By: Johathan Feldstein
I run the Genesis 123 Foundation, a non-profit whose mission is to build bridges between jews and Christians and Christians with Israel. In the last few weeks, since the horrifying and inhuman attack against Israel by Hamas’ Islamist terrorists, countless Christians from all over the world have joined us in prayer, participating in briefings, and donating to our Israel Emergency Campaign. It’s been uplifting and encouraging beyond words.
Last week, a woman who I’ll call “Sherry” and apparently was on my email list, responded to an appeal for humanitarian aid with a curt, “It’s a genocide. Free Palestine.”
With more than 1400 Israelis massacred in the most brutal ways, a son and son in law in the army, and really not in the mood to deal with the lies of the enemy, I responded bluntly:
“Respectfully that’s absurd. If there were a genocide, the population of Palestinian Arabs would be less than it was in either 1948 or 1967, not hundreds of percent more. I’m not sure how you think that Israel’s defensive actions are a genocide, and when Hamas’ charter and practice is the destruction of Israel and massacre Jews. Have you no sense? Have you no shame?
Do you not know that dozens of Jewish babies were slaughtered, burned alive, decapitated, just because they were Jews?
Do you not know that nearly 300 young people were slaughtered at a music festival, gunned down in cold blood just because they were Jews?
Do you not know that parents were murdered in front of their children, and children murdered in front of their parents, just because they were Jews?
Do you not know that pregnant women had their wombs cut open leaving the mother and unborn babies to die, just because they were Jews?
Do you not know that women were brutally raped, just because they were Jews”?
Or maybe according to your “logic” it was because they were “occupiers.” Is that it? The brave “freedom fighters” of Hamas, funded by Iran, carrying manuals about how to massacre as many people as possible in the most inhuman ways and taking hundreds of hostages from babies to elderly women were doing so to gain independence.
Do you not know that Hamas terrorists do not seek a two-state solution with a Palestinian state living peacefully side by side with Israel but the destruction of Israel and massacre of Jews?
That is the definition of genocide, not anything Israel is doing. Think about this. There have never been so many Jews murdered in any one day since the Holocaust which, in case you missed it, was an actual genocide. One third of the Jewish people murdered.
Oh, and there have never been so many Palestinian Arabs killed in one day in the alleged “genocide” that you claim, as there were Jews murdered on October 7. Ever. Sorry for bursting your antisemitic bubble with the uncomfortable truth.
Your facts are wrong, and you seem to have hatred of Jews in your heart. That’s antisemitism. You are an enabler of their evil Islamic ideology, and of all antisemites in the world, of which it seems you are a proud card-carrying member.
By the way, Hamas will kill you all the same as they kill us. Just ask my friend Kathleen whose twin sister was murdered by terrorists, stabbed in cold blood. An American Christian murdered because of the “occupation,” right? To “free Palestine.”
Why don’t you take your hatred to Gaza to see how they will treat you. And then you will witness the truth of Gaza being occupied, not by Israel but by Hamas. Hamas that uses its own civilians as human shields to increase their suffering and death. Hamas that is preventing Palestinian Arabs from evacuating areas that are embedded with terrorist infrastructure where Hamas has purposefully put innocent civilians in harm’s way. To inflict more death and suffering, of Palestinian Arabs. To blame Israel. To have ignorant people like you believe their lies and blame Israel too.
Everything I have said is documented. Facts. That’s inconvenient, eh? Not the nonsense that you believe wrapped up in lies of “occupation” and “genocide.” Can you be so willfully ignorant? Is your hatred of Jews so deep that you’re so blind? You should be ashamed.
Maybe one day you will understand the truth. Not today clearly.”
Then “Sherry” responded.
“I am pro-life and for that I should not be ashamed. The death toll in Gaza is over 7000. The lives of innocent kids and civilians are being taken. I don’t condone what Hamas did, but the people are not Hamas; they are in fact innocent bystanders. There is no aid, fresh water or medical supplies being sent to regions that are dire. To kill innocent people not tied to a war is genocide and inhumane. The loss of life in Israel is much smaller due to the America’s help, but even 1400 people is a loss so yes, I feel sorry for both sides and would like to see this war end all together. For this reason, I cannot fund a war that will kill more innocent people.”
“Sherry” is now my paradigm of all the evil, ignorant antisemites in the world, who weep for the “suffering” of Palestinian Arabs, but contort morality to find a way to excuse Hamas’ evil.
“I don’t know if you’re just ignorant, or ignorant and hateful. First of all, you’re ignorant and foolish to believe the Hamas death count. There are already pictures of how they are faking that. You want to be misled so you are, and you believe a source that at its core is evil.
