Even animals don't behave so cruelly

Recently, my social media has been overwhelmed with videos filmed by people on safari in Africa, capturing the moment when carnivorous animals attack, kill, and devour their prey. It’s fascinating to watch the instincts of the animals, as if they have taken a course in survival but, in fact, are intuitive.

Projecting what it seems to me, sometimes the suffering of the animal being attacked and torn into pieces looks particularly cruel. While I have thought about human parallels this week, that cruelty seems so particularly relevant.

This week Israel is grieving. Not again, but still. Even more. This week marks 11 months since the inhuman Hamas massacre in Israel, murdering 1200 people in the most unspeakable ways, raping and sexually mutilating many, burning people alive, and executing parents in front of their children and children in front of their parents. The terrorists kidnapped more than 250 people from dozens of nations (of whom more than 100 remain in captivity in Gaza).

This week, 48-72 hours before their potential rescue by the IDF operating in Rafah, Hamas terrorists executed six of the hostages, shooting them multiple times at close range. They even filmed their victims before, documenting their crime for all to witness. And they brazenly release this footage one by one to take pride in their cruelty, and to increase the suffering of the families and indeed all Israelis.

There’s been no shortage of grief over 11 months, for the 1200 victims slaughtered on Oct. 7, the 250 plus kidnapped, hundreds of soldiers killed in combat to defeat Hamas and rescue the hostages, and scores of civilians killed since as well. Tens of thousands of rockets, missiles, and drones are still being fired from Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, Iran, and even still from Hamas terrorists in Gaza, the latest of which was just yesterday.

In Judaism, 11 months marks the end of a stage of mourning, specifically for a parent. Hundreds of thousands or Israelis and others from dozens of nations are mourning still: a parent, grandparent, son or daughter, sister or brother, spouse or fiancé, cousin, uncle, or aunt, best friend, classmate, or neighbor. While grief and mourning personally is profound, the difference nationally is that our mourning and grief have not only not ended, but continued, deepened, and impacts us all. Every time the name of a soldier killed in battle is “cleared for publication,” when a child is killed by a terrorist rocket, or when the body of a hostage is recovered from a terror tunnel, we as a nation are deeply impacted.

Simply, there is no end in sight for the mourning. That was made evident this week as six more human beings who were executed, and whose bodies were recovered and returned home for burial.

Of more than 100 hostages still held in captivity, more than 30 of the remaining hostages are known to be dead, their remains inhumanly held by Hamas terrorists, to inflict the maximal suffering and psychological trauma on Israel. And all Israelis.

In addition to their cruelty which they engage as if it’s an act of worship, Hamas terrorists and their Iranian Islamic patrons celebrate the social divisions created in Israel by the dual goals of defeating Hamas and rescuing all the hostages. Some stand firm that all the hostages must be brought home at any cost, as if Hamas is actually interested in making such a deal, and no matter how painful that will be for all Israelis. Some stand firm that Israel must continue to defeat Hamas in any way possible, including retaining control of Rafah (where the recent hostages bodies were found and where Israel was threatened from entering by the Biden administration and others), and the length of the Gaza border with Egypt to prevent continued rearming over and under the border.

The divisions in Israeli society are depicted in many ways from regular social protests to public disagreements in the government. This week, in response to the execution of the hostages, a national strike took place across Israeli schools, malls, public transportation, the airport, municipalities and more. The pain is deep and how Israelis are approaching a solution has become divisive.

All the while, the Islamic terrorists in Tehran, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas leaders in high-rise luxury hotels in Qatar and underground tunnels in Gaza, celebrate and do everything possible to avoid releasing any hostages, dead or alive, as evidenced this week. Make no mistake, it is the Islamic terrorists that want nothing to do with a ceasefire or releasing hostages. Even if they are defeated physically, and more and more terrorist leaders eliminated, cruelty is their currency.

Back to the animal videos from Africa: More often than not, the videos depict lions, leopards, hyenas, crocodiles, and others attacking and killing other, usually defenseless, animals. One cannot escape what feels like cruelty and inhumanity. But that’s the point. Animals are not human. They kill not for fun, but for food. They don’t strangle their prey at the neck or eat the limbs off live animals to maximize pain or suffering. They do instinctively to survive.

Since Oct. 7, many have referred to the Hamas and other Islamic terrorists as animals, but that’s not accurate. The terrorists are worse. Much worse. They massacred, raped, mutilated, incinerated, executed, and kidnapped not for survival, but to inflict hateful terror.

Unlike the animals in the videos I receive, as inhuman as they are, Hamas and other Islamic terrorists share our DNA. Biologically, they are human. Unlike the animals who kill to survive, as humans, their behavior is demonic. It may seem otherwise because their hatred and inhumanity is so inbred, but the cult of massacring other human beings, and doing so in ways and at times that are so deliberately cruel, and then film it to celebrate it, is something that they are taught, from their parents, grandparents, sons or daughters, sisters or brothers, spouse or fiancé, cousins, uncles, or aunts, best friends, classmates or neighbors.

It’s a cornerstone of a society that’s so sick and broken that they don’t even know themselves how sick and broken and evil it is: how sick and evil they are.

Unlike zebras, antelopes, and other animals who have no defense mechanism, we have, and must defend ourselves. For the survival of humanity and western civilization, Hamas and other Islamic terrorists are dangerous predators that need to be eliminated, not negotiated with.

Jonathan Feldstein is president of the Genesis 123 Foundation and RunforZion.com, building bridges between Jews and Christians. He is the host of the “Inspiration from Zion” podcast, and editor of the forthcoming book “Israel the Miracle.” He and his family made moved to Israel in 2004. He can be reached at FirstPersonIsrael@gmail.com.