There is no recent precedent for the scale of the hostage situation in the Gaza Strip. Hamas, the militant group that governs much of Gaza, abducted about 150 people during its weekend invasion of southern Israel. Most of the hostages are civilians. Hamas has threatened to execute them one by one and videotape the killings each time an Israeli airstrike hits Gazans in their homes. https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGtxdVpGftlXjlblqQpkFPXMqzr

In the New York Times, October 11, 2023, the images of hostage-taking in Israel by Hamas are heart-rending. The images are of mothers holding children, sickly elderly people, children being pushed down a path to a truck.

Noam Elyakim, a father, can be seen limping while militants march him across the border into Gaza. When attackers entered his home on Saturday, they shot him in the leg and used his wife’s phone to livestream as they abducted the family, including his daughters Dafna, 15, and Ella, 8. https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGtxdVpGftlXjlblqQpkFPXMqzr

The footage of members of the Hamas militia, shows them breaching the boundary fence with savage warrior cries, suggesting the intensity of their anger. Images of Hamas terrorists pulling an Israeli, presumed dead, from a tank and kicking the body on the ground, display their fury.

“War is hell,” said one who knew, William Tecumseh Sherman, during the Civil War.  But even war should respect innocent civilians, taking civilian captives with restraint. War should pause with a truce, not with threats to execute hostages one by one. Wars should be fought for a cause, not with vengeful vendettas of violence.

There are levels of hatred. We might hate someone who vehemently disagrees with us. We might hate for deceitful public remarks about friends or relatives. We might hate someone who harmed a relative or someone we know.  It is the festering hate that drags us down the path to personal hell. Hate that starts at the cradle and deepens as we mature. Hate that is publicly sanctioned and draws people together in fury. Hate that creates an unthinking mob.

We saw hate like this in the lynching of Black people in the South,  in mobs after 9/11, wishing revenge on all Muslims. We even have seen hate like this at furious political rallies organized by George Wallace, Adolf Hitler, Donald Trump.

The common denominator to these is the agreement to hate. A leader inspires weak-minded followers. A group forms against a perceived enemy of their race or religion.  Perhaps a grim public organizes around hatred of innocent people on trial for heinous crimes: the Central Park Five trial, satisfying a need to avenge a brutal rape and murder.

When people agree to hate, no matter the reason, a vicious power grows and deepens, unlike the fleeting hatred we may all feel from time to time. It takes a durable root in the soul, a poisonous vine, gripping others and pulling them into the circle of hate. It grows beyond the reach of reason or repentance, as long as a mob sustains it.  It may create a victim narrative, making hate seem legitimate. Hate can be institutionalized.

That is the level of hate in Hamas. It will not relent or listen to reason. It will fester by strength of the mob and the generations of grievance. Yes, there are real grievances, but they are being fed by a self-destructive conspiracy to hate.  Can we negotiate with it? Not really.  We can bargain or succumb to blackmail, but negotiate? Unlikely.

We can learn from this tragic atrocity. Individual hate is one thing, but agreement to hate is deadly. If you hate, find a way to forgive or carry the burden yourself. If you have to share, do it with regret, not fury. Do not conspire to hate. Do not suck others into your anger. Do not give it room to grow by agreement. There lies death.