Right before dawn 5 days ago on a Saturday, Israel woke up to her worst nightmare. As the sirens blared and citizens of Israel looked for shelter, a couple of thousand Islamic terrorists from Hamas attacked the bewildered civilians from air, sea and land. As thousands of rockets and missiles rained down on Israel leaving in its wake destruction and a trail of dead bodies strewn on the streets, hundreds of terrorists on motorbikes, on foot and followed by tractors breached the fence separating Israel from Gaza. Simultaneously, terrorists also attached the beaches of Israel riding on motorbikes, overwhelming the unsuspecting Israeli soldiers. As the embers and smoke engulfed Israel, some of the Islamic terrorists descended on paragliders.

After descending on Israel, the terrorists went city to city, village to village and kibbutz to kibbutz hunting down women, children and men alike. The visuals from the assault could perhaps be classified as traumatising, but worlds fall short when the Jihadi barbarity is laid threadbare, captured in images of charred bodies, burnt babies, raped and dishonoured women, and bloodied and murdered men. Several Jews were taken hostage by the terrorists as they cried and screamed for help, amidst the chants of Allahu Akbar, they were beaten, spat on, dishonoured and kidnapped – carried at the back of their trucks to Gaza.

The wound of seeing babies bloodied and murdered is one that Israel and the Jewish community would perhaps never be able to heal from. From babies who slept peacefully in their cribs to partygoers dancing their worries away, where 260 of them were slaughtered, the Muslim terrorists spared none.

Amidst the scent of death and blood, the wails of tragic loss, the cries for help and the screams of rage, Israel rose as one. Several Israelis travelled back from wherever they were in the world to seek justice – to seek retribution. Old, young, men and women got called into duty – to defend the civilisational home of the Jews and to ensure those who had the blood of children and women on their hands paid a price for their barbarism.

Israel then began to pound Gaza with rockers and missiles, flattening whatever stood in its path. On the 13th of October, Israel asked 1.1 million Palestinians to move from the North to the South – the instruction included for UN officials and those hiding in their premises to relocate as well – signalling that Israel was ready for a ground assault. Israel has also shut down the water and electricity supply of Palestine.

Israel pleaded with the world – don’t look away. Look at the biggest onslaught against Jews since the Holocaust. Look at what the Islamic terrorists have done. They have killed our babies. Raped our women. Beheaded our sons. They want us gone – annihilated – murdered – humiliated. Don’t. Look. Away – they pleaded.

They pleaded because they knew that as a country that fights for its very survival everyday will not be cowered down and that retribution will be theirs.

As expected, when Israel started responding to Palestine’s mass violence against Jews, the narrative was not too kind to them, despite the fact that most countries which often gloss over Islamist violence came out vehemently in support of Israel – USA for example. Almost immediately, the narrative shifted to the brewing humanitarian crisis in Palestine with Israel shutting off its water and electricity supply.

In one video, the former Prime Minister of Israel screamed – What is wrong with you? We are fighting the Nazis. How can you expect us to give water and electricity to our enemies”.

'Are you seriously asking me about Palestinian civilians? What is wrong with you? We're fighting Nazis.'

Former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett adds 'if Hamas use anyone as a human shield, it is their responsibility.'https://t.co/PAiZ4D1jU3

? Sky 501 pic.twitter.com/19nBKjOYOQ

— Sky News (@SkyNews) October 12, 2023

The media, however, continued what it does best – whitewash the crimes of Muslims and blame the victims of violence of genocide when they choose to stand up and say – ‘Thus far and no further’.

The essence of these articles was simple – Israel is committing a genocide of Palestinians by way of its retaliatory action after Jews were raped, murdered, beheaded or injured. They were careful – though. They were careful to also give a “context” to the Palestinian attack against Israel.

In an article headlined, “Palestinian Americans, Dismayed by Violence, Say Historical Context Is Being Overlooked”, The New York Times essentially provided context to the mass murder of rape of Jews by Islamic terrorists. The article said, “In interviews with more than a dozen Palestinian Americans, many said they were saddened by the violence against civilians, both Israeli and Palestinian, and hoped for a peaceful resolution. But many said that the underlying causes of the conflict could be traced to the policies of Israel and the United States, and decades of Palestinians being denied freedom of movement and basic rights”.

