Either-Or

Michael Herzog, the Israeli Ambassador to the US, has been sharing a 45-minute video of the October 7 Hamas attack to members of the media at their embassy in Washington.

The video is a collection of social media posts, security camera and body cam footage captured from Hamas attackers to illustrate the brutality of the attacks on innocent civilians.  

The Israeli government will not publicly release the content out of respect for the victim's families.  To be clear, I have not viewed it and can only rely-upon press accounts of those who have. I have read and heard that it constitutes the most complete record of the slaughter of 1400 Israelis in a single morning.

There's a gravely-wounded man on the ground yet very much alive.  Hamas terrorists slowly behead him with a garden hoe.  A young Israeli woman  cowers under a desk in her bedroom as Hamas member wait and wait before killing her.  A young man whose arm ends in a bloody stump is tossed into the back of a pickup truck slick with blood while his captors laugh.  Two young boys in their underwear run into a shed with their father who dies falling-upon a grenade to protect them.  One of the boys cries out in English for their mother.

The most striking element of the content is the intoxicating joy, exultation and exhilaration the killers display at every turn while executing children, the elderly, spraying gunfire into homes and shooting  dogs that come loping from gardens to investigate.  The killers make calls home to celebrate and revel in the carnage.

I've read that the video closes with a flood of images of slaughtered babies and children.  Ten children under the age of five are missing and presumed held as hostages. 

Reflecting-upon Hamas' orgy of savagery it is righteous that the attention of the world be drawn to Israel.

Yet, let us not forget that continuing Russian aggression in Ukraine has already cost the lives of almost ten thousand innocent Ukrainians.  Russia has forcibly taken children from their families and sent them back to the Motherland for Russification.  There are Russian army camps for rape and torture.  A formality of barbarous convenience.

There is credible evidence that Russia has committed crimes against humanity and genocide in Ukraine.  Global authorities confirm that war crimes are part of the Russian playbook.  

I know evil when I see it.  Russia and Hamas are dissimilar yet they share a common goal of the total annihilation and eradication of a neighboring country. 

The moral depravity of the pro Hamas left and the pro Putin right has made our world an exceedingly dangerous place.  

I believe it is right to be thoughtful and judicious about military and humanitarian aid to others.  This is not warmongering jingoism.  Considering the notion that Russia and Hamas are the nexus of aggression along with their Iranian patrons are not Israel and Ukraine both deserving of our support in defending against their aggressors? 

To suggest it must be either one or the other is a false dilemma fallacy.