What Do You See?

The thoughts and feelings that arise for you as you look at this photo of Evyatar David will tell you a lot about yourself.

They may make you want to look away. I don’t blame you.

They may provoke a reflexive response: “Yes, this is awful—but what about the (name your figure) of Palestinians killed since October 7?” You may feel compelled to “balance” your grief, to start thinking like an accountant, as if all numbers are morally equivalent—as if all integers are the same, even those that include Hamas fighters.

You may feel, as many now do, that Evyatar somehow deserves his fate—that Hamas, as the self-appointed voice of oppressed peoples everywhere, has done the world a kind of moral good.

Or perhaps you’ll retreat into the moral cowardice of abstraction: “All war is wrong. All killing is immoral.”

You may not feel anything. That’s understandable too. We all have lives—deadlines, dishes to wash, birthdays to remember. And grief, especially grief that doesn’t immediately belong to us, is hard to hold.

I can only say what this photo makes me feel.

It makes me feel like the world has gone insane.

Evyatar David is twenty-three. He had just finished his military service when, on October 7, he went to the Nova music festival—a peace festival near the Gaza border. A celebration of joy, music, and coexistence. He’s an artist, a dancer, by all accounts a gentle soul.

That’s where they took him. That’s where Hamas came storming in—on paragliders, pickup trucks, and motorcycles—and began executing young people one by one. Some were shot while hiding. Some were raped and tortured before being killed. Some were burned alive.

Evyatar was dragged into Gaza. His family had no word from him for over a year—until Hamas released a propaganda video this August, showing his emaciated form and the horror he endures. In the footage, he is forced to dig what he believes is his own grave. His parents approved the release of the clip, hoping the world would wake up to the barbarity of what is happening.

And the world?

The world has responded by… wait for it—threatening Israel.

France, England, Australia, among others, are now pressuring Israel to accept a Palestinian state in the middle of a hostage crisis, thereby rewarding Hamas before the hostages, including Evyatar, are even accounted for. What incentive, then, does Hamas have to release them?

What message does the world send when hostage-taking leads to international recognition?

And no, the Palestinian Authority is not a viable alternative. In Gaza, it has no presence. The last time it held power there, in 2007, its members were thrown from rooftops by Hamas. In the West Bank, it’s corrupt and feeble. The fantasy that the PA could replace Hamas is just that—a fantasy designed to appease Western consciences.

This is what undoes me: not just the cruelty of Hamas, but the moral collapse of the world that now strengthens Hamas, feeds it, praises it, and amplifies its lies.

Much of the world has aligned—overtly or tacitly—with actual genocidal actors. That is not hyperbole. Hamas is not a resistance movement. It is a terror regime that wouldn’t hesitate to throw you off a rooftop if you were gay. It would take your rainbow flag, your liberal ideals, your open-minded slogans—and vanish you without a trace. There are no pride marches in Gaza. There are no human rights commissions in Hamas tunnels.

Do you know what Israel has done in this war—what no other army in modern history has attempted?

• It has dropped leaflets, made phone calls, and sent text messages urging civilians to flee before airstrikes—sacrificing military advantage in an effort to preserve the lives of Gazans, while endangering the lives of its own sons and daughters—many of whom have been killed or maimed in the process.

• It has paused fighting to allow humanitarian corridors to open, and coordinated with enemy-aligned organizations to deliver aid.

• It has provided food, fuel, electricity, and clean water to Gaza—often knowing that Hamas would steal and resell it.

• It has allowed polio vaccines, incubators, and medical equipment into enemy territory—while Hamas hoards medicine and blocks civilians from evacuating.

• It created an interactive map to help civilians avoid combat zones. It operates a humanitarian hotline. It warns. It waits.

And still, Israel is portrayed as the genocidal aggressor.

Yes, mistakes have been made. Some of them grievous. But to equate those mistakes with the deliberate, gleeful atrocities of Hamas is not “balance”—it’s moral collapse.

Yes, mistakes have been made. Some of them grievous. But to equate those mistakes with the deliberate, gleeful atrocities of Hamas is not “balance”—it’s moral collapse.

Hamas hides in tunnels and behind children. It stores rockets in schools and mosques. It builds its command centers under hospitals. Then it films the aftermath, and the world shares the footage stripped of context, stripped of truth, stripped of who began this war and how.

And that’s the horror of this photo of Evyatar—not just what it shows, but what it reveals.

It shows you someone’s son, someone’s brother, someone’s friend—taken from a festival of peace, dragged into a tunnel by men who vowed to kill Jews wherever they may be.

And it reveals the people—people I’ve worked with, people I once trusted—who now offer Hamas their sympathy, their platforms, their diplomacy. It doesn’t matter if it’s explicit or not. At this point, succor is succor.

It’s as if the Earth itself is slipping off its axis. Like the gravitational laws that once governed human decency have been suspended. Like we are floating toward a place where nothing means anything—where murderers are heroes and those risking their lives to save victims are erased.

Look at this photo once more.

Then look inward.

Ask yourself what you feel. And what you believe.

Because this isn’t just about Israel. This is about whether humanity is still capable of distinguishing good from evil. Whether ethics can still survive political fashion.

Whether, when given the chance, you looked—and whether you saw what I saw.

May all the kidnaped victims return home, may all the innocents be made safe and free, and may we soon enter an era of true peace —far from a mere cessation of war.

Peter Himmelman is a Grammy and Emmy nominated performer, songwriter, film composer, visual artist and award-winning author.