The subtle agenda-pushing is a work of art that must be fully appreciated. In the article, the New York Times essentially pushes the narrative that Palestinians are lovely people who are very very… very sad about the “loss of lives” in Israel. They are empathetic and don’t support terrorism of any form. However, they are also terribly sad that the USA and perhaps the rest of the world are not understanding the historical context of why these lovely, peaceful, delightful people from Palestine raped, beheaded and tortured Jews in Israel. In turn and as a result, while it was the Jews who got raped, beheaded and tortured, it was the Palestinians who were the real victims not only because Israel launched a counteroffensive against them but also because the barbaric, Islamophobic world was refusing to understand why the Palestinians were forced to murder babies, rape women, behead civilians and torture/murder the men.

Further in the New York Times article, another Palestinian is quoted saying the following: “These statements are really dehumanizing us,” she said, “and telling us that our lives are not worth anything.” In the eyes of those officials, she added, “we are never the victim, we are always the aggressor.”

This statement was made in response to US’ support to Israel and statements demanding action against Hamas for their misadventure.

But do you see what happened here? While the entire article asserted that the Muslims were the victims whether they were killing Israelis, facing retaliatory action or celebrating the murder of Jews, the Palestinian quoted here craftily plays victim to negate the incontrovertible fact that Islamic terrorists are indeed the aggressors.

While these op-eds try to paint the Islamic terrorists as “Gandhis with guns”, they gloss over the fact that Gaza has been officially ruled by Hamas since 2017. They gloss over the fact that it is not just Hamas – Palestinians take to the streets to celebrate atrocities against Jews on a regular basis. They gloss over the fact that they may attempt to differentiate between Hamas and civilian Palestinians, but even the civilian Palestinians don’t differentiate between the state of Israel and average, civilian Jews because in the Hamas onslaught, celebrated by Palestinians and Muslims across the globe, those killed were average Jews, average Israelis – women, children, elderly.

When we look at the incidents in Israel, this is what the apologists want the world to believe. Interestingly, there is an uncanny parallel to how the world arm twists Hindus every time they come under the attack of Islamists.

1. When Muslims kill non-Muslims, it is because the Muslims are the oppressed victims and the unbridled violence is the language of the oppressed.
2. Since the Muslims are the oppressed, they have a right to indulge in violence against non-Muslims and should not be blamed for it.
3. Once they indulge in violence, there should be no ill-will towards the Muslims because that would be Islamophobic.
4. Muslims, even though they celebrate the violence against non-Muslims, are not the same as those who committed the violence.
5. The non-Muslims against whom the violence has been perpetrated are the actual aggressors because they did something to anger and hurt the Muslims – anger and hurt which is justified, and therefore, the violence is the legitimate act of the victims (the Muslims – not the ones being raped and murdered).
6. Any cognisance of the fact that their religious doctrine ordains them to kill the non-Muslims is immediately and automatically Islamophobic.
7. After the Muslims kill and rape the non-Muslims and other celebrate that torture, any act of self defence or retaliation is oppressive and genocidal.

Parallels: The narrative being crafted against Israel and the continued demonisation of Hindus

The parallels of the narrative being crafted post-Hamas violence in Israel and the narrative which is crafted every single time Hindus come under the assault of Islamists have several parallels and lessons that Hindus can draw. While Hamas burnt alive Jewish victims in Israel, Dilbar Negi’s hands and legs were chopped off and he was burnt alive by Islamists in India just 3 years ago. The narrative has been eerily constant regardless of established facts – whether we discuss the partition horrors against Hindus or the current aggressions against Hindus.

In this regard, it would bode well to remember the case of Mahashay Rajpal, who published Rangeela Rasool and was ultimately assassinated for it. We mostly hear that Mahashay Rajpal was assassinated for publishing a satirical work on Prophet Muhammad called Rangeela Rasool, but we seldom hear why he chose to publish the book. In 1923, Muslims published two particularly offensive books to Hindus. “Krishna teri geeta jalani padegi” used derogatory and vulgar language against Shri Krishna and other Hindu deities and “Uniseevi sadi ka maharshi” which contained derogatory remarks on Arya Samaj founder Swami Dayanand Saraswati (incidentally written by an Ahmadi).

In response to this provocation by Islamists, Pandit Chamupati Lal, a close friend of Mahashay Rajpal, wrote a short biography of the Islamic Prophet, Mohammed. “Rangeela Rasool” was a short pamphlet which satirised the life of the Prophet of Islam. Pandit Chamupati made Mahashay Rajpal promise that he would never reveal the name of the author – he knew the consequences of it. Anonymously published under the name “doodh ka doodh aur panee ka panee”, the book enraged Muslims. 

