They exchanged text messages and emojis. Brief status updates with words of encouragement. A picture of the beloved family dog “Tutsi.”
Until no more messages came.
And then, Cindy Flash, an American, and her Israeli husband Igal vanished into the violence, presumed kidnapped by Hamas.
Four days after Hamas attacked Israel, more than 100 Israelis and potentially dozens of foreign nationals are thought to be held captive in the Gaza Strip. At least 14 U.S. citizens have been killed and an unknown number are still unaccounted for.
Flash, 67, originally from St. Paul, Minnesota, is one of them. She lives in Kfar Aza, a kibbutz in southern Israel near Gaza, where some of the most harrowing and grisly stories have been emerging during the last few days.
“They are breaking down the safe room door,” Flash said in one of her final messages to her daughter Keren, 34. “We need someone to come by the house right now.” She had been communicating with her parents from a few houses away.
Keren described her mother, who worked as an administrator in a local college, as someone who had the “sweetest biggest heart,” who everyone knew and loved, and who had spent a lifetime advocating for the rights of Palestinians, including those who live in Gaza where she may now be held.
From a psychological point of view it is said that those with an inferiority complex will hate their helpers more than their oppressors due to the incongruity in their respective status. With the oppressors firmly entrenched in an unassailable position, the helpers instead become vulnerable targets of convenience. Similar to how abused victims go to create other victims instead of fighting against their abusers. Which is why it is said that the correct method of helping victims of abuse is to have them help themselves in order to restore their sense of self-worth. To help a victim of abuse is often thankless, risky and painful, with only a sense of self-satisfaction often being the sole reward in case of a successful intervention. This case was not a successful intervention.
I was under the impression that the border was extremely well guarded and secure. At least at some point it must have been. It seems like the government recently moved troops to the west bank in order to protect settlers instead. https://lemmy.world/post/6616736
Settlers in illegal settlements on land seized from occupied People.
If this were true, then there would have been no point in supporting emancipation or civil rights as a white person. No point supporting women’s suffrage, even though that was passed democratically with the help of voting men. LGBTQ people do not hate allies, they hate people who actively oppose their right to exist.
I think this pop psychoanalysis doesn’t apply to questions of social justice. What Palestinians need is not just “a sense of self worth”, as if this is just a question of having the right attitude. They need rights.