It's taken me a while to digest what happened in southern Israel on October 7. I realize it's not really informative or productive to publish a blog post that consists of little more than outrage and expletives over what was the largest single-day loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust.

In the days and weeks that followed, that disgusting, evil, attack on innocents by animals from the terrorist group Hamas, that's all I had: rage. My thoughts and emotions were little different than those I felt in the days following Sept. 11, 2001. The horrors of that day—the image of the "falling man," the descriptions of the "popping" sounds at the base of the twin towers as human bodies exploded upon hitting the ground, believing that that death was a better one than to burn or suffocate to death a hundred stories up—now pale in comparison to what we've learned was the close-up inhuman depravity visited on Jews (and others) in Israel that day.

The other night, on Jake Tapper's show, an Israeli medic described finding an 8-year-old girl with her arm chopped off, still alive and conscious, alone, after several hours. She put on a tourniquet, but it was too late.

Medics describe atrocities committed by Hamas on Oct 7. CNN's @jaketapper reports from Israel pic.twitter.com/5OpRn6LLno

— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) October 31, 2023

And it just gets worse.

Before killing a family in their home, the Palestinian terrorists cut an eye out of the father’s face, cut the breasts off the mother, chopped off the son’s fingers, and chopped off the foot of the daughter.pic.twitter.com/PTlSx37NQ7

— Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 (@MarinaMedvin) October 24, 2023

And worse.

This past weekend at a meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition, one of the Jewish volunteers who recover human remains at terror attacks described some of the scenes of torture he encountered, including finding an infant burned to death inside a kitchen oven.

"We saw a little baby in the oven."

-- @EliBeerUH to @RJC pic.twitter.com/MBKgrgwxRi

— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) October 30, 2023

It's one thing having seen the historical photos of the ovens at Nazi Germany's concentration camps. It's another to imagine the utter depravity that is required in 2023 to take a baby, put it in a kitchen oven, turn up the heat and sit around as the child begins to scream.

The Evil Abroad: What happens in the Gaza strip?

I confess to being completely out of f*cks. I recognize this is one of my failings as a Christian. I am commanded to love my enemies. I have a friend whose husband, a police officer, was murdered on-duty by an illegal immigrant who is now rotting away in state prison. She was able to forgive her husband's killer. I've great admiration for her and her ability to do that. I can't do it, and this isn't something that impacted me as directly as that murder impacted her.

What was done on October 7 was done by animals, not humans. I've no sympathy for them. It's unfortunate that innocent children will die, but that's on the Hamas terrorists, who insist using women, children and the elderly as shields to protect their fighters and who delight in their deaths.

As I write, the Israeli Army is on the  march in the Gaza Strip, cutting off the northern portion from the south and targeting terrorist leaders. Are non-combatants dying? Certainly. Do I care? Not particularly. Do I blame Israel? Certainly not. You can complain about "collective punishment." I can't muster an iota of outrage.

You demand a ceasefire? You demand a "humanitarian corridor" so supplies can be brought into Gaza that will be quickly stolen and subverted for use by Hamas. This Hamas?

Yeah, no. That guy needs to be disassembled into his component parts at Israel's earliest possible convenience as well. Israel can do what it needs to do, and anyone telling them to slow down, stop, or "think about the children," can go to hell.

The Evil at Home: The Media

It didn't take a week before there was widespread denial in the west of the horrors that Hamas had committed during its incursion into Israel. Terror apologists make excuses and sow seeds of doubt. They claim that the maiming, rape, torture and murder didn't happen, despite Hamas' own boasting, propaganda, and documentary evidence. So, what does Israel do? They gather that evidence, and they show it, to politicians and to journalists, and maybe, eventually, to those who would have the stomach to bear witness to the atrocities for future generations. And what impact does this have on those who witness it?

Members of the Knesset - Israel's parliament - were invited to watch a film prepared by the IDF showing the horrific things that took place during the Hamas massacre of October 7th.

Many of them could not make it till the end.
They left in tears and shock. pic.twitter.com/7UEqOCS43R

— Michael Dickson (@michaeldickson) November 1, 2023

Over at the Los Angeles Times, reporter Adam Elmahrek has been shilling for Hamas from the start, claiming that "Hamas says it doesn't target civilians" and touting questionable analyses seeking to blame the Israeli's for the Al Alahi hospital blast (actually, it just hit the parking lot) that killed 500, then probably between 300 and the lower end of 100. If you're wondering why this guy hasn't been sacked for his terrorist apologia, then wonder no more. Here's the daughter of the Times billionaire owner Patrick Soon-Shiong.

It’s not journalistic malpractice to describe the state of Israel as an Apartheid state. This is well-established in international law. It’s the legal term for unlawful “killing, torture, forcible transfer, and denial of basic rights." pic.twitter.com/hIoi3FiuSB

— Nika Soon-Shiong 🇵🇸 (@nikasoonshiong) November 1, 2023

She's also apparently on the board of the Committee to Protect Journalists, if you're wondering how deep the rot goes.

The day after that failed rocket launched from the Gaza Strip fell onto that hospital parking lot, this is what the front page of The New York Times looked like.

That image you see is not the hospital. This is the hospital, or, more accurately, the parking lot that was struck. In a little-noticed press conference, the archbishop whose group ran the hospital reported that only two staff were injured, no staff or patients were killed and the buildings surrounding the parking lot and a chapel suffered some infrastructure damage. It's unlikely 500 were killed, and likely not even 100.

