It is incomprehensible that people are not ashamed of the increasing anti-Semitism

OThe news on Tuesday showed Israeli soldiers making humiliating jokes about Palestinian residents on social media, just as Hamas soldiers humiliated Israeli youth.

It is war.

Obscene, but inescapable.

You are being shot at, you are shooting people yourself, you are sweating, vomiting, breathing, pissing and shitting adrenaline from the tension and your brain is on fire with fear.

Those who live beyond the line, cross the line.

Take any war and the troops misbehaved. Especially when they are only nineteen or twenty years old.

Is that an excuse? No.

But there is also no point in constantly blaming Israel. And that happens. There is no army that wages civilized war. Even at the Salvation Army, abuses occur.

Israel – whichever way you look at it – lacks sympathy because it is no longer the underdog. Learned through trial and error, fortunately it still has a strong army. And it is unwise to mess with that. Hamas is fighting with the hostages in its back pocket and refuses to release them even after losing much of their army. It seems as if the only thing left for Hamas to do is to initiate virulent anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism as a weapon. So calling names and insulting everything that has to do with Israel, and then shouting that it is not anti-Semitism, while it clearly is.

It is true that Israel is much stronger than Hamas and therefore the number of deaths is obscenely high. But then war wouldn’t have started! Hamas does not want to admit its defeat and that is why Israel continues. Can they stop? I do. Should Netanyahu go? I wouldn’t object to that. A two-state solution? Yes please. Just seems impossible. But does Israel have the right to continue the war? Yes, as long as those hostages are still in custody. Isn’t that disgusting, considering the number of deaths that will occur? Yes, that’s disgusting. But it is Hamas that started this war on October 7 and it is Hamas that can potentially end it. Meanwhile, anti-Semitism is on the rise; Hatred of Jews is justified by the horrific images of Gaza shown. In fact, I have seen few images – no images, actually – of the hostages captured by Hamas.

It is incomprehensible that people in the Netherlands are not ashamed of the increasing anti-Semitism. That’s why I’m only vicariously ashamed.

Theodor Holman (1953) is a columnist, writer, television and radio maker. Every day, except Sunday, you can read his column here. Read all of Theodor Holman’s columns.

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