I Can't Even Put Into Words How Angry I Am Right Now. I've Bypassed Anger Into Numbness.

the news out of Israel regarding the return of Oded z”l, Ariel z”l, and Kfir z”l is bleak. it’s disturbing and upsetting and truthfully quite damning re: the state of antisemitism in Palestine. i have a lot of complicated feelings about it as I’m sure a lot of Jews do so i’d like to remind everyone that 1. not everyone needs to know every thought and feeling you have, 2. your opinion on other people’s feelings is never necessary, and 3. you cannot predict the way you would feel in an extreme scenario you will almost certainly never be in

EDIT: Shiri Bibas has not been returned alive or otherwise and her location and condition remain unknown. g-d willing she will be home soon.

Ariel and Kfir Bibas were identified among the remains of the hostages released. The remains of the woman released with them, supposedly their mother, were not identified as Shiri Bibas. A preschooler and an infant were kidnapped and violently murdered, used to taunt their also kidnapped father while their captors claimed they were still alive, and their remains were held hostage until they were paraded around in front of a crowd by their killers with photos of their smiling faces as a backdrop and their "arrest" dates listed on the caskets. We don't know where Shiri Bibas is or why she wasn't returned, only that Yarden Bibas now has to bury their children without her.

There is no nuance here. There is nothing that can justify this. It's not resistance to kidnap and murder children and then use them to psychologically torture their family and community for over a year. I don't know what else to say.

as a post on instagram i forgot to screenshot said:

if you’re feeling useless today…just remember the red cross exists.

The act of promising to send back a person's corpse and then switching it out with an unidentified person as an act of psychological torture is something I've only seen from my worst cases as a forensic scientist.

I've seen it from organized crime outfits, typically Russian mob and cartels, and from serial killers. This reminds me more of the latter rather than the former as the outfits tend to behave in a certain manner and abide by various rules. Serial killers, however, often delight in the psychological torture of their victims, victims' family, and community.

There's a number of cases I've been brought in on to help ID corpses that were not who the killer said they were. Causing pain and anguish for the families and community to their delight.

In this instance, making a big show of returning these hostages and then pulling the rug out from underneath Israel and the greater Jewish community only serves one purpose; to cause psychological and emotional harm. And make no mistake, the people justifying Hamas and their actions up until this moment and beyond are acting like every True Crime Serial Killer Girlie that has come up to me in my career to try and justify the actions of people like Dahmer, Gacy, Gein, and so on. "They're just misunderstood." "What did you think they would do? They had a rough life. It's not their fault they did these things." "They're just fighting back against the system that made them this way." All of this is to take the onus of responsibility off of the serial killer, just as all these anti-Israel activists take the onus off of Hamas and its violent terrorism. And just like a True Crime Girlie coming up to me with their binder full of notes about why their serial killer blorbo is good, your opinion that Hamas is somehow justified in their action is worth nothing. You've presented yourself as lacking the moral and ethical stand point that condemns such actions as taking families hostage, promising to return them, and then pulling a "switcheroo" last minute to be cruel. You're not good people, and no amount of mental gymnastics to somehow blame Israel for this will make you a good person. And if somehow you're a fellow Jew? Well, I think you've burned every bridge with the community as of this moment.

me late at night scrolling tumblr posts from 2 years ago:

where's the tea? give me the tea