How Hamas Manipulates Our Pain to Destroy Israel From Within
The fact that some Israelis have now descended into parroting pro-Hamas propaganda is shameful and an indication of how insidious and successful Hamas has truly been.
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This is a guest essay written by Zach Ross of “I Dare You To Think.”
You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, YouTube, and Spotify.
The greatest gift you can give Hamas, who just executed six of our children whom they kidnapped 11 months ago, is to blame the Israeli government.
Hamas and the Islamic Republic of Iran revel in every moment of division among Israelis. Every expression of hatred toward the government is a signal to them of weakness and impending collapse. This is their exact goal — to imbue hatred, pain, distrust, torment, demoralization, hopelessness, anger, and distraction in the collective psyche of Israeli society.
The fact that some Israelis have now descended into parroting pro-Hamas propaganda and calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “Satanyahu” is shameful and an indication of how insidious and successful Hamas has truly been. Of course, one can detest Netanyahu and protest the current Israeli government, but exploiting our people’s suffering to push one’s political agenda is not just heartless; it is dangerous.
There is plenty of justified anger, hurt, and outrage toward the Israeli leadership for failing to protect our families, for caving to U.S. pressure and allowing Hamas to grow as strong and emboldened as they have over the last two decades. October 7th was an epic failure by our leaders. No doubt about it. The responsibility to keep us safe lies with our government. And they failed. I feel it too.
But it is paramount to see the bigger picture here. The Islamic Republic’s propaganda machine has worked tirelessly to invert the truth in a battle of good versus evil on the world stage. Instead of recognizing the true villains — the Palestinian terrorists who murdered and kidnapped innocent people on and since October 7th — they have convinced the world that it is Israel, not the terrorists, which is evil.
They spread the lie that the massacre on October 7th either did not happen or was orchestrated by the Israeli government to justify a “genocide” against Palestinians under the guise of “self-defense” — with Hamas cast as their noble “resistance.” They have effectively normalized terrorism in the West.
They have dehumanized Israelis and Jews to such an extent that hardly anybody in this world even knows a single hostage’s name in what constitutes the largest international hostage crisis in modern history.
When Gazans used as human shields by Hamas are killed in a war their leaders start, Israel is blamed. When Israeli civilians are kidnapped from a music festival, held captive for 11 months, and executed, Israel is still blamed. Do you see the framework? It absolves those truly responsible of any accountability and renders Israel guilty by default.
Hamas has brilliantly exploited the weaknesses of Israeli society and the Western world for their gain. They took our precious children hostage not only as insurance for their survival — pressure they have not felt due to the world’s moral blindness — but also to manipulate Israeli and global sentiments, positioning themselves as the ones who actually, somehow, care more about the hostages than Israel.
With the slogans “Ceasefire now!” and “Only a deal will save the hostages!” — Hamas has created a scenario where the very people who march in New York for Israel’s destruction and those partying in Tel Aviv unknowingly advocate for the same outcome, a situation that ultimately strengthens Hamas and frames Israel as the villain in the eyes of the world.
Let me make this clear: Hamas has not offered to release all of the hostages. They have no incentive to release the hostages, because the benefits of holding onto them and keeping the war going far outweigh the benefits of letting them go and ending the war.
Those benefits, by the way, are not just the billions of aid they embezzle or the solidifying of their leadership among Palestinian society or their unprecedented legitimacy around the world thanks to the now-trendy “Free Palestine” movement, but also include the deterioration of Israeli society from within.
Ever finger pointed at Israel is one finger less pointed at Hamas. Hamas is a death machine that thrives off the destruction and casualties in Gaza so long as it advances them toward their ultimate goal of destroying Israel — even if it is from within.
Today we are witnessing some Israelis marching through the streets calling Netanyahu a “murderer” for failing to rescue the hostages. Since October 7th, one thing has become painfully clear: The world has little appetite for nuance. It prefers simple narratives. And all too often, Jews (and especially Jewish leaders) are cast as the villains.