Staying true to the values of one-way brotherhood, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi wrote in his pamphlet “Young India”, condemning Rangeela Rasool. While Gandhi ignored the provocation by Muslims, by the end of June 1924, the colonial government banned the book. The Muslim community, partly emboldened by MK Gandhi’s endorsement of their hurt sentiments and whitewashing of the provocation against Hindus, filed multiple cases against the book under 153A. In May 1927, Mahashay Rajpal, who published the book, was acquitted of all charges with the court observing that commentary based on facts on historical figures, including the prophet of Islam, cannot be said to promote enmity between groups. As soon as the verdict was delivered, Muslim mobs went into a frenzy. They rioted and demanded the head of Mahashay Rajpal. They were chants about how the murder of Rajpal was acceptable because, under Sharia, the punishment for blasphemy is death.

On April 6th, 1929 a 19-year-old carpenter named Ilm ud din stabbed Mahashay Rajpal on his chest eight times while he was seated in the outer verandah of his shop. Though he was offered to give up the name of the author, Pandit Chamupati Lal, during the court proceedings, he refused and did not yield. He paid the price for it. He paid the price for publishing that book despite the court acquitting him and the Muslims getting a special law to protect their fragile feelings. 

Before Mahashay Rajpal was murdered brutally, the Muslims got their way and got 295A passed by the British, which aimed to protect their ever-outraged feelings.

In this case too, it was the Islamists who mounted the initial onslaught by publishing books insulting Hindus. It was the Hindus who published one book in return. The response to that was the Muslims going on a rampage, rioting, committing violence and beheading Mahashay Rajpal. Through it all, it was the Hindus who were condemned by MK Gandhi while the Muslims, who indulged in violence, became the eternal victims getting a law to protect their feelings. Any conversation around this subject, till date, conveniently glosses over the Muslims publishing the two books first and their rampant violence later – what is remembered is that Hindus published a book that hurt Muslims and that Hindus are the community that must be blamed for the murder of Mahashay Rajpal because the Muslim hurt was justified.

Not too long after India was torn apart by those who were convinced that the Muslim community could be placated. Before the Rangeela Rasool controversy, Hindus saw the Khilafat movement, and the support it got from Congress and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and after that, Hindus saw the rise of a Muslim leader like Mohammad Ali Jinnah, leading India’s partition.

16th August 1946 was the day when the call to massacre Hindus of Bengal was given by Muslim League founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Bengal, the only province in India under Muslim League rule at that time, was apparently chosen by the Muslim League leadership as the suitable place to unleash terror on Hindus in the name of “Direct Action”.

In 1946, the massacre of Hindus in Bengal was rather intricately planned. Jinnah is recalled having said that he would either have India divided or India burnt and that he had given up on Constitutional methods to demand the creation of Pakistan. Jinnah had chosen the 16th of August as Direction Action Day because it was the 18th day of Ramzan, the day when the Battle of Badr was fought and won – a war fought by Prophet Muhammad himself, against the Kaffirs, and is considered to be won by Allah’s divine intervention by Muslims. The battle led to the violent occupation of Mecca. 

On the 16th of August, Calcutta was littered with posters lionising Jinnah and reminding Muslims that they had to follow the footsteps of the Prophet. It is reported that Syed Muhammad Usman, mayor of Calcutta, had issued a widely circulated leaflet that said: Kafer! Toder dhongsher aar deri nei! Sarbik hotyakando ghotbei! (Infidels! Your end is not far away! You will be massacred!). The aim was to make Bengal ‘land of the pure’ and rid it of the Kaffirs (Hindus). The aim was to wage another Battle of Badr, in which the Muslims would conquer the heathens. 

What followed on the 16th right after the Jumma Namaz is Muslims going on a rampage, beheading Hindus, chopping their limbs off and raping Hindu women. Several women were taken as sex slaves by those who were fighting with the religious fervour of the Battle of Badr. In the Kesoram Cotton Mills at Lichubagan in the Muslim-dominated Metiabruz area, Muslim mobs entered and beheaded over 600 labourers. The Hindus, neutered and asked by Gandhi to die with a smile on their face hardly fought back. There was a mass exodus from Bengal that marked millions fleeing because the massacre seemed too brutal to fight against.

