In 1939, a man I used to know was walking down the street in Czechoslovakia with his wife and two young children, one a baby. The Nazis had just invaded his country. A Nazi officer stopped him asking for his papers. When it was clear the young man was Jewish the officer picked up the baby by its feet and smashed its skull against the iron railings in the street. Then he lifted the toddler and did the same to it. My friend and his wife were forced to witness the murder of their children. The officer then drew his pistol and shot the children’s mother, leaving the father alive. He was sent to a concentration camp, which he miraculously survived. But whether he survived witnessing the brutal murder of his wife and children is another matter. Move on to 2025, the war in Gaza. A young mother and her two infant children were taken hostage on the 7th of October 2023. After 17 months in captivity Israelis looked forward to their release by Hamas in February 2025. Instead, three black coffins were ceremoniously presented to the waiting crowd. Inside were the bodies of 4 year Ariel and 18 months old baby Kfir. In the 3rd coffin, instead of Siri Bibas lay the body of an unknown Palestinian woman. Was this a deliberate act of extra cruelty? Hamas claimed the bodies had been found in rubble, killed by Israeli crossfire, […]

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