This should come as little surprise after the Gray Lady decided to bolster their Gaza coverage by re-hiring a Hitler fanboi they were shamed into disassociating themselves from just last year.

Over at The Washington Post, an editor decided that the appropriate way to describe what had happened to Hadas Kalderon's children when Hamas terrorists abducted them and took them into Gaza was to say that they had been "detained."

And again and again, we get denial and equivocation. You had moral midgets like New York magazine writer Eric Levitz equivocating over whether Hamas terrorists had beheaded babies or if the heads had just kinda fallen off post-mortem.

pic.twitter.com/sluBf5FKC2

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 23, 2023

The Post's Fact-Checker, Glenn Kessler, has also decided to weigh in to the fray on the side of Hamas, claiming that the Gaza Health Ministry's (aka Hamas) casualty figures have been pretty accurate, contrary to President Joe Biden's dismissal.

The president appeared to show excessive skepticism when he commented that he had “no confidence” in the health ministry’s figures and that he “had no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth” about the death toll. The Gaza Health Ministry has had a pretty good track record with its death estimates over the years, notwithstanding that it is part of the Hamas-run government, and Biden is in a position to know that.

The initial reports on the hospital strike attributed to the ministry do give pause, however. Two hours is too soon to count 500 casualties, even if not all are dead — and one could be skeptical about the fact that the final count came so close to the initial estimate. But Biden was not asked about the hospital strike; he was asked about the aggregate number, which then stood at 6,000. A week later, the reported figure had risen by 2,000. With the numbers so large, whether a particular incident killed 300 people or 500 people seems less relevant.

The president could have noted that, based on previous Israel-Hamas wars, about one-third of deaths were likely to be combatants. But he swept away all the numbers as not credible. That’s his opinion — but it’s remarkably uninformed by history and precedent.

I'm sorry, but bullshit. It was months before we had a good handle on how many had been killed in the 9/11 attacks. We're just over three weeks into Israel's righteous response to Hamas' pogrom and they've got a list of 8,000 names? Kessler really wants to believe. Is this the X Files?

It's gotten to the point where some on the left are so embarrassed by the anti-Semitism of the pro-Hamas protests that they're suggesting that they're being infiltrated by, or are some sort of false flag operation by right-wing neo-Nazis.

The Evil at Home: College Campuses

I must confess that I was more than a little dismayed to see the breadth of the Jew hatred that surfaced at universities across the nation. Yes, we saw the tiki torch-bearing rednecks march a few years ago in Charlottesville, Va., but those racist jackasses were universally condemned on the right. (Trump's "very fine people on both sides" comment regarded the debate over tearing down statues of slaveholders like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington.)

The intensity and size of the protests on many college campuses—and the condemnations of Israel from college faculty—have made that Unite the Right rally look like a single child's temper tantrum.

At Cooper Union in New York, Jewish students were barricaded into the library as protesters outside banged on the doors and windows shouting anti-Zionist slogans targeting those inside.

Here in California, the University of California's Ethnic Studies Faculty Council penned a letter to the Board of Regents condemning the existence of the state of Israel and justifying Hamas' atrocities. (A rare bright spot was the response of Regent Jay Sures, calling out their moral idiocy.)

At Yale University, an op-ed piece by sophomore Sahar Tartak had an editor's note attached to her article, without consulting her or notifying her beforehand, claiming that reports of Hamas terrorists raping and beheading Israelis on Oct. 7 were unsubstantiated. This note was added nearly two weeks after the article was first published, long after the claims had been substantiated. After getting blowback—apparently including threats of violence, and probably reduced job opportunities upon graduation—the Yale Daily News editor retreated.

At Cornell University, Patrick Dai was arrested after he allegedly posted threats online to murder and rape Jewish students. This probably shouldn't be surprising considering Cornell professor Russell Rickford went viral shortly after the Oct. 7 attacks when he told a crowd that hearing about the attacks on men, women and children were "exhilarating" and "energizing."

At Harvard, more than 30 student organizations signed a letter blaming Israel for the Hamas attack, only to back out after outside groups started identifying those who signed the letter (it's not "doxxing" when you put your name on it) and powerful CEOs wanted the names of signatories so they know who they don't want to hire in their companies.

This, of course, says nothing about the rampant, reflexive effort to tear down posters that have been put up of kidnapped Israelis that have been put up everywhere to help bring awareness to the evil that Hamas continues to do.

Dealing with evil

Where do we go from here? We let Israel do whatever it needs to. We don't second-guess. There will be plenty of time for that when Hamas is no longer a going concern. We don't call for a cease-fire. I guess I shouldn't be shocked that President Joe Biden's aged, decrepit spine couldn't last a month.

I'm not sure whether to see last night's insane announcement by our joke of a vice president, Kamala Harris, that they're starting up a "National Strategy to Counter Islamophobia" in the wake of an unprecedented rise in anti-Jewish rhetoric and violence as comedy or farce.

On one hand, it's so obviously pandering to their pro-Palestinian base in places like Michigan. On the other hand, they gave it to the person who's supposedly in charge of making sure our southern border's secure.

I pray for Israel's success, Hamas' obliteration, and eventual peace in the Middle East.