When Gopal Patha rose to defend the Hindus, it was MK Gandhi who asked him to lay down his weapons. The retaliatory, self-defence action by the Hindus were deemed the original onslaught and the openly religious violence against the Hindus were pushed under the rug to ensure that the Muslims continued to be the universal and eternal victims.

Despite the historical atrocities committed by Muslims against Hindus, today, the Media goes no overdrive trying to push the narrative that there is an impending genocide against Muslims that the world is waiting to witness in India. Reams are written on how Hindus harbour animosity against the Muslims, depriving them of their legitimate rights, lynching them, killing them and humiliating them – building up to a genocide – much like that committed supposedly by Israel against Palestine.

History and the current onslaught have been systematically whitewashed by historians, scholars, politicians and the corporate media – to an extent that the world has failed to see the realities of the Hindu population. Let us take the Nuh violence recently for example. Thousands of Muslims had descended on Hindus travelling to an area where the dominant demography was of Muslims. they were travelling there to simply worship Lord Shiva on an auspicious day for Hindus. They were pelted with stones, their cars burnt, held hostage inside the temples where the hostages included women and children and attacked with bullets, acid pouches and petrol bombs. Through it all, the narrative was that somehow, it was the Hindus who had provoked the violence because a) they dared to take out a religious procession in an area where Muslims predominantly live after ghettoizing the area and driving Hindus away and b) because of a rumour that a Hindu activist that the Muslims don’t like might be present at the procession – a lie which was spread by the Islamists themselves.

Here is how Le Monde wrote about the Nuh violence.

First, they turned one-way violence by the Islamists into “violence between Hindus and Muslims” simply because after the one-way violence, the Hindus had decided to defend themselves. Then, they blamed Hindu organisations for “genocide” and “terror” because they dared to speak about the violence and asserted that they would not accept attacks against Hindus.

See a pattern with what is happening in Israel? The Islamists unleash violence. Their violence is justified as the language of the oppressed. When Jews decide to defend themselves and retaliate, they are called the aggressors and the terrorists who unleashed violence continue to be the victims, with the real victims being blamed for unleashing hate and genocide simply because they chose to defend themselves.

After the brutal beheading of Kanhaiya Lal by two Muslims who then uploaded the beheading video on social media, holding the blood-dripping knife, global media blamed Hindus for asserting that their lives matter too.

Here is what the TIME published.

At the very onset, author Mansoor shifted the discourse from the beheading of Kanhaiya Lal to supposed ‘chilling calls for revenge’ against the ‘marginalised’ Muslim population. While trying to contextualise the murder of Kanhaiya Lal, Sanya Mansoor suggested that the poor Hindu tailor had drawn the wrath of the Islamists upon himself by supporting the ‘derogatory comments’ of ex-BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma. Meanwhile, Mansoor also tried to shield the co-religionists of the killers and praise them for their token condemnations. “Muslim politicians and Islamic preachers swiftly condemned the killing,” she asserted while conveniently ignoring their collective silence over calls of ‘Sarr tan se juda chants all over India backed by the same people.

Do you see the parallels? Here they are:

1. It was a Muslim panellist who insulted Hindus first, after which, Nupur Sharma made the comments that she did. The media only focussed on Sharma’s comments to blame Hindus and claim that the Muslims were victimised by hate.
2. After the Muslims of the world united to call for a woman’s rape and beheading, those who merely supported Nupur Sharma’s right to live were beheaded by Islamists – Kanhaiya Lal was one of them.
3. After the victimisation of Nupur Sharma and the beheading of Kanhaiya Lal by Muslims – Hindus said that our lives matter too and we will not let Hindus be victimised any further.
4. When the Hindus said that our lives matter too, the media, such as TIME, blamed Hindus for the slogan that their lives matter too – claiming that the Muslims were the real victims.
5. They gave a context to the beheading of Kanhaiya Lal by claiming that the Muslim anger was justified and therefore, it was Kanhaiya Lal who was responsible for his own fate.
6. Any retaliation in self defence by the Hindu community was also deemed aggression victimising the “already victimised” Muslim community.
7. They used the token condemnation by some Muslims, much like the NYT article on Israel-Palestine, to then blame the victims of the violence for not letting go of their own persecution thereby victimising the aggressors.

