This is my sincere and unfiltered perspective as a Muslim in the Middle East: No other people have suffered so tragically from mass atrocities, the slaughter of women and children, and the collective loss of both life and dignity throughout world history.

The first instance of this great oppression occurred when Pharaoh committed genocide against every male child of the Israelites, justifying his actions under the pretext of protecting his rule and preventing the birth of the Prophet Moses. The second