Never forget, Israeli lives don’t matter

At the time of writing, thousands of Israelis are underground with their families and loved ones sheltered from Hamas rockets. Above, the rockets can be heard and all these Israelis can think is “Thank G-D for the Iron Dome and the IDF!” Over 800 rockets have been fired by Hamas at Israel since Monday — indiscriminately targeting civilians and State alike. Schools have been hit, busses have been blown up, apartment complexes leveled, hundreds injured, lives lost. Yet this is never recounted in media reports. Focus is always on the Palestinian death toll, because in the eyes of many, Israeli lives don’t matter. Israelis of all faiths and backgrounds have lost their lives to Hamas and Palestinian terrorism but their deaths aren’t good enough to be reported. Israelis know this and the Palestinians know this. This is why the Palestinians use their children as human shields to score a propaganda victory, whilst Israelis developed the Iron Dome to protect the lives of their people — whom the world does not care for.

At the time of writing, 5 Israelis have lost their lives. Next to no media outlets certainly outside of America or Israel have run a story headlined “Hamas rocket attacks kill 5 Israeli civilians.” Some mention now the death toll on both sides, after previously running articles detailing the Palestinian death toll. 26 Palestinian dead from Israeli airstrikes, without mentioning Hamas’ preference for embedding themselves within civilian population centers to ensure civilian deaths. Furthermore, there is no mention of the fact that several of the deaths — including those of at least three Palestinian children — were the result of Hamas rockets fired at Israel which fell short landing in Gaza! The message is clear: Palestinian lives matter and Palestinians can only be killed by Israel. Israeli lives and Israeli deaths are merely a footnote to maintain the pretense of objectivity in reporting.

On the 6^th of May, a 19-year-old Yeshivah student Yehuda Guetta, who was killed in a drive-by shooting by Palestinian militants whilst he stood at a bus station waiting for his bus home, was buried. His two friends who were with him were both injured in the attack. Crickets from the majority of the world press of course.

In recent weeks, on Palestinian TikTok, there has been increased incidences of the “Attack-A-Jew” trend. This is where Palestinians film themselves attacking innocent Jews in public. In April, two Palestinian 17-year-olds were arrested for an attack on an Ultra-Orthodox Jew (done for TikTok of course). In the same week, Rabbi Eliyahu Mali was similarly attacked after inquiring about a flat with the footage being posted as well. This follows on from a previous challenge called the “Knockout Game” where people were encouraged to attack Jews in New York City. By and large, these stories have been ignored in the mainstream media save for a few lines here and there. However, if there was a “Punch-A-Palestinian” trend on TikTok, there would be wall-to-wall coverage and Israeli Ambassadors summoned the world over to address the issue. But, never forget, Israeli lives don’t matter.

In Jerusalem, only a few days ago, a Jewish man was almost lynched by a Palestinian mob. Pro-Palestinian zealots falsely claimed that he had attempted to run over ‘peaceful Palestinian protestors.’ This was a lie to cover up the fact that the man crashed his car after Palestinian militants stoned his car causing him to lose control. Militants moved in to lynch the man, but thankfully an Israeli police officer was on hand to save the man from a lynching.

Two elderly women killed and 90 injured by Hamas Rocket attacks in Ashkelon. In Lod, a father and his daughter were killed by a Hamas rocket attack that directly hit a car. In Rishon Lezion, another woman was killed by a Hamas rocket. Hundreds of injured across Israel. A 7-month-old Israeli child was struck in the head with a rock during riots on Monday. To the mainstream media, their stories have not been worth telling or their lives worth counting.

Even in the reporting on the Al-Aqsa mosque clashes, the site was reported as Islam’s third holiest sites and Israel was accused of turning it into a warzone. Al-Aqsa mosque was built on top of the Temple Mount — the most sacred site in Judaism. The Jewish State would never desecrate that site, and has severely restricted the capacity of Jews to pray at the Temple Mount to appease Islamic militants. The Palestinians meanwhile have used the Al-Aqsa mosque as a military bastion, smuggling stone slabs and fireworks to target Israeli police with. Accordingly, 21 Israeli police officers were injured. This follows on from a few years ago, when Palestinians murdered Israeli Arabs in Al-Aqsa mosque and then rioted over the introduction of security scanners to prevent the smuggling of weapons into the Al-Aqsa mosque. The Al-Aqsa mosque cannot be that sacred to Palestinians if they have used it as a place for violence and bloodshed. Never mind the fact that to preserve peace the Jewish State is restricting Jews from praying at Judaism’s holiest site, to appease Muslims praying at Islam’s third holiest site. 

It was perhaps put best by Hen Mazzig in his Newsweek column: “We Israelis learn from a young age that our blood is cheap. Our murders go unreported and unmourned by the media and those who want to preserve a one-sided narrative about Israel.” As Palestinians cry out that Hitler was right, with one particular bigot stating “Dear Hitler, we miss you”, Israelis know the media lenses are firmly fixed on Gaza — with Israel firmly out of the picture save to be blamed. This won’t change. We live in a world where the majority of nations and the majority of media outlets are well-accustomed to being bystanders when Jews are threatened with destruction.