I'll See Your Mass Rape and Raise You 30,000 Palestinians

I've never doubted the rape reports. They make perfect sense as part of Hamas strategy, aimed at causing the reactions we have witnessed, in Gaza, in Israel, and in the West. It was horrible; of course I don't condone it. Still, deep dives on the Oct 7 mass rape, pro or con, play on the Israeli side of the field.

The recitations of atrocities by one side or the other are all political forays in the information war, with a disproportionate emphasis in U.S. mainstream media on the deeds of Hamas. All we need to do is remember that for each Hamas crime, there are fifty times as many from the Israeli side. New ones every day, both in Gaza and the West Bank. Denials in that vein amount to conspiracy theories.

Hostages in Gaza? What about hostages in Israel, people detained so frequently and in such numbers, for years absent any sort of due process, that it fails to garner any notice at all? Is there anything more morally obtuse than dwelling on the safety of Jewish students at Columbia, compared to the safety of anyone in Gaza?

There is no getting around it. The Israeli state is responsible for the massacre of tens of thousands of innocent people. Perhaps worse, the violence serves little functional purpose, beyond the political aggrandizement of a few psychopaths at the helm of the government. It's grossly disproportionate to the evils of October 7th, it's not good for Israel, for the U.S., or for the Jews.