Over the course of decades, the pro-Hamas “Free Palestine” movement achieved a lot in terms of demonizing Israel, its various governments — Left and Right — and its people as bloodthirsty, diabolical murderers. Yet, whatever they could not achieve, Israeli Zionists have managed to in a matter of months, by demonizing our own using the exact same language, the exact same antisemitic tropes and the exact same extremism.
When you call the world’s most prominent Jewish leader “a murderer” or “satanic,” you endanger the lives of Israelis and Jews everywhere. The pain, anger, and sadness is valid. But pay attention to what is being said and who around the world is listening. (Hint: It is everyone.) If you find yourself using the same language as those who are actively committed to killing your family, you might want to take a deep breath and sit down.
Hamas has engineered this war in such a way that if they merely survive, they win — and not only do they win, but they become more powerful and emboldened, with more global support than ever to commit another October 7th; to kidnap, murder, and rape more of our people under the guise of “resistance.”
October 7th will serve as an inspiration and model for all those around the world who want to murder Jews and make it look like “social justice.” One day, we will wake up to the same nightmare all over again. New faces, new names, different families. November 10th. April 4th. June 17th.
This is a fact. And it does not change the fact that hostages who are currently rotting in tunnels deserve more than to be sacrifices for our leadership’s failures. Like I said, we lost on October 7th and this is what losing looks like. The 101 remaining hostages must be freed.
Yes, the Israeli government failed the hostages. Yes, the American government failed them. Yes, the entire world failed them. We should all be enraged. But let’s be clear: They failed because they allowed Islamic terrorists and their regimes to slaughter our children in the name of their sick ideology and then manipulate us into covering it up and shielding them from responsibility. I refuse to do their work for them.
This catastrophe would never have occurred if Israeli society, the Jewish world, and the broader international community were 10 times more united and outraged than the “Free Palestine” movement, putting crushing financial, political, and social pressure on Hamas and their backers above all else to demand the unconditional release of the hostages. Unconditional. Yes, that would have actually been possible.
Hamas, Palestinian terrorism, radical Islam, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Qatar, Turkey, Russia, North Korea, the rest of their axis of evil, and Western apathy to Jewish suffering are responsible for the abduction and murder of our people — and we must not let them get away with it.
 | A guest post by
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Sadly, I have to agree with you. Israel has been corrupted by self-defeating left-wing ideology that sides with Jew-hating Islamists, like the so-called Palestinians and their Iranian puppet-masters. So have some Jews in the Diaspora as well. But I also think these Jewish traitors are in the minority and are just being played up by the Israel-hating media.
Here’s what needs to happen if Israel is serious about its survival:
1) Make it illegal to protest the government’s actions during wartime. WW2 would not have been won by the Allies if civilians in Allied countries had been allowed to protest in favor of appeasing the enemy!
2) STOP NEGOTIATING FOR HOSTAGES. This is the terrorists’ sole trump card. Rip it away from them. To help prevent hostage taking, train and arm Israeli citizens better; stop allowing Jew-hating Palestinians into Israel as “workers”, and make it illegal to fraternize with them while their society is hell-bent on killing Jews.
3) TAKE NO PRISONERS. Kill all enemy combatants except for those identified as having info that Israel can use.
4) Stop trying to be holier than G-d. Before you attack an area heavily populated with enemy civilians, abide ONLY BY INTERNATIONAL LAW in terms of warning them. Don’t go over and above this because you’re just warning the combatants as well!
5) Above all, work on getting the Arabs to take Palestinians back. They never wanted statehood; they just want to destroy Israel. They are a “manufactured” people with no aboriginal rights. The Arabs created their “refugee” situation in the first place. To hell with world opinion. In the long run the world respects winners; not losers
I remember the Peace Now demonstrations that brought hundreds of thousands of people to Tel-Aviv to demand signing the Oslo Accords.
They were signed in Sept 1993 and in January 1994 the first suicide bombs in Israeli buses took place, killing 54 citizens.
Anyone calling for accountability ?