Whatsup in Gaza? Check out this illuminating WhatsApp exchange below.
By Mark Reichenberg
[Many Israelis over the last two years, especially intensifying in recent months, have been inundated with WhatsApp’s, emails and calls from friends, family and former colleagues abroad relaying that they are “horrified”, “disturbed”, “astonished” or “in disbelief” of what they are reading or seeing in their news regarding what Israel is doing in Gaza. It has become a daily ritual in the global media for Israelis – who are defending themselves in an existential war against a terrorist enclave holding their hostages – to see themselves maligned and their soldiers portrayed as arch villains.
For this reason, Lay of the Land chose to publish a WhatsApp exchange between an Israeli and a Londoner that, when written, was unintended for publication, however it is being published to display a microcosm encapsulating a daily common experience.
David E. Kaplan Editor, Lay of the land]
Living in Kfar Saba in central Israel, I received a message on WhatsApp today (21 August, 2025) from a friend and former colleague (ex-UK presently living in Belgium), that I had served with on a public company board, and we have subsequently remained in friendly contact. Ever since the outbreak of the war, he has demonstrated caring towards our family and son in the IDF reserves, showing great concern for not only us, but Israel as well, yet his message below says so much….
“Hi Mark
I hope you are all okay.
Enough is enough and I don’t understand why this war continues. Help me understand as I am losing sympathy. Why keep killing children.
Sorry for my rant but I just needed to say something and get a view from an Israel citizen.”
I could not be angry with him for the message, because it is this writer’s belief that an intelligent, moderate and demonstrably morally good man has been overwhelmed by the flood of social media, fake news, an antisemitic UN and Jew hating UN Secretary-General, along with morally bankrupt Western governments and leaders, especially of the despicable ilk of Starmer, Macron and Albanese – all of whom, like most the world, have or are succumbing to the Hamas propaganda machine – and God knows that Hamas is beating Israel hands down at that game.
So, instead of berating him, as he is a good man and I believe genuinely frustrated, and he has probably been bashed in his social circles for any kind of support he has shown for Israel, I chose to outline some facts for him, all publicly known worldwide, but glossed over and conveniently “forgotten” by all those mentioned above, and so I responded thus:
“Killing what children? Or are you also succumbing to the Hamas propaganda machine with the false images and facts.
You are right, enough is enough but let’s put it in perspective:
- Hamas attacked on October 7, 2023, brutally murdering and raping innocent civilians in their homes and beds.
- Hamas brutally murdered and beheaded babies in front of their parents at the same time.
- Hamas entered a music festival and mowed down young, unarmed Israelis who were attending the festival.
- Hamas filmed and live streamed their actions on Facebook and YouTube including the burning and murder of babies.
- Hamas took hundreds of innocent hostages into their tunnels, murdering and raping many of them.
- Hamas then launched thousands of rockets on Israel aimed at CIVILIAN areas and cities, not military bases.
Had this happened in any other country, the country that attacked would have been obliterated within 48 hours or less.
Now let’s look at some facts – well known and admitted by Hamas.
- Hamas use the civilians and children as human shields (war crime).
- Hamas fires rockets into civilian areas aimed at civilians (war crime).
- Hamas rapes, murders and starves the hostages (war crime).
- Hamas denied access to the hostages by the Red Cross (war crime).
- Hamas fires its rockets; stores its weapons and runs military bases from schools and hospitals (war crime).
- I could go on and on….
Israel before bombing, instituted and still institutes civilian warnings and the knock-knock system so that civilians can leave the areas. As has been seen in the press, Hamas does not let them leave and shoots their own civilians who try.
Now let’s look at humanitarian aid. Which country in the world allows humanitarian aid into the country that attacks it to feed the attackers and their population? There is NO starvation in Gaza, thousands of truckloads of food go into Gaza and are hijacked by Hamas. Yet images prevail in the press of full Gazan markets, overflowing with everything and fresh food beautifully presented. It has been proven time and time again that the images of starvation are false and from other countries in many cases.
The war could have ended on day 2, all that had to be done was that Hamas returned all the hostages, and it would have been done. Instead, they held them, murdered most INCLUDING STRANGLING AND MURDERING TWO BABIES THEY TOOK AS HOSTAGES IN FRONT OF THEIR MOTHER IN THEIR TUNNELS and on a hostage exchange barbarically substituted the mothers remains with some dead Palestinian woman’s remains.
And all this under full support of UNWRA and the United Nations who condemn Israel at every move and refuse to condemn Hamas.
The UN and most of Europe has devolved to 1939, praising the destruction of the Jewish people – and why? Because Israel is a successful nation (you can only be messaging now because of Israeli innovation). Because the Jews and Israel refuse to roll over and be slaughtered again like in the Holocaust?
And still Hamas refuses to hand over the hostages, because without holding the hostages they no longer have a reason to exist.
And don’t cry about “innocent Palestinians “. There is no such thing. They grow up being taught that to murder a Jew is a blessing; they support Hamas. If there were innocent Palestinians, they would have handed the hostages back or told the IDF where they were.
You sadly have fallen foul of the totally one-sided UN and EU.
If you want to educate yourself on this, and this not coming from an Israeli, I suggest you look up Douglas Murray on YouTube and start watching his speeches and interviews from October 7 onward. He is an Englishman in the UK in politics, not Jewish but extremely rational.
There are no children being murdered, get that propaganda out your head now.
I always was proud of how rational you are and how you look at the whole picture – I think you should do that now….”
Our discussions continue, and he has certainly stated his support for the war to end and the view that Netanyahu must go, stating “All I would like to see is the war ended, no more war crimes” and continuing with “I want Hamas gone… I hope your family are safe as I am sure they have been called to arms and fight.”
We remain friends and will continue to talk and hopefully his view will once again affirm his obvious support of Israel.
About the writer:
Mark Reichenberg is a Chartered Accountant (South Africa) (CA. SA.) with over 30 years of international financial leadership, currently focused on taking Israeli and non-UK based companies to IPO and admission on the London Stock Exchange. Having managed multimillion-dollar listings, Mark established London AIM Advisory Services to guide Israeli companies through the full London IPO lifecycle — from investor introductions to funds raised and post-listing governance.
Mark is married with two adult children and lives in Kfar Saba, Israel.
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).