How wonderful that you are pro-life and “don’t condone” what Hamas did. REALLY? Hamas planned a massacre of civilians, raping, burning alive, beheading, and kidnapping. They carried manuals how to inflict the most pain and death and do so in the most evil gruesome ways possible. They arrived high on amphetamines to have the greatest stamina in committing their crimes. Don’t condone? How about condemning? How about horrified? How about any kind of actual emotion that suggests that you are anything other than an evil antisemite yourself who sees no problem in Hamas and its charter to massacre and destroy Jews and the Jewish state. I’m so glad you ‘don’t condone’ such things. When someone ties you and your child up with metal wire and shoots your husband in front of you, then rapes your daughter, and sets you and your child on fire to be burned beyond being able to extract DNA, I will be sure not to condone that either.
And no, dear ignorant “Sherry,” the people are Hamas. There’s a recent poll by a reliable Arab pollster that shows 57% of the Gazans support Hamas, and more support even more extremist (if that were even possible) terror groups. They are responsible for allowing Hamas to rule them, first by elections, then by revolution, fueled with their antisemitic hatred, and active collaboration in Hamas ruling them. That’s on them, completely. But you, the one who doesn’t condone what they did to us, don’t care. You just want to find a way to blame Israel. “Sherry,” your antisemitism is showing.
Of course, there are innocent civilians and innocent civilians are dying, of that I have no doubt and regret. But no, ignorant “Sherri,” this is not a genocide. A genocide does not take place when civilians – whether innocent or complicit with the evil – are warned to leave, repeatedly. In a genocide, the population of the victims does not increase.
What’s really killing the victims? Hamas! Hamas wants more Palestinian Arabs dead to play to the ignorant and hateful people of the world, like you. Thank you for drinking their Kool Aid.
Oh, and you’re lying about supplies being sent in. They are going in through Egypt, or are you too ignorant and hateful to know that Egypt also shares a land border with Gaza and doesn’t want to help any more than anyone else. Why? Because they know that the evil of Hamas, which is rooted in the Moslem Brotherhood and Iran, are an existential threat to Egypt as well. I suspect your ignorance and hatefulness are too far gone to note that Hamas has raped the people in Gaza for decades, building a huge terror network to destroy and kill us, hiding supplies from average Gazans, and are giving ignorant and hateful people of the world like you the reason to think that it’s Israel’s fault.
Dear ignorant and hateful “Sherry,” the deaths are lower in Israel because Israel invests in protecting its people. I suppose in your magnanimity you also “don’t condone” Hamas firing tens of thousands of rockets at Israeli communities. But we have bomb shelters, we have the Iron Dome. We care about life and protecting life, on both sides. Hamas doesn’t. You claim that you’re ‘pro-life.’ Does this not horrify you?
How do you not see that what Hamas is doing is attempted genocide? Really? Are you ignorant and blind? As I write, dozens more rockets are being fired targeting Israeli civilians, protected by our military. Not in Gaza. Hamas hides behind its civilians. I guess it’s too much to expect that you’ve seen the evidence of Hamas placing its weapons and hiding its leaders in bunkers near and under schools, mosques, UN facilities, and even Gaza’s main hospital. Did you miss all that? Would you like proof?
Let me remind you that your initial response to me was ‘free Palestine.’ You don’t even know what that means and how there are ZERO Palestinian Arab groups in any position of influence that accept Israel as a Jewish state. They refer to the “occupation” and the “Nakba” of Israel’s birth in 1948. They chant “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” which means the bloody massacre of Jews and destruction of Israel. THAT’s a genocide. That’s evil at its core. You don’t even know what you’re talking about. Wait, but I am sure you also ‘don’t condone’ that. Right?
Let me ask you, as a pro-life American, how do you feel about the fact that the October 7 Hamas butchery is the third or fourth largest massacre of Americans since 9/11. All by Hamas. I guess that you ‘don’t condone’ that either, right. God forbid you should have any moral compass when it comes to Jews being slaughtered.
Finally, just to be 1000% clear, nobody ever asked for your help to fund a war. I am involved with an array of humanitarian projects to help people, not fund a war. Clearly your bias and intellectual limitations prevent you from understanding that either.
If you were alive in the 1930s and 40s, you’d clearly be one of those brave moral people ‘not condoning’ the persecution and mass murder (yes, actual genocide) of Jews. I hope that you sleep well at night knowing that you’re so morally bankrupt.
Please don’t take my word for it. Here’s the proof. Maybe that will warm up your naked antisemitism.
Here’s a link to the official statement of the IDF Spokesperson: https://www.idf.il/142243
Here’s an animated infographic showing the Shifa hospital and Hamas’ use of energy allocated to the civilian population for its own needs: https://bit.ly/3si5RYB
Here are related infographics: https://IDFANC.activetrail.biz/ANC27102023840231
Here’s a 3D illustration of the Shifa hospital under which they are hiding: https://bit.ly/40bWSVA
Here’s a recording of a call between an IDF officer and a senior official in the energy industry in the Gaza Strip: https://bit.ly/3FAgNnB
Here’s a recording of a call confirming the presence of the Hamas headquarters at Shifa Hospital: https://bit.ly/478YW2G”