Remember the lies concocted as a kid? Tales of how the dog ate our homework, a mysterious flat tire caused us to miss curfew, or why it is someone else’s fault that little Suzy is crying with a cracked lip or a bloody nose! We’ve all heard them…and, if we’re honest, I bet we have all told a few, then wondered how in the world our parents knew differently! Certainly those “accidents” were not our fault!

Let’s get personal! How in the world did my parents know those small 6-year-old handprints of mud wiped on the side of the house were MY hands? After all, there were 3 of us playing in the mud that day! Forget the fact the handprints were “just my size,” or that MY hands were the only clean ones raised when Dad came around the corner (having already observed the tomfoolery) commanding, “Everybody’s hands up!” I have no idea why he didn’t believe me when I told him it must have been my friend from down the block (who wasn’t even there)!

We laugh, but let’s put it into a different context: that of Hamas’ narrative of what happened…and why…on October 7. When I read the account, suddenly my own stupid rationalizations as a child don’t seem as crazy! I bet you didn’t know:

• The attack was on religious and moral grounds.
• The terrorist took great care not to harm women, children and the elderly.
• Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades targeted only soldiers and those who carried weapons.
• Though they deny kidnapping hostages, they “dealt in a positive and kind manner with them” and “sought from the earliest days of the aggression to release them.”
• It was the “rapid collapse of the Israeli security and military system” that caused chaos at the border.
• Abundant evidence on their GoPro cameras of extreme violence is “nothing but complete lies and fabrications.”
• Even during the Holocaust, Arab/Islamist nations were “a safe haven to Jews…”
• (Read it for yourself here, or a summary of it here, from which I quoted some info above.)

Does it get any more absurd than that? We’ve seen the videos, we’ve heard hundreds of eye-witness accounts that all corroborate the atrocities of the day, we watched hostages being released, and we’ve heard direct threats from Hamas leadership that they would do October 7 over again-and-again-and-again.

But here is the kicker: there are some who believe Hamas’ narrative. University professors, government leaders and “human rights organizations,” all eaten up with evil, will take this narrative and spread it as truth. Just like Nazis spread propaganda during the Holocaust. There are already “deniers,” and there are already governments, including the United State of America, who are putting tremendous pressure on Israel to stop being mean to the poor terrorist living in Gaza.

Ok…so I DID wipe my muddy hands on the side of the house, and it cost me the rest of the day in the house while my friends played outside. Hamas DID brutally target and attack Jewish citizens just for being Jewish. My father confirmed my crime in seconds, and the evidence for the savagery committed by Hamas has more evidence and their actions were infinitely more profound.

When I lied, my father immediately called me out. When are the adults in the room going to stand up and say, “NO, Hamas! You are lying! You planned it, you carried it out, you celebrated it and you are now denying it! We’re not putting up with it one more second!”

And, in this case, Hamas’ “friend down the street” (Iran) is just as complicit in the act as Hamas is. Time for consequences to be meted out. America needs to side with perhaps her most loyal ally in the world (Israel), while cutting off every bit of aid, financial dealings and favor with Hamas and Iran. No ceasefire (unless/until every hostage is returned), no “2-state solution” and no nuclear deal. Period!

Here’s betting that our weak American administration proves once again NOT to be the adult in the room.