Shortly after the horrific attack in Israel by the sacrilegious Hamas terrorists, I wrote an article entitled “Suffer the Little Children.” I’d like to repeat the final paragraph.

Regardless of race, color or creed, babies are the same. They’re all beautiful, cuddly, given to wailing and needy, precious beyond description. As parents, we never forget them, their idiosyncrasies, their vulnerabilities. I can remember like it was yesterday, holding Carrie and Jennifer in my arms, each cooing to me, waving their tiny arms and legs this way and that. These memories are, with an exception, happy ones (never dug changing diapers). I am therefore chagrined at the thought of Jewish and Palestinian parents who before last Saturday laughed, loved and played with their babies and children-for the last time-due to man’s inhumanity to man.

Since then, thousands of Palestinian children have died, many from 2,000-pound bombs raining down indiscriminately from the skies, bombs supplied by the United States. Others have starved to death because Israel refuses to allow enough relief trucks into Gaza-euphemistically claiming that weapons are hidden within the supplies. And recently, spokesmen have proclaimed that the Israel Defense Forces will be invading Rafah, the city where over a million Palestinians were forced to relocate to escape the destruction of Gaza City. The merchants of death march on. Meantime, the Israeli Prime Minister thumbs his nose at Biden’s call for a ceasefire-a rather hypocritical plea given the fact that we continue to supply Israel with one- ton bombs.

“Vengeance is mine saith the Lord” (Romans 12:19) Nope. Vengeance is mine saith BiBi Netanyahu. The Israeli leader only has to look in a mirror when asked the question -who was responsible for the Oct. 7 tragedy? What follows are the reasons why. Prior to the attack, BiBi siphoned millions of dollars to Hamas in an effort to play it off against the PLO (West Bank) thus causing a split which would prevent a two-state solution to the decades-old rift between Israel and Palestine. The victims of Oct. 7 were probably killed by weapons purchased with that money. Not only had the IDF witnessed Hamas practicing for an attack just across the border months before it took place but, even worse, it knew nearly a year in advance that it was coming (Ronen Bergman-NY Times-12/2/23). And given the above, there still were no security forces posted in the area.

Politically, Netanyahu was hanging by a thread at that time. Hundreds of thousands were protesting in Tel Aviv-calling for his removal for alleged corruption and for trying to create an autocracy by outlawing the one branch of government (judicial) capable of providing a check and balance of his authority. Oct. 7 played fortuitously into his hands. Wonder why the Gaza “war” is being drawn out? He’s in power as long as it lasts. No one can argue that Israel had the right to react to the attack. But given that prior military excursions into Gaza were surgically planned and successful, one can certainly question, this time, the military strategy it chose.

Sadly, children have been the innocent victims of conflicts and/or government policies over the centuries. The wars in the wake of the Protestant Reformation, Catholics and Protestants slaughtering each other over theological differences, are cases in point; the ultimate irony — both sides believed in the Prince of Peace and the Commandment — Thou Shalt Not Kill. Then there’s the Cherokee Removal (Trail of Tears) in 1838. More recently, the carpet bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam War. Unfortunately, children on both sides of today’s conflict, personifications of “too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart,” predictably will make a mockery of their respective religions by putting each other to the sword 20 years from now.

We’ve all experienced bad dreams which we simply can’t prevent from recurring. Often, the result is insomnia of some sort. Count me among the latter. My subconscious will not allow me to escape the sight of a young Palestinian mother wailing loudly as she watches the baby in her arms close its eyes for the last time.

Ray Lenarcic is a 1965 State University of New York at Fredonia graduate and is a resident of Herkimer.