Lessons Hindus need to learn from the narrative after Hamas attack on Israel

When a Muslim gets lynched because he was a thief and primarily for such reasons, the media and the global world order are quick to call it an onslaught against Muslims by Hindus, however, when Hindus are lynched, beheaded, raped and murdered for explicitly religious reasons amidst the chants of Allahu Akbar, the Hindus have been historically blamed for the violence by the Muslims claiming that the Muslims are indulging in violence because the Hindus have somehow enraged them enough to go on a justified murderous rampage. To prove their point, they even invent crimes where they claim Muslims were beaten up amid Hindu religious slogans simply to justify crimes against Hindus amid chants of Allahu Akbar. They’re lies, screamed from the mountaintops versus our truths meekly repeated, with nobody to listen to us – that is the battle that Hindus have been fighting for millennia.

History shows that progressively, a violent minority has strengthened the legislative, judicial and societal cover it gets to assert its religious supremacy aspirations. These aspirations are often negotiated after a violent, vehement and shameless assertion of street veto. The State and leaders who are meant to protect Bharat have bent a knee to the street veto and tried their damndest to assuage the perennially offended, the often violent and the perpetually demanding lot. Their constitutional special status keeps getting reaffirmed either by politicians or the judiciary in the hopes that the ever-so-offended lot will not take to the streets and indulge in rampant violence which the state is woefully incapable of controlling simply to prove just how downtrodden and oppressed they truly are. 

The intolerant minority has often held a sword to Hindus’ neck and forced us to concede that we have oppressed the sword-wielders.

In this bargain, the global world order and the media has followed the pattern of demonising the victims of Islamic violence – the Hindus – and paint the aggressors – the Islamists – and the perpetual victims.

In the case of Israel, we see large acceptance of their persecution and acknowledgement of her right to retaliate. Even then, the narrative demonising the Jews for fighting for their survival and civilisational identity is strong enough to spark violence and protests against the victims.

Hindus have failed to do what the Jews have done spectacularly well – make the world aware of their own genocide, and their own persecution and ensure that normalisation of that hate is not only a punishable offence but one for which the society itself might ostracise you. We saw that play out after Hamas’ attack against Israel – those students from Harvard who blamed Israel for the terror attack against Jews by Islamic terrorists were forced to retract their statements because corporations started pulling away their job offers. The USA – which when it comes to India whitewashes the Islamic terrorists, was grieved and stood firmly behind Israel’s right to self-defence. The Muslim nations that wanted Israel wiped out mostly stood by mute because they knew the world stood by Israel and her right to self-preservation. As Israel flattens Palestine, there is recognition to some extent that the Jews, especially after suffering from the horrors of the Holocaust, will not stand by and get wiped out again. In India, however, partly because of the failure of Hindus themselves and the systematic whitewashing of history and news by scholars, political leaders and the corporate media, wails of persecution often go unnoticed. In fact, they don’t just go unnoticed, the narrative that we see media, Islamists and Leftists build against Israel today, is a constant against India with other players supporting Israel today joining in as well.

Hindus need to be far more worried than Israel because the nations that stand with Israel today would not stand with Hindus when the barbarians come knocking at the door – which they do almost on a regular basis – because our own leaders are a part of the narrative demonising Hindus. Take Rahul Gandhi for example and how he today shields Islamists by calling IUML secular, endorsing calls to wipe out Sanatan Dharma, seeking foreign intervention to stop the Hindus and a caste census back home to divide the persecuted.

The world will look away as Hindus get slaughtered and the narrative being crafted will blame Hindus for their own persecution and genocide, claiming that the violence unleashed by the Islamists is the “Language of the oppressed” – they are doing that today with Israel – but it would be far easier to do it with Hindus because, unlike Israel, we have traitors amongst ourselves and a world that has normalised persecution of Hindus after we failed to talk about our own plight for centuries.

Today, far more than ever, Hindus need to learn from the Jews. Bharat needs to learn from Israel. If we don’t talk about our own persecution – nobody will. If we don’t protect our honour – nobody will. If we don’t stand up to our murderers being painted as the victims – nobody will. And if today we don’t realise the threats of Islamic terror and how it comes even for those who weep for the self-proclaimed marginalised Islamists today.

The Hindus’ collective right to retain the cultural, religious and ethical integrity of the only land they have has to be held sacrosanct – legislatively, judicially and socially. This is, perhaps, the one lesson that Israel can teach us – that history is screaming out, waiting for Hindus to hear.