The world is outraged? Really? Now? After six months of war?

The news this morning was, of course, plastered with the inadvertent killing of seven humanitarian aid workers who were in Gaza to distribute food and other essentials. Israel very quickly took responsibility for the error, admitted that it should never have happened and dealt with it responsibly at the highest level of both the IDF and the Knesset. Few other countries would do that. Yet the world is outraged at us.

This war, which has now reached the six-month mark is a war Israel never wanted. It is a war that resulted from the indiscriminate murder, rape, beheading and sexual violation of 1,200 Israeli citizens in their homes where the Hamas invaders even had the audacity to film some of their escapades and post them on their social media feeds. And where they then took over 200 hostages, over 130 of whom remain in Gaza, of whom a significant number are probably already dead and others, if they ever get out, will find that their lives have changed forever, and not for the good.

WE are outraged that the Qataris, who are simultaneously playing good cop/bad cop by hosting the Hamas leadership in Doha on one hand while wanting us to think that they are assisting in getting the hostages released, something they could accomplish in 24 hours by pressing Hamas, if they so desired.

WE are outraged that Hamas has not let the International Red Cross meet with the hostages and provide them with needed medical care, and the world stands idly by criticizing us for fighting a nasty war.

WE are outraged that Hamas has forced us to send our sons, fathers, brothers, and uncles to put their lives on the line so that we will not ever experience another October 7^th.

People die in war. 20,000 French civilians died in the Battle of Normandy but those who survived were grateful to the allies for helping them reclaim their lives with that gratitude evident even to this day. No one in the allied countries was outraged because they were fighting a war they were forced into. Over 10,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed with 20,000 more injured since Russia invaded in February, 2022. That story is not even on the back page any longer and the killing continues even today.

The World Central Kitchen workers who died here this week should not have died. They were doing God’s work, trying to help Gazans and were doing so in cooperation with Israeli authorities who were assisting them as well.  Nevertheless, they were in an active war zone at night where sadly, bad stuff happens.  We should all be pained by that and work to make sure it never happens again. But save me the outrage, we who were drawn into this war unwillingly, and who would have appreciated it more en route to this 180th day milestone.

In the latest developments from the front lines, the IDF continues its rigorous operations in Khan Yunis, a focal point in the southern Gaza Strip, targeting terrorist infrastructure with precision. These operations have led to the discovery of significant caches of weapons, including RPG missiles, munitions, and Kalashnikov rifles, and have resulted in the elimination of dozens of terrorists.

This morning saw another terrorist attack by a young man in the area of Kochav Yair in Central Israel. Four Israeli policemen were shot, one is in serious condition at a local hospital with the others less so.

Israel and Egypt provided Hamas with an updated proposal for a deal for the release of the remaining 134 hostages on Tuesday, as the Israeli negotiating delegation headed home. “The State of Israel is continuing to make all necessary efforts for the release of the hostages from Hamas and their return to Israel,” the Prime Minister’s Office said.

The PMO said it “expects the mediators to take vigorous action regarding Hamas to advance the negotiations toward a deal.” The Israeli team was composed of members from the Mossad, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), and the IDF, and engaged in an “intensive round of negotiations,” during its time in Cairo, the PMO said. The talks were the latest round of negotiations in a protracted process mediated by Qatar and Egypt with the support of the United States.  The Biden administration had initially been hopeful that a deal could be reached by the start of Ramadan, but as calls grow for a Gaza ceasefire that is not contingent on the release of the hostages, hope has dimmed for a deal that would see a six-week pause to the war.

Let us hope that the passing of the half year mark will see the world direct its outrage at those who started all of this, not those of us who are fighting the world’s battle to defang Hamas’s military capability. The fact is, that there is no one safe in the world until this happens as we are, indeed, fighting the world’s war.