Hamas Releases Video of Hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin Missing His Left Hand

Disgusting, evil psychological warfare from the world's most malevolent, dangerous terrorist organization and Iran proxy.

Apr 24, 2024

This is the 26th installment of the “Axis of Genocide” series at this Zionist Substack, the successor to the “Antisemitism and Culture” series which can be read in two 30-essay collections here and here.

This new series will document and analyze the antisemitic genocidal war waged against Israel by the Hamas terrorist group and its primary supporter, the Islamic regime in Iran. The accomplices in this attempt at a second Holocaust — Vladimir Putin’s criminal-gangster state in Russia and the authoritarian regime in China — will also come in for scrutiny and loud condemnation, as will the non-state actors supporting them, particularly the international Muslim Brotherhood propaganda network, and radical activists of both the far left and the far right. Other evil states and terrorist groups will also receive scrutiny. You can find a list of previous installments at the end of this post. Thank you for your support.

Today, the second day of our Jewish friends’ holiday of Pesach (to use its Hebrew name), Hamas has engaged in psychological warfare and further crimes against humanity with the release of a hostage video featuring Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a 23-year-old Israeli-American man.

As the Israeli government requests, please do not view or share the video. The only fact to note from the reporting on it is that it shows Goldberg-Polin missing his left hand.

Now, why might Hamas have chosen him for a hostage video?

Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that his mother Rachel has emerged as one of the leading voices advocated for the hostages, named by Time as one of the most influential people of 2023.

Think about this for a moment. Put yourself in Rachel’s shoes. Try and contemplate for a moment what the last six months have been like for her - and now, what today is like. You spend months trying to rally the whole world for the release of your son and the other remaining hostages, and then you get a video showing him mutilated. And forever you will be haunted: if you had just kept quiet and let someone else lead the fight, might your son still have his hand? Might he have experienced less torture? Or would it have made no difference? Allegedly Hamas injured Hersh’s hand on Oct. 7.

Just spend one minute trying to empathize with that level of a mother’s agony. Then spend another minute trying to comprehend the Islamist ideology which leads men to do this. Look at Hersh’s face in these images of him and try to imagine what he’s experiencing right now, at this very moment.

See this world not through your eyes, but through the eyes of the Israeli-American hostage, the eyes of his Islamist captor who has been torturing him, and the eyes of the mother who has been working night and day to free her son from the endless pain, fear, and trauma he experiences all day, every day.

But let’s go a step even further in trying to understand the world through others’ eyes.

What do Hersh’s peers think about the terrorist group that has captured, tortured and mutilated him?

The Gen-Z Perspectives on Israel

From March 14-21, the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s Kennedy School, surveyed 18-29 year-old Americans. Here are some of the key findings:

52% sympathized with Israelis, 56% sympathized with the Palestinian people.
32% sympathize with the Palestinian government, 29% percent sympathize with the Israeli government.
17% support Hamas, though that level drops to 13% when the question describes Hamas as an “Islamist militant group.” Perhaps it would drop further if it’s noted that governments around the world have designated Hamas as terrorist group? Probably not much. How many don’t have enough information to know whether they support Hamas? 32%. That’s also the same number who say they don’t have enough information to support the Israeli people.
29% want the U.S. to stop being an ally of Israel or reduce its support, while 32% called Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom not justified. However, on both questions, the largest group of respondents did not know, with 41% unsure of whether America should continue to support Israel.
51% of those surveyed call for a permanent ceasefire — only 10% oppose.

The Ideologies of Gen-Z

These positions reflect an ideological breakdown which goes like this:

Thus: a plurality of Gen-Zers (44%) surveyed fall into the “moderate” category. This is reflected further in the reality that only just over a quarter even regard themselves as politically active:

These ideological questions should be put in the context of the group’s religious views, too:

So, the largest group here falls into the last 4 categories - 45% of 18-29 year-olds surveyed don’t follow a religion, are unsure, or refuse to say. Perhaps this number relates to the huge percentages above who express such moral confusion about whether Hamas deserves support.

What the Young Really Care About

One of the ideas I’ve heard from anti-Israel leftists is that Democrats need to shift against Israel because young people are so angry about what is happening in Gaza right now. Is that really true, though? What are young people’s voting priorities? Turns out they’re not much different than those of their parents and grandparents:

So in other words, the percentage of young people who make abortion rights their top issue and those who put the environment first are 50% more in number than those who put national security first. This should surprise no one.

Far leftists and Islamists are insisting that Israel is engaging in a genocide of Palestinians. Yet only 2% of young people name this as their top issue? Having more money in their own pocketbook is more than 10 times as important to young people than stopping a genocide? And so therefore President Joe Biden should abandon the Zionism he has supported his whole career? Another chart later in the survey shows the results of polling on 16 issues facing America to determine importance. Israel came in second to last.

Now, if the findings in the survey so far have left you alternatively scratching your head in confusion and shaking it in horror, try this one on for size:

I asked

Sally Shideler

to guess how many “don’t know” who they would vote for - she first guessed 2%, which would have been my rough estimate too. Having endured so much Trump for so long, how could anyone of voting age not know at this point whether to support him or not? How fucking stupid and under a rock can any American be, at this point?

28% don’t know?

How the fuck does that happen? I suppose the fact that 25% either aren’t registered or don’t know if they are may be a factor:

There’s always a big chunk of the population that just doesn’t vote. Gen Z appears to be no different in this regard.

Pause and think for a moment again about Hersh, and what his days are like right now. Or if you’ve really got a stomach of steel, then try thinking about what the young women Hamas has captured endure.

And then I can’t help but recall the protesters Hersh’s age at Columbia this last week. At the second tent encampment protest to go up to call for Israel abandoning Hersh and his fellow hostages, apparently a fuckin’ dance party started.

Israelis are being held hostage and tortured. Palestinians are fleeing for their lives. And the most privileged, “elite” young people of today are holding protests against “genocide” which turn into huge parties.

Interesting priorities.

The previous pieces in the “Axis of Genocide” series:

Click here to read Volume 1 of the “Antisemitism and Culture” series and volume 2 here. Five of the most important installments from this series for better understanding this Substack’s approach to fighting hate include:

Al Ballesteros

ForeignLocal

Apr 28

How many times has President Biden publicly said his name and demanded his release? He’s a US citizen. Shame on Hamas, its supporters on US soil and all Democrat leadership, from Blinken to Biden, from Kerry to Obama. They all empowered Iran.

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Supportukraine

Apr 25

Hi David, my two cents, regarding Hamas, Israel needs to get in there and cut the head of the snake off. There’s no other way. Full stop