Private screening of Hamas attack video bears witness to atrocities

Yet despite the carefully collected and preserved documentation, there are still those who vehemently deny the systematic slaughter of 6 million Jews.

So, I have little hope the 44-minute film I watched Sunday night depicting the obscenities of Oct. 7 will silence claims the brutality is exaggerated or didn't happen at all.

"Bearing Witness to the October 7th Massacre" was presented to a small group of Metro Detroiters by the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Israeli Consulate to the Midwest. Much of the film was compiled from the cell phones and body cameras of the Hamas terrorists as they rampaged through Jewish settlements butchering civilians.

The footage is terrifyingly graphic. It is a reminder, as if we needed one, of the depths of inhumanity to which hatred can sink human beings.

What we saw Sunday night was excruciating to watch, harder still to discuss. When it was over most of us walked to our cars barely speaking.

Imagine watching the most gruesome horror flick, without the benefit of knowing the gore on screen is make-believe. In this movie, the blood is real. The bodies are real. The evil is real.

Hamas terrorists move through Israeli villages and along highways shooting down every Jew they see. The bloody victims are dragged out of their vehicles and homes and left lying in the street.

Terrorists invade houses and shoot Jews hiding under tables or frantically trying to find shelter from the bullets. Jews are burned alive. Dead Jewish soldiers are beheaded with hoes and knives. Jewish parents are killed, and their children left alone with their bodies.

Two young boys, who somehow survived the grenade that killed their father, comfort each other while a terrorist casually raids their refrigerator. One of the boys tends to his blinded brother, who cries out, "Why am I alive?"

More sickening for me than the gruesome images is the absolute joy with which the killers went about their sadistic work. I expected to see angry, frothing mad men. Instead, these killers are happy. They looked like gleeful young men celebrating a soccer win.

The murderers took enormous pride in their accomplishments. A terrorist calls his parents in the midst of his butchery to boast, "I killed 10 with my bare hands!" according to the translation provided. His voice is high-pitched with the excitement of a kid who scored the winning goal. "Your son is a hero! Kill! Kill! Kill!"

A Hamas commander asks someone in the field, "How's the morale?" The response: "It's high! I swear!"

And a shooter says of his victim, "I killed it," as if he were talking about an animal.

And this, I'm told, is the PG version. It doesn't depict the mass rapes and mutilation of babies that was reported, but nothing in video suggests such depravity is beyond the pall for the marauders.

We have tried to draw a clear line between the Hamas terrorists and the Palestinian people, believing the citizens of Gaza are also victims of the terrorist group. This film blurs that line.

Gazans are seen dancing in the streets with the returning terrorists and spitting on the dead bodies brought into Gaza in the back of their pickup trucks.

A commander instructs his men to bring back the body of a dead Jew, "so the people can play with it." The complicity of the people with Hamas can't be excused.

Palestinians and their supporters dismiss the film as "atrocity propaganda." It’s a flippant rejoinder that seeks to disconnect the horrors documented in this film from Israel’s purposeful campaign in Gaza to destroy Hamas.

But the atrocities are why Israel is in Gaza, and why it can't and won't be deterred in its mission. The snake of fanatical jihadism must be killed, or it will strike again and again.

Reducing this conflict to both-sides-ism — Israel did this so Hamas is doing that — enables the overt expression of antisemitism that is growing here.

It’s why the presidents of America’s most elite universities sit before Congress and mouth absurdities about "context" when asked to condemn their students' support for Hamas. It's why our streets are filled with protesters urging the terrorists to "finish the job." It's why Jewish students and businesses are threatened instead of embraced. It's why posters of innocent hostages still held by the monsters are considered so offensive they must be torn down.

And it's why the devils who starred in this film are morphing into freedom fighters in the minds of too many.

Hamas doesn't touch the spirit of Bunker Hill; it conjures the ghost of Auschwitz.

I wondered going into the screening what emotions I’d feel coming out. Revulsion? Heartache? Grief?

All of that. But mostly rage, an absolute red-hot anger that there are people in this world capable of such evil and others who would excuse their wickedness.

(COMMENT, BELOW)

Previously:

• 07/13/232: Stop feeding the Meta monster

• 12/22/22: Twitter Files expose Dem/Big Tech bond

• 04/17/22: Abortion ruling empowers states

• 04/08/22: Inflation isn't a Biden talking point

• 03/24/22: Hunter's laptop finally gets some light

• 03/03/22: Biden offers no reset

• 02/28/22:Giving up COVID, keeping mask, fist bumps

• 01/17/22:Biden, Dems roll dice on agenda

• 01/03/22: Can't hide from COVID behind jabs, masks

• 12/23/21:Manchin stood with his people in killing Biden's bill

• 11/04/21: For Dems, 'not Trump' not enough

Nolan Finley is conservative editorial page editor of The Detroit News.