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Israelis Refuse to Show Remorse for Enemies Who Slaughtered Them
(Jewish Chronicle-UK) Josh Feldman - The New Yorker recently published a 10,000-word tour of Israeli indifference to Palestinian suffering. David Remnick tells us that Israelis are mourning their own dead but showing little interest in those dying just over the fence. His premise is that Israelis aren't morally serious. Israelis can't empathize with the other. Israelis are in denial. But what's actually grotesque is that Remnick never pauses to ask why, in this moment, might Israelis be so indifferent to the suffering of Gazan civilians? So let me offer the answer Remnick won't: Israelis are "indifferent" to Gazan suffering because Gazans kidnapped their children and dragged them into tunnels. Gazans murdered families in their pajamas. Gazans raped women, mowed down party-goers, and live-streamed it. Gazans celebrated it. Then Gazans held a gun to the heads of 250 hostages and dared Israel to come get them. Israelis refuse to show remorse for enemies who slaughtered them. The bulk of prestigious Western media outlets are framing this war as: Israelis are doing it wrong. They're too right-wing. Too militarized. Too Jewish. According to the logic of the New York Times and the Guardian, it's only fair to expect, even demand, that Israelis show the same care for children in Gaza that they have for their own. But do Palestinians owe Israelis anything in return? Don't be absurd. Remnick never actually talks to the people he's pathologizing: average Israelis who have sons fighting in Gaza, daughters mourning their dead husbands, and 21-year-olds who spent months in captivity in Gaza's terror dungeons. Remnick isn't trying to understand Israeli society. He's trying to shame it. He's writing for the New Yorker reader who believes that all suffering is created equal, except when it's Jewish. Noticing Palestinian pain is a sign of moral refinement, yet noticing Jewish trauma is provincial. It's a denial of the deeply rational fear driving Israeli behavior today. For many Israelis, it's about surviving a genocidal enemy while the world asks you to apologize for fighting back.