Just Out of Curiosity

 (With thanks to Forest Rain Marcia)

Every once in a while random people show up on my feed and ask:

"Out of curiosity, do you ever think of the families on the other side, most of whom are collateral damage ?"

And they usually do it on posts expressing our anguish for our loved ones.

Perhaps these people do not realize that this, done in this way, is a deeply hateful question.

They wouldn't make the assumptions they make if they had not internalized hate.

And I know many Jews respond to things like this with facts and figures detailing the extreme lengths Israel goes to save lives on the other side.

That's why I think it's important to highlight my latest response to this question.

No explanations - because the hateful are not really interested in facts.

No apologies - because they should be apologizing to us, not the other way around.

My answer:

First of all, my family comes before the families of the people trying to kill me. It is morally twisted to do or expect anything else.

Secondly, why in the world do you assume that most of them are collateral damage?

The Gazan elderly, women and children who invaded behind the Hamas fighters? They are the ones who set fires and looted everything in sight.

The civilians who beat the hostages in the streets?

The children who spat on the bodies of raped and murdered women?

The women who made cookies to celebrate their great victory?

The young people who watched the live stream of the Hamas horrors in the square outside the Shifa hospital, laughing and cheering at the seeing Jews being tortured and slaughtered?

Are they the collateral damage you are referring to?

Or perhaps the people who held hostages in their homes?

Or their neighbors that knew and didn't help, even when the IDF promised 1 million dollars and safe passage for their family to a new country just for information? Are they the collateral damage you are referring to?

Out of curiosity