There is a powerful teaching in the Jewish tradition that is over 2,000 years old: Those who are compassionate to the cruel will eventually become cruel to the compassionate. It is sad, but I fear that the world has become too compassionate when dealing with Hamas and the jihadists, allowing cruelty to become the accepted norm. This must stop. Now. Not just to save lives in the long term, but to save the souls of humanity itself before the world accepts being cruel to the compassionate.
Since this supposed ceasefire started between Israel and Hamas, it has been a capitulation to evil with the hope of getting any Israeli hostages returned. Hundreds of convicted murderers and terrorists have been released from Israeli prisons in exchange for a few hostages that Hamas had kidnapped on October 7. Although by definition a hostage is someone who is still alive, Israel is so committed to redeeming those who were kidnapped that they have even accepted dead bodies in exchange. On February 20, the bodies of four murdered victims were to be given back to Israel: Oded Lifshitz (83), Ariel Bibas (4), Kfir Bibas (9 months), and Shiri Bibas (32).
Hamas set up a large stage, and paraded their four coffins around, cheered on by a crowd that even included some of the mass murderers who have been released in the last few weeks. The caskets were transferred from the Red Cross to the IDF. The military and forensic experts at the National Center of Forensic Medicine, in coordination with the Israel Police, identified the bodies of Oded, Ariel, and Kfir, and confirmed that Ariel and Kfir were brutally murdered in Hamas captivity in November 2023. The other body returned as Shiri is not hers, and neither does it belong to any known hostage. "This is a severe violation of the agreement, which required Hamas to return four fallen hostages," said the IDF. "We demand that Hamas return Shiri Bibas along with all remaining hostages".
Perhaps as a form of psychological warfare, or just because they truly are pure evil, Hamas did not deliver the body of the mother of the two dead children. Knowing their past patterns and behavior, it is more likely that Hamas did not return this body because of what they had done to her. Their actions have demonstrated that they have killed children in front of their mother, which was probably done in this case, followed by raping, torturing, and killing the mother.
Hamas keeps outdoing themselves in their performance of evil. They have surrendered any humanity in their soul, and if my faith tradition believed in it, I would truly accept that they are demons in human form.
What should we do? The answer lies, I believe, in the Bible itself.
In the entire Hebrew scriptures, God forgives everyone for any sin that they do, with one glaring exception: Amalek. The text says that we are to be at war with Amalek in all generations, and that we are to blot out the memory of its existence entirely. What is it that Amalekites did that was so horrific that they should be wiped off the face of the Earth? The exact same thing that Hamas did on October 7, 2023. Amalek attacked the ancient Hebrews from behind. They consciously came after the weak, children, women, old, and sick civilians as opposed to attacking other soldiers. In attacking the defenseless, they demonstrated an evil that is beyond redemption, even and especially in God's eyes.
Hamas has done the same, not just on October 7 but for the last 16 months. This latest act of psychologically torturing every compassionate human being by betraying their own agreement of delivering the body of Shiri Bibas demonstrates a level of sadism that has not been seen since the Nazi experiments by Dr Mengele during the Holocaust. We are well past the time of being compassionate, and for the sake of humanity, we must heed the biblical advice and destroy this modern Amalek completely. It is our spiritual obligation.
As important as it is that we destroy this manifestation of evil in our time, we must also not allow ourselves to take joy in it. Innocents and innocence will die. We cannot allow ourselves to rejoice even in the destruction of evil, for in doing so we become no better than they are. Yes, they must be utterly destroyed. But we must temper our feelings in eliminating this evil. We should be grateful in completely eliminating Hamas and the evil that they are, but be careful not to be joyous in performing this duty. Otherwise, an even greater evil wins as we could, God forbid, lose our own souls in the righteous retribution that must occur.
No one can say how much evil is too much evil. But at this point, every human being on this planet should be able to recognize that the evil of Hamas must be utterly and entirely destroyed and eliminated.
May God bless the Bibas family with comfort among the mourners of Zion, and bless Israel, the United States, and the world with a safety and peace devoid of the evil of Amalek, and any of its modern manifestations such as Hamas and their partner jihadists.
Never Again is now.
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