The dirty dozen. Why can Israelis starve, mutilate, stamp out children in droves?

1. They block it out. They cling to the belief that it’s not real. ‘It’s Pallywood’.

2. They’re in a propaganda bubble. Israeli TV presents Israel’s situation as a desperate fight for survival, the suffering of its victims is not shown.

3. They aren’t doing it, others are driving the slaughter. They shift the blame to their leaders. It’s dirty, but necessary work that the crazies in their society are responsible for. So some Israelis are grateful it’s being done, while thinking they can wash their hands in innocence. Their leaders are like the henchmen that used to execute people, but were not welcome in polite society, even though polite society was happy someone was doing the executing.

4. Not to do so, is self-destruction. If those kids grow up they will become ‘terrorists’ anyway. Future Israeli generations are burdened if those kids don’t die today.

5. They think Palestinian parents want their kids to die. We’ve all seen with our own eyes how patently false this claim is, how vile a lie this is. Palestinians do whatever is humanly possible to comfor their children in the Israeli created hell of Gaza and the Israeli created purgatory that is the West Bank. If you do some cherry picking you can find militant videos where children are chanting like future martyrs, but these are deliberately misinterpreted. What is really going on is a coping mechanism. Palestinians know they can at all times lose their children to Israeli oppression and will then be shattered by the worst kind of anguish humans are capable of feeling, so they are looking for ways to make all that pain mean something. Just like other humans Palestinian parents want nothing more than to see their children grow up to be succesful, happy, healthy adults with all their limbs still attached to their bodies. Quite a challenge next door to Israel.

6. They don’t see them as real humans. Decades of increasingly violent and racist rhetoric have prepared Israelis to not see Palestinians or Arabs and Persians in general as human beings. They see them as a scary ever irrational threat, a major nuisance, uncultured barbarians ramming the gates of modern civilization. Israel sees itself as some exalted, morally and culturally far superior last bastion of exceptionalism and all their neighbours are an envious horde eager to come sack and plunder. It’s a mindset shaped by happily embracing the vibe of a Biblical apocalypse always being just round the corner.

7. It makes them feel strong. Nobody in this world sees Israel as a more fragile, more vulnerable entity than zionist Israelis themselves. So to push down that enormous fear and insecurity they feel, somebody always has to be dying. ‘They’re dead, we’re still here.’ Because no dead anywhere ever reassures them that Israel is safe, new dead need to be piled up regularly.

8. They actually believe Hamas is deliberately putting those kids right where the ever so humane Israeli precision strikes land. While some in Hamas are probably capitalizing on the outrage caused by Israel targetting children, nobody has to put them deliberately in harm’s way. The choice to use modern firepower against a tiny strip with two million inhabitants always ensures that lots of children are going to die. Especially if you keep pounding that strip for 18 months, even though your strategy doesn’t even have a consistent or clear end game strategy other than driving them all out.

9. Even if they recognize it’s bad, nothing can top the Holocaust. So even if Israelis have some understanding of just how bad the suffering is they are causing to others, they can always conclude that the Holocaust was far worse. Their people had the worst of it, always. Others should never complain about any suffering. Israelis try to have a monopoly on human suffering and getting sympathy for that suffering.

10. They think they’re actually showing restraint. By letting some injured children get evacuated. Really just a fraction of children that need very urgent, very complex care not available in Gaza. They could wipe them all out in one go, and by not doing so, they have proven they are actually the good guys. It doesn’t make sense to you, but it makes sense to them. People can have very twisted thought patterns to avoid guilt and shame.

11. Their enemies should just give up, and if they don’t, they deserve the worst. Israelis are so convinced they are the good guys, their enemies should just give up and if they don’t, well, then let that village burn. Israelis refuse to see how their ethnic cleansing campaign back in 1948 started well before Arab armies reacted, they don’t want to see the horrible conditions it has been inflicting on the Palestinians ever since and how their policies have created horror in Gaza and in the West Bank. If they could have absorbed all Palestinians in a culturally mixed state where everybody really does have equal rights and equal access to services, housing, shelters, education, freedom, enemies like Iran wouldn’t be able to use the Israeli oppression of Palestinians as a way to galvanize support to undermine Israel. But Israelis cannot see that. It think they can uphold the paradox of pretending to be a democracy while setting up a country that has as its core driving mechanism: making sure one group always stays the majority. To do that Israel inevitably requires policies that are seriously going to antagonize many people in this world. Sadly Israelis love to think the world hates us just because we exist. And that helps with taking care of Palestinian children.

12. They hate us anyway. If we bomb some children or not, the world hates us anyway. So why even care?