First one must bear witness

Israel, the war and massacre machine, continues its attack on Gaza. There is no force to give a response in kind against it, but this situation produces not the slightest hesitation, sense of nobility or pity in the war machine. There is not a grain of awareness that those dying before it are human beings. For a thousand moments one feels like wondering how it would explain so base, so cruel a massacre to its own people, who have lived through the experience of genocide. Indeed, one wants not to think that all Israeli citizens in Israel approve of such blatant massacres of civilians, such murders of babies. Indeed, from time to time we hear the voice of serious Jewish opposition to these massacres. We know that some Jewish commentators never approve of what is being done. We know that in many parts of the world, particularly in America, some Orthodox Jews vehemently oppose both Zionism and its massacres.

It is by no means right to hold the Jews in Turkey in particular responsible for what Israel does. I would like to say that a Jewish citizen of ours who attended the AK Parti's Istanbul iftar emphasized this point in particular. He was telling how, although for 20 years he had never gone out anywhere on Friday night because it coincides with the Sabbath, he joined the protests solely to put his stance on this matter on record.

But to expect the people of Israel to oppose these utterly complete massacres, to which the world responds by staying silent, or rather by not staying silent but, when it speaks, unfortunately approving and supporting them, would be a little naive.

We all watched together the footage of Israeli citizens who, as Israel rained bombs on civilians, watched what was happening live from a panoramic hill, drinking their beers and having fun. Thanks to the CNN reporter, but even his reflecting this footage with a slight critical tone cost him his job. We are not about to say that Freedom House, which writes epics about press freedom in Turkey, should worry about that. We record it: we record this humanity's, this dignity's, this honor's descent to the lowest of the low. We bear witness to that too.

We watch what lies beyond that on social media. Social media is, after all, also the field where people's lowest subconscious comes to light. What does it expose?

Four tiny children whose bodies were torn apart and who died as a result of fire opened by Israeli naval forces while they were playing on the beach. A bouquet of reactions from Israeli citizen social media followers upon the news of the deaths of these 4 children:

Daria Konaev: "Very nice, let them croak"

Name written in Hebrew: "Only 4? We should have been able to kill more, I hope next time"

Julia Kamha: "Croak one after another, Arab trash"

Shikma Zerah: "It's too bad it's not 400"

Moer Bar?: "It's too bad it's not 40000"

Banit Architecter: "Why only 5: there are more children in Gaza"

Avi Elmakayes: "We can easily add more children"

A name in Hebrew: "It's not much, there are more terrorist children"

Yoav Maimon? "Death to all Arabs"

David Elmaliyah: "It's too bad it's only 3, 30000 children need to die before they grow up and become terrorists"

Ansal Tavosifar: "The best Arab is an Arab in the grave"

Julia Kamha: "Every Arab child is a future terrorist, bomb them all"

A name in Hebrew: "Your children are terrorists, just as you are Arabs"

Adir Adaki: "Whaaaaat? Only 4? Damn it!"

Yohay Hadad: "They will all grow up and become terrorists in any case. We must kill them while they are small"

Itzik Davidyan: "Who cares about 4 children? They are not even human, they grow up and become terrorists, to hell with all of them"

A name in Hebrew: "Arabs are germs, they must be eliminated, if you don't agree, get lost"

Slavik Mironov: "Let every day's news be like this"

Almog Sela: Lalalalalala tonight we slaughtered a sheep and had a party, finally a good reason for a party"

The comments go on like this. It is evident that Israel has no problem explaining this savagery to its people. Of course perhaps not the whole people, but it is clear that there is a quantity of popular support that will approve and encourage this savagery.

Who will question how so savage an attitude can come out of a people who have lived through the experience of genocide and who, because of that experience, have gained the right to produce and impose an ethical code on the whole world?

Of course, in order to question, one must first see, one must bear witness.