There has been a sea change in attitudes among Israel’s left-wing “peace activists”: “Their dovish hopes clipped, some Gaza border residents make peace with becoming hawks,” by Canaan Lidor, Times of Israel, March 4, 2024:
In the wake of October 7, Lahav and other Israelis who had supported and campaigned for territorial compromises with the Palestinians as a pathway to peace now say they are being forced to reconsider their views.
“I used to think Palestinians were good people, like you and me. That Hamas were thugs who got in the way of the population’s desire for a good life: a pretty home, a good car, a good job, a nice yard; good schools for the children.” Lahav said from the temporary home she shares with her daughter Lotus, a new three-bedroom apartment on the fifth floor of a residential project in Kiryat Gat where many Nir Oz survivors have relocated to.
Lahav remained for a long time naively convinced that the vast majority of Palestinians — those who were not members of such terror groups as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and PFLP — were “good people” who only wanted a decent life, just like Israelis: “a home, a good car, a good job, a nice yard, good schools.” But that turned out not at all to be what they wanted; most of them wanted above all to see the destruction of the Jewish state and its replacement by a twenty-third Arab one. They wanted to see the expulsion or the death of all the Jews in Israel, so that the new Arab state of “Palestine” would be Judenrein.
“After October 7, I realized I was wrong. Just as the Israeli government represents Israelis, Hamas represents the people of Gaza.”
Hamas’ attack on October 7 was not an unpopular aberration, but a faithful expression of what the people of Gaza wanted. Unlike the PA’s Mahmoud Abbas, whom 90% of the people he rules over want him to resign —Hamas in Gaza still maintains popular support. The display of continued deep support for Hamas when everything was known about its October 7 atrocities is evidence that the Gazans cannot be seen as “innocent civilians.” Certainly Irit Lahav no longer sees them that way.
Lahav, a travel agent who used to belong to a group of volunteers who would drive Palestinians in need of medical treatment from Gaza to hospitals in Israel, now believes that “all of the people of Gaza, all of them, hate us to a degree where they would murder babies and pillage our property with zero compunction.”
Lahav had believed in coexistence, in territorial compromise and a “two-state solution,” which, she had allowed herself to believe, the Palestinians also believed in. She went out of her way to befriend and help Palestinians. She had spent her free time volunteering to drive Palestinians in Gaza who needed advanced medical treatment to and from appointments in Israeli hospitals. Such person-to-person interactions, she allowed herself to believe, would lead the Palestinians to view the Israelis with more sympathy, to a recognition that “we are all human.” But on October 7 she saw how those “ordinary Palestinians” in Gaza reacted with ghoulish glee at the atrocities visited on Israeli men, women, and children. She learned about how thousands of those “innocent civilians” joined Hamas in committing atrocities on Israelis in those kibbutzim, how they took some female hostages back to Gaza to make use of for their own easily imagined ghastly purposes, how they ran beside the Hamas trucks carrying hostages into Gaza, especially those undressed young girls in a grave state of mental distress, and beat the hostages mercilessly as they ran alongside the vehicles, screaming their hatred.
The Road to Recovery, an Israeli nongovernmental organization that helps Palestinians reach medical treatment in Israel, remains operational, although its volunteers have brought patients only from the West Bank since October 7 because Israel is not issuing entry permits from Gaza. “It’s not simple, but I want to keep feeling human,” Yael Noi, the nonprofit’s director, told (Hebrew) Channel 12 in December.
So some of those formerly far-left Israelis who had the scales fall from their eyes about “innocent Palestinian civilians” in Gaza and the West Bank, just like Irit Lahav, nonetheless out of a hypertrophied sense of sympathy, are still driving Palestinians from the West Bank to and from medical appointments in Israel. But it is no longer in the same spirit as before, that naive belief that “someday we will have two states living side-by-side in peace, with equal measures of security and prosperity.” Since October 7, those Israelis who had once hoped of an accommodation with the Palestinians whom they had convinced themselves wanted a permanent peace, have now seen the light. They see the Palestinians not as potential “partners for peace,” but as willing collaborators with Hamas in the rape, torture, mutilation, and murder of Israelis.
Frank Anderson says
From my personal experience, FEW people are either willing or able to escape the Viktor Frankl “delusion of reprieve” (Man’s Search for Meaning). Example Delusi9on: “The guards at the death camps are good people who are following orders to avoid becoming inmates.” Hamas and other groups exist because that is what has been taught, practiced and lived without change for 1400 years. ANY change, reform or moderation is blasphemy and apostasy punishable by death. Failing to understand that by those who refuse to read for themselves is what allows this unending war of conquest to continue. Spencer’s book, Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam and the Crusades, is one of several good places to start escaping the delusion and facing the reality that we face FOUR choices, Conver, Submit, Die or Fight.
somehistory says
More and more people may be waking up to the Truth. mozlums don’t want ‘peace.’ Peace is what mozlums “resist.”
Psalm 120:7 New Living Translation
“I search for peace; but when I speak of peace, they want war!”
Those who adhere to the evil that is islam, don’t want peace; they lust for war.
SC says
They cant even get on with each other. Shia’s hate Suuni’s (Iraq Iran war) & not sure where the Alawhites (Syrian leadership) fit in. Arabs hate None Arabs, they make them learn the Qur’an by sound rather than teach them the Arabic so they can read it. Meaning they can teach them just the bits they want them to know.
James Lincoln says
somehistory says,
“More and more people may be waking up to the Truth. mozlums don’t want ‘peace.’ Peace is what mozlums “resist.”
Yes.
October 7th has pulled back the curtain – and has shown that the so-called “Palestinians” actually aid and abet Hamas.
And it makes any idea of a “two-state” solution completely impossible.
Frank Anderson says
James, I read a book in military high school before graduating in 1967. The title of the book was Lords of the Starship. Many years later I found and purchased a second used copy. I have always wondered if the story is a prophecy about Israel. I agree with your conclusion that a 2-state solution is impossible. Islam CANNOT change to reverse 1400 years of planned, programmed intentional hatred. The creation and maintenance of a Jewish state in the middle of hundreds of millions of devout Muslims may be both delusional and temporary, however much I admire and support Judaism and its followers. I wish and hope for a different result; but recognize that divine intervention may be the only way to see that happen. I always wish you well and thank you for our many exchanges.
James Lincoln says
Frank Anderson,
Thank you for your very informed reply.
Very best wishes always.
abu taleb says
I had thought the same before, most muslims were peaceful and Islam was hijacked by some thugs. But I changed my view after I studied Islam after the 1998 riot. Most muslims currently are not doing any viloence, but when the situation arrises, they will not hesitate to become violent aggresive because of what they have been taught for life by Islam. And they will scam non muslims as a process to weaken the non muslims.
Brenrod says
“Unlike the PA’s Mahmoud Abbas, whom 90% of the people he rules over want him to resign —Hamas in Gaza still maintains popular support. ”
The naivete remains. Although the PA residents dont want abbas they overwhelmingly support hamas and the hamas atrocities of oct 7. 75% of gazans and 85% of PA residents support 7 Oct. Israelis face the same danger from the residents of the PA more than Hamas. Go a step further and realize that the once “moderate” islamic nation of Turkey is led by Erdogan who “firmly supports Hamas… Hamas are not terrorists”. Although all muslims are obviously not terrorists a large number of them support muslim extremism. Even EU is aiding and supporting those who were accessories to the oct 7 depravities.
Richard Schmidt says
The Quran defines Islam. IT EXPLICITY HAS NO TOLERANCE FOR INFIDELS – specifically Jews who are the worst of all!
So if you define yourself as being a Muslim you will always at least sympathize with their atrocities especially if you live in as a minority in your country! And in Democratic countries can even participate in protests for these atrocities.
All atrocities are Quran based (authorized) !!