Death trap

We’ve all seen one of the most spewed pieces of propaganda in Gaza coming to a head: the libel of starvation, mass and intentional. And anyone interested in truth already knows this is not.

The videos of the exorbitant amount of aid trucks, including the ones simply untouched and waiting for delivery, are available for any viewer. Videos of Hamas commandeering aid trucks are as common as the media’s defense of the group. And just as Hamas had the surreal arrogance to broadcast their crimes against our people on Oct. 7, they have the same arrogance to broadcast their crimes against their own people: the terrorists gorging on copious amounts of stolen food while laughing.

But it’s not really gloating over the food — it’s gloating over the fact that they can show it all off on film and no one will even care. The rest of the world has bought in, once again, to their alternative presented reality.

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Whether it’s the phenomenon of somehow only children starving while adults remain at or above healthy weight; the habitual use of photos from other conflicts or of those suffering from other distinct illnesses (as it is known children will elicit more empathy and feed more libel); the incredible number of restaurants, bakeries and markets posting on social media each day with products that would make anyone drool; or the fact that we are to believe this now after the insane claims of 14,000 dead kids in 48 hours, or massacres that never occurred.

It truly is déjà vu of Oct. 8 and on, pulling out all the stops to push one bloodthirsty narrative and erase all evidence of what is actually happening. While it is pointless to debate and a fool’s errand to try to convince any true believers of an opposing reality, it is important to understand why, exactly, this has become so excessive right now.

Hamas is degraded by the IDF to the point where they cannot even afford to pay the operatives who are left. It would be naïve to think the job is finished by any means, but it would be erroneous to not acknowledge the military power stripped from them.

Yet almost as equally degrading, in a much shorter amount of time, has been the civic power stripped. The creation and implementation of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has essentially taken away Hamas’ chokehold on aid and is now suffocating the terrorists.

How do we know this? From Hamas’ undeniable belligerence at the GHF presence and their utter willingness to do whatever it takes to thwart aid efforts, including spinning massacres from thin air, shooting at their own citizens seeking aid and beating those seen returning with it, and capturing and murdering aid workers. They call these aid sites “death traps” and will stop at nothing to keep others from utilizing them.

Hamas’ existence wholly relies on aid and its distribution. We already know how UNRWA not only was a terror shell company to funnel aid to Hamas but was filled with Hamas members themselves, its very purpose to keep an entire population under the thumb of a regime and to forever perpetuate a narrative of victimhood.

And as we saw, the system of bringing in external billions has worked out phenomenally for these goals. While Hamas lined their pockets with the wealth coming in, they were also given a wealth of power through complete control over the lifeblood of their population, and therefore the ultimate security of continuity.

Imagine what it must be like now to have that security blanket taken away.

If Hamas loses control of aid distribution, they lose control of the commodity of aid itself. If they lose control of such an important commodity, they lose control of the people needing it. And if they lose control of their own people, they lose control of their narrative and own survival.

It’s a death trap.

As usual, Hamas’ fantastical projection is always a fairly dead-on reflection of reality.

For these phony martyrdom seekers, the forced stare into a stark reality without the global gravy train is panic-inducing. There is a reason that a sticking point for the terrorist organization during deal negotiations is to resume only the U.N. distribution system of all aid. It is their only chance at regaining and reasserting some form of control over their citizens and their future, and that very coming-to-Allah moment is what we have been witnessing.

And without fail, their co-conspirators at the United Nations are answering their SOS in the most comical grandeur imaginable.

In the very same breath as spewing starvation propaganda, the U.N. refuses to do much of anything about the mass starvation that it claims exists. It will not work with the GHF nor Israel to distribute; it demands instead to be escorted by Hamas’ “blue police,” and in what can only be seen as the most malevolent middle finger to the population it purports to protect, it has instead let hundreds of trucks filled with aid go unclaimed and undistributed, leaving the aid to waste in the heat, unused by those who are allegedly desperate for it.

For an organization allegedly so concerned about the scarcity of food for a people, it seems to have no problem withholding it to suit its ultimate goal — ultimately admitting that not only is the starvation storyline simply a propagandic pawn, but so is the entire Gazan population.

