance, therefore removing any remaining possibility that Israel would seek a solution that would spare Gazans from the total destruction of their land.

The portrait of a human being who put his undeniable talents only to murdering others, for whom the hate was the only life pleasure, who disregarded lives of civilians, children, elderly, peace activists and others, both among Israeli and Palestinian, and who in fact was murdering Palestinians who did not want to murder Israelis either because they saw other humans in them or because they were afraid of the response is not the pretty one. He was the one who had his life saved by Israeli doctors, yet whose dream was killing all Israelis. The architect of October 7 but never the protector of Palestinians. He never planned for Palestinian state to become reality, only for Israel to be destroyed. 

Now, why would ANYBODY, but ANYBODY see in him anything other than pure evil incarnated is beyond me. Look at support for Hamas declared by Westerners (not opposition to war, this is understandable and shared by many Israelis, possibly the majority) and ask yourselves: why? I can only recall the admiration for murderous psychopaths in communist movement by some of the Western most recognized artists, writers and philosophers (think Walter Duranty or Jean-Paul Sartre or George Bernard Shaw). Is it the old human longing for gladiators while sat in the theater? Maybe. But knowing who Sinwar was, and aware that it is not hard to find this knowledge, I see those supporting Hamas (not calling for the end of war or hoping for better fate for Palestinians, I support it myself deeply) as blood thirsty antisemites, looking at peace craving Palestinians with the same disdain as the butcher from Khan Younis and willing to wear the aura of righteous when craving for genocide ("from the river to the sea" is nothing else but calling for genocide). And it is often done by people unaware how badly Palestinians are treated in Syria or Lebanon, this does not concern them (remember - "pro-Palestinian" Hezbollah was killing Palestinians in camps in Syria asked by Assad and Russia).

Never, never should we glorify psychopathic mass murderers. And there are many Palestinians who are brave, working for peace, hoping for future, like some of those killed by Yahya Sinwar with his bare hands.