{"id":79268,"date":"2024-06-23T09:48:14","date_gmt":"2024-06-23T09:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/23\/blaming-hamas-for-gazans-suffering-many-israelis-feel-little-sympathy\/"},"modified":"2024-06-23T09:48:14","modified_gmt":"2024-06-23T09:48:14","slug":"blaming-hamas-for-gazans-suffering-many-israelis-feel-little-sympathy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/23\/blaming-hamas-for-gazans-suffering-many-israelis-feel-little-sympathy\/","title":{"rendered":"Blaming Hamas for Gazans\u2019 Suffering, Many Israelis Feel Little Sympathy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/21\/multimedia\/21israel-mood-01-sub-wkmz\/21israel-mood-01-sub-wkmz-facebookJumbo.jpg?fit=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Blaming Hamas for Gazans\u2019 Suffering, Many Israelis Feel Little Sympathy\" title=\"Blaming Hamas for Gazans\u2019 Suffering, Many Israelis Feel Little Sympathy\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The southern Israeli city of Netivot, a working-class hub for mystical rabbis about 10 miles from the Gaza border, escaped the worst of the Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7, a fluke many residents ascribe to miraculous intervention by the Jewish sages buried here.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Nevertheless, many here seem to show little concern about the suffering now of the Palestinian civilians \u2014 practically neighbors \u2014 across the fence in Gaza.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Michael Zigdon, who operates a small food shack in Netivot\u2019s rundown market and had employed two men from Gaza until the attack, expressed little sympathy for Gazans, who have endured a ferocious Israeli military onslaught for the past eight months.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWho wants this war and who doesn\u2019t?\u201d Mr. Zigdon said, while mopping up red food dye that had spilled from a crushed-ice drink machine in his shack. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t us who attacked them on Oct. 7.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Like many Israelis, Mr. Zigdon blamed Hamas for embedding itself in residential areas, endangering Gaza\u2019s civilians, while blurring the distinction himself between Hamas fighters and the general population, as if all were complicit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Israelis remain gripped by the trauma of what happened on Oct. 7 \u2014 when Hamas-led gunmen surged across the border, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 250 more back to Gaza, according to Israeli officials. It was the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The pain, still raw, is increasingly overlaid with anger. Much of the collective Israeli psyche is cloistered in self-protective layers of indignation as Israel faces international opprobrium for its prosecution of the war and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Most Israelis seem to be aware that their military\u2019s subsequent air and ground offensive in Gaza has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians \u2014 many of them children, according to health officials in Gaza \u2014 and wrought <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/01\/09\/world\/middleeast\/israel-military-gaza-ruins.html?searchResultPosition=9\" title=\"\">widespread destruction<\/a> on the coastal enclave. But they have also seen the videos of scores of people in civilian clothes looting and attacking residents of the rural Israeli villages during the Hamas raids. While Palestinian polls <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcpsr.org\/en\/node\/969\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">show broad support among Gazans<\/a> for the Oct. 7 attack, some Palestinians have spoken out against the atrocities committed by Hamas and its allies that day.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Netivot is a bastion of political and religious conservatism: In the November 2022 election, nearly 92 percent of the city\u2019s vote went to parties making up the hard-line government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Armed groups from Gaza have <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2008\/12\/25\/world\/middleeast\/25mideast.html?searchResultPosition=10\" title=\"\">fired barrages of rockets<\/a> toward the city over the years. One struck Netivot on Oct. 7 and <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/refael-fahimi-63-netanel-maskalchi-36-and-refael-maskalchi-12\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">killed a 12-year-old boy, his father and grandfather<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But the lack of sympathy for the plight of Gazans extends beyond Israel\u2019s traditional, right-wing strongholds. Rachel Riemer, 72, a longtime resident of Urim, a liberal, left-leaning kibbutz, or communal village, about 10 miles south of Netivot and a similar distance from the Gaza border, recalled that, during a previous round of fighting, she had donated money for blankets for Gazan children.