The U.N. knows the aid goes to Hamas to do with it as they wish, it knows that will negatively affect the general population, and its simply doesn’t care. The U.N. just wants to maintain the necessary status quo: keeping a whole population in resentment of another to perpetuate a genocidal fantasy, forever preserving the saga of suffering and therefore a global reason to loathe Israel.

In sum, the U.N. in Gaza doesn’t exist to feed mouths. It exists to feed brains with consuming ideology and to ultimately feed an eternal conflict.

So, yes, there is coordinated starvation happening … by the organization charged with feeding everyone. And, yes, there is certainly a famine raging … but one of truth and responsibility.

And there is no coincidence that this is happening now.

Just as before, leading up to the start of the ground invasion or the operation in Rafah, the screams always become the shrillest when leverage is being lost and truth will be exposed.

As Hamas is cornered, physically in warfare and metaphorically in the admission that they never planned on agreeing to a final deal, they always look for escape routes to slither away from accountability, whether through tangible tunnels or intangible propaganda that weaponizes naive compassion at best and deeply ingrained bias at worst. This is simply their latest way to wriggle free from another war which they started but cannot finish themselves, calling on the rest of the world to do it for them — cue the perfectly timed explosion of famine to ignite a West all too hungry for any chance to blast the genocidal Jews.

For a society that increasingly values easier emotions over tiring thoughts, facts are simply irrelevant. For far too many, it is nearly hypnotic to play right into terrorism’s hand by losing focus on the most basic realities and walking straight into the alluring empathy trap laid out for them … up to and including our own, unfortunately.

While it shouldn’t need to be done, let’s go ahead and state the obvious:

No one wants to see anyone harmed. No one wants to see any children going hungry. No one wants to see unnecessary suffering of any kind.

But recycling Hamas’ talking points in an attempt to disguise perceived moral superiority as “humanitarianism” or “nuance” helps no one’s cause but the terrorists’ own. It does not help any Gazans truly in need by lifting the pressure on the source of their subjugation. It does not help the hostages to solely apply more pressure on the only nation that wants them back. And it certainly does not help any Jews in Israel who must have security going forward, because enabling faux responsibility for historic tormentors only continues the same destructive dynamic.

It’s been a popular to state that “We can’t allow others to take our humanity from us,” but you can’t freely hand our humanity away either. Jewish empathy is admirable and desirable up until it inevitably becomes suicidal. None of us should allow each other to walk into a death trap of our own.

In a world that has loosened its grip on reality, we cannot let go of ours.

No other government would be expected to prioritize another population whose own government does not. No other nation would ever be forced to continually supply a war adversary, to the point of literally assisting and refueling its own murderers. No other people would be held responsible for others’ incompetence and unbridled bigotry in the way that Jews have always been.

What’s worse is that these hypocrisies prove that Israel is actually viewed as an ethical entity capable of moral action and humanity, unlike the incapable Hamas, though still despised all the same. But the world has shown again and again that there is no interest in holding jihadists to any standards; it would rather double the standards for Israel instead of placing the responsibility where it rightfully belongs.

As Hamas has repeatedly made crystal clear, the only solution they have ever wanted is a final solution. Their goal since foundation has always been twofold: the extermination of as many Jews as possible, and the extermination of any support for the remaining Jews through the most insidious use of its very own people — hence designing the unavoidable global accusation and focus of genocidal starvation.

Hamas planned their massacre for years knowing full well how Israel would retaliate. They had years to prepare their own population to endure the harsh consequences of inevitable war by bolstering resources. But to state the overwhelmingly obvious: Hamas had no interest in preparing its citizens for surviving war because as a second blow to Israel, they were actively preparing them for death.

It is well past time for the rest of the supposedly civilized world to start giving Israel, Jews and just the sanity of reality the basic respect of never falling into this trap of a narrative and losing sight of the horror that has and still continues to happen at Hamas’ — and only Hamas’ — hands. Because while everyone is currently falling over themselves to prove their own selective humanity in the most inhumane ways, in starving the values of truth and morality, they are ultimately laying the death trap for modern society. PJC

Sarah Kendis is a musician living in Pittsburgh.