In Israel, 20,000 Gazans Are Responsible for Their Own Deaths. I’ve Never Been So Ashamed
Israeli journalist Ben CaspitCredit: Tomer Appelbaum
Journalist Ben Caspit epitomizes the Israeli center. He lives in Hod Hasharon and co-hosts a radio talk show with journalist Yinon Magal, who is on the extreme right. Caspit, supposedly, is not. He is a well-connected journalist, highly respected and successful.
Over the weekend, the executive director of the anti-occupation group Breaking the Silence wrote on X: “Don’t look away. A CNN correspondent entered the southern Gaza Strip and opened a ‘window on the hell’ of Gaza.”
This is what Caspit, a moderate and decent person in his own eyes, had to say in response: “Why should we look? They earned their hell honestly; I don’t have an ounce of sympathy.” Caspit, as usual, is the mouthpiece of Israel’s mainstream.
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Eight thousand children are to blame for their own deaths; 20,000 people are responsible for being killed; 2 million people caused their own uprooting. This is how a rich person always talks about the poor, the successful person about the less fortunate, the healthy person about the disabled, the strong about the weak, the Ashkenazi about Mizrahi Jews: They are to blame for their victimhood.
In post-October 7 Israel, one can blame 10,000 children and babies for their own deaths without Israel having even a hint of responsibility and culpability. In post-October 7 Israel, one can feel blameless only because Hamas started committing atrocities first.
A country lies in ruins and all its residents are in hell, and the generator of this hell bears no guilt, not even a tiny bit, not even together with Hamas’ guilt. The epitome of the Israeli center doesn’t even have an ounce of sympathy for the amputee children shown in the courageous, horrific report of Clarissa Ward from a Rafah hospital.
Let their limbs be amputated, let the children die, let all Gazans expire, let them suffocate in hell, it’s not our business. They are responsible for their disaster, only them. Caspit is on to something here – the victim is responsible for his victimhood.