Palestinians Kidnapped, Tortured, and Murdered—and the World is Silent

Shame upon Humanity for ignoring the suffering of the Palestinians living under the unbelievably brutal, authoritarian, fascist, and religious fundamentalist rule of Hamas. It only took one election for Gaza to never have elections again. When Hamas rose to power after the total Israeli withdrawal in 2005 (so much for the “occupation” rhetoric—but we know they were never talking about Gaza), they quickly got to work throwing their political rivals off roofs, as well as murdering other “undesirables” like anyone suspected of being LGBTQ. And now they are murdering more Gazan civilians after torturing them first, for the simple “crime” of having protested against Hamas in the past week.

What we know is that at least six of the Palestinians that took part in the anti-Hamas protests in Gaza have been murdered by Hamas. One young man, Odai al-Rubai, was just twenty-two years old when he was abducted by Hamas, tortured for about four hours, and then returned to his family to die. Is this really the side you want to support, Hamasniks? Is this “justice”?

Where are you, “genocide” libelers, now that Palestinians need your support against Hamas? If Israel’s legitimate military campaign of existential self-defense is “genocide”, then what constitutes the actions of Hamas when they actually intend to and do murder their own people who don’t goose-step to their tune? Where is your criticism of the war strategy of Hamas, who intentionally placed millions of civilians in between themselves and the Israeli military? Every terror tunnel built underneath civilian infrastructure is a war crime—but you only hear crickets from the supposed “ceasefire now” crowd about it. Every rocket fired by Hamas and PIJ and Hezbollah and the Houthis from their civilian shields into Israeli civilian locations is a double war crime. And the death toll from these terroristic actions would be orders of magnitude higher if Israel didn’t have the Iron Dome to protect themselves—on both sides, but particularly on the side of the terrorists.

You cannot be pro-Hamas and pro-Palestinian at the same time. These are mutually exclusive camps. Hamas equals unending suffering for all sides of this conflict—and especially for Palestinians. If the Palestinian people are to ever have true human flourishing, Hamas must be eradicated along with every enabler of their genocidal endeavors i.e. UNRWA and all the rest.

Concerning the war front, the Israeli war cabinet has just recently voted to increase military pressure on Hamas in a bid to finally see the release of the last hostages by creating conditions utterly hostile to Hamas in Gaza. It is debatable as to whether this strategy will work as intended; Hamas is a genocidal terrorist organization, after all. The “normal rules” of engagement do not work the same with zealots and fanatics. Bibi is reportedly willing to let Hamas’s leadership leave Gaza scot-free; an affront to Justice, but perhaps a necessary one. I fervently hope for the safety of every defender of Israel as they fight this most terrible of enemies. Whatever it takes, bring the hostages home now.

And finally for this week’s newsletter, I must unfortunately mention Greenland. I don’t want to mention Greenland. I have no interest in Greenland besides the fact it has a pretty cool flag. I have no idea why the POTUS is obsessed with this giant, barren island. Not even the Vikings wanted it. But the more it is talked about as being a “legitimate target” for annexation by America, the more the ‘Pax Americana’ crumbles. 

We cannot just take land from our good ally of Denmark, nor from the people of Greenland. It is the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard of. We all knew Trump would be chaos, but this is just ridiculous. No American wants Greenland to be America (and certainly no Greenlander wants it) save for one guy with a monumentally fragile ego and his Veep lapdog. Cut it the hell out. I hate having to constantly be in the position of lecturing what are supposedly grown adults, but such is my lot in life. You make the world worse for no reason at all. Not to mention this is an affront to democracy itself, and the right of all peoples to self-determination.

Honestly, this might be the dumbest way for World War III to start. Over Greenland. GREENLAND. It’s like Trump has been playing too much Pandemic and is now paranoid about that port closing. It legitimately feels like a Civ game where the AI has figured out who is strong and who is weak—and suddenly your good ally Gandhi has a legitimate casus belli against you somehow. I told you all that Trump is chaos. Didn’t think it was Civ level though.

I hope and I pray that this mania soon passes. Israel is Ukraine is Greenland. All three are sovereign entities now under threat from much larger imperial powers. I shouldn’t need to spell it out, but Russia is threatening the sovereignty of Ukraine and has for a decade now; the Islamic Republic of Iran through their many terrorist proxies and even directly themselves threaten the sovereignty and very existence of Israel; and now America wants Greenland, and apparently Canada and Panama for laughs. But no one is laughing.

This is the foreign policy analysis you come here for. I never thought I would be comparing Trump to Putin and Khamenei; at least not this early in his second term. But it is my duty to tell it as I see it. Until next week, stay safe. Stay sane. May we all one day know a world without war.

Housekeeping: the first of my extended Substack exclusives should be ready to go for the start of April. The best current way to support this newsletter is to become a premium member of my Substack page, if you feel so inclined. As I mentioned before, I am looking at other ways to monetize such as through sponsors and ads. I am also considering starting a merch store. I want to see how far I can take this. In the absence of anything else for which to use my talents, this will be my legacy in the world. I promise you: A Dose of Sanity is just getting started. またね～