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThis time, I don\u2019t have place in my heart to pity them,\u201d she said of Gaza\u2019s civilians. \u201cI know there is much to pity, rationally, I understand. But emotionally I can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Many Israelis \u2014 both conservative and liberal \u2014 blame Hamas for starting the war and for embedding its fighters among the Gazan population, operating, according to the military, out of schools, hospitals and mosques, and <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2023\/11\/10\/world\/europe\/hamas-gaza-tunnels.html\" title=\"\">in tunnels beneath Gazans\u2019 homes<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Many also see Gaza\u2019s civilians as complicit, at least ideologically, in the atrocities of Oct. 7, saying that they brought Hamas to power in the first place, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2006\/01\/26\/world\/africa\/hamas-victory-in-palestinian-vote-stuns-mideast.html\" title=\"\">in Palestinian elections in 2006<\/a>, and that they had not expressed much remorse \u2014 though Hamas has ruled Gaza since 2007 with little tolerance for any dissent, much less a new vote. As the war has dragged on, more Gazans <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/15\/world\/middleeast\/hamas-gaza-israel-war.html\" title=\"\">have been willing<\/a> to speak out against Hamas, risking retribution. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The death toll in Gaza has spiraled to at least 37,000 since Israel began its ferocious offensive, according to the Gaza health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Hamas officials deny Israel\u2019s claims that it uses public facilities like hospitals as cover for its military operations, despite <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2024\/02\/12\/world\/middleeast\/gaza-tunnel-israel-hamas.html?searchResultPosition=6\" title=\"\">some evidence to the contrary<\/a>. And <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/20\/world\/middleeast\/palestinians-gaza-gofundme-egypt.html\" title=\"\">there is little escape<\/a> for most of the 2.3 million residents of Gaza, terrified and trapped in a crowded, narrow strip of land \u2014 tightly sealed by Israel and Egypt \u2014 and backing onto the sea, where a naval blockade is in force.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">International organizations have also accused Israel of restricting the entry of aid, causing widespread hunger, though Israeli officials say they have opened up additional crossings for goods and blame humanitarian groups for failing to <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/19\/briefing\/getting-aid-into-gaza.html\" title=\"\">distribute the aid effectively<\/a>. Most of <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/28\/world\/middleeast\/gaza-war-rafah.html\" title=\"\">Gaza\u2019s population has been displaced<\/a> and more than half the homes in the coastal enclave are reported to have been damaged or destroyed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For much of the Israeli public, this war is very different from previous Arab-Israeli conflicts, said Avi Shilon, an Israeli historian based in Tel Aviv, explaining the apparent indifference to the suffering of Palestinians. Unlike the much shorter wars of 1967 or 1973, when state armies fought state armies, this conflict is viewed more like the 1948 war surrounding the creation of modern Israel, or through the prism of the Nazi genocide in Europe, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Shilon said he saw every unintended death as a \u201ctragedy.\u201d But the Oct. 7 assault \u2014 when attackers <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2023\/12\/22\/world\/europe\/beeri-massacre.html?searchResultPosition=1\" title=\"\">killed people in their homes<\/a>, at a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/10\/15\/world\/middleeast\/israel-music-festival-massacre.html?searchResultPosition=2\" title=\"\">music rave<\/a>, in <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/11\/11\/world\/middleeast\/israel-hamas-oct-7-attack-shelter.html?searchResultPosition=2\" title=\"\">roadside bomb shelters<\/a> and at army bases \u2014 was broadly seen in Israel as being \u201cjust about killing Jews,\u201d Mr. Shilon said, turning the ensuing war into a visceral battle: \u201cEither us or them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Rony Baruch, 67, a potato farmer from Urim, which also escaped the brunt of the Oct. 7 attack, said the humanitarian crisis in Gaza was \u201cterrible,\u201d and \u201cpainful,\u201d and that it was time to end the war. But he said he did not think his opinion was representative. He also emphasized that Israel was not the \u201cbad guy\u201d in this confrontation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Many Israelis have remained in a dark place. The Hebrew news media is still filled with stories of loss and courage from Oct. 7. They have watched gruesome video clips of the Oct. 7 atrocities filmed by Hamas gunmen as well as hostage videos released by the armed groups holding them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A few survivors said they recognized Gazans they had previously employed among the infiltrators. Videos showed some crowds jeering at and abusing hostages as they were paraded through Gaza on Oct. 7. This <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/08\/world\/middleeast\/israel-hostages-nuseirat-gaza.html\" title=\"\">rescue of four hostages<\/a> on June 8 came after months of reports about hostages killed in captivity and about the military\u2019s retrieving the remains of some for burial in Israel. Israelis generally paid little attention to the high death toll that the rescue mission exacted on the Gazan side. Gaza\u2019s health officials reported more than 270 killed, including children.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The mainstream Israeli news media rarely focuses on the suffering of Gaza\u2019s civilians and routinely leads news broadcasts with the funerals and profiles of soldiers who have died in battle. Still, according to <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/en.idi.org.il\/articles\/53666\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">one poll this year<\/a>, 87 percent of Jewish Israelis reported having seen at least a few pictures or videos of the destruction in Gaza.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Israelis are divided, broadly along political lines, and sometimes within themselves, over issues like the supply of humanitarian aid.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI have mixed emotions,\u201d said Sarah Brien, 42, a resident of Urim. \u201cOn the one hand, you are obligated as a country to international conventions. On the other, you are not getting anything in return. Has any reliable organization seen any one of the hostages? Who is taking care of them?\u201d The International Committee for the Red Cross has said it has <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/12\/22\/world\/middleeast\/israel-hamas-hostages-red-cross-lawsuit.html?searchResultPosition=1\" title=\"\">failed to gain access<\/a> to the hostages.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Israelis acknowledge the hunger in Gaza but accuse Hamas of stealing or diverting aid. Hamas officials deny stealing aid, saying that a few desperate people have looted the deliveries. Many Israelis have seen footage of hungry Gazans swarming the aid trucks. But many say they were also galled by images of Gazans flocking to the beach to find some respite, while hostages remained in the dark.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">And some Israelis say that the rest of the world moved on too quickly after Oct. 7.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe feeling is that for the world, the story began on Oct. 8,\u201d said Tamar Hermann, a professor of political science and a public opinion expert at the Israel Democracy Institute, a nonpartisan research group in Jerusalem. \u201cThey feel that not only are the Gazans showing no remorse, but the world is undermining Israeli suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At the same time, there is little desire in Israel to see Gazan children <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/03\/09\/world\/middleeast\/yazan-kafarneh-gaza-starvation.html?searchResultPosition=1\" title=\"\">starve to death<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe don\u2019t have the soul for that,\u201d said Hen Kerman, 32, from the southern city of Beersheba.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Kerman, who works in a private investigations office, and her partner Rani Kerman, 32, a taxi driver, had come to Netivot to pray at the tomb of a revered sage known as the Baba Sali. They defined themselves as far-rightists.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But like many Israelis, they seemed to harbor few illusions about how the war was going after Mr. Netanyahu and his right-wing government pledged eight months ago to eradicate Hamas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cSoldiers are dying and Hamas is still there,\u201d Mr. Kerman said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Some, like Mr. Kerman, say they believe the Israeli military should wreak more destruction on Gaza. Others say Israel should agree to a deal, whatever the cost, to bring the hostages home and focus on an exit plan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Tali Medina, 52, manages a dairy farm at Urim. Her husband, Haim, was shot and injured by gunmen on Oct. 7 when he was out cycling with a friend.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI didn\u2019t start this war or keep hostages for more than 200 days,\u201d said Ms. Medina, wearing a T-shirt with the \u201cBrothers in Arms\u201d logo of an antigovernment protest group led by military reserve soldiers. While she opposes the hawkish Israeli government, Ms. Medina \u2014 like most Israelis \u2014 blames Hamas for the war.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe reality is very hard, but it\u2019s not my responsibility,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/23\/world\/middleeast\/israel-hamas-gaza-october-7.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The southern Israeli city of Netivot, a working-class hub for mystical rabbis about 10 miles from the Gaza border, escaped the worst of the Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7, a fluke many residents ascribe to miraculous intervention by the Jewish sages buried here. Nevertheless, many here seem to show little concern about the suffering now [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/21\/multimedia\/21israel-mood-01-sub-wkmz\/21israel-mood-01-sub-wkmz-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8250,7823,3451,5552,24513,4247,11647],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79268"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79268"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79270,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79268\/revisions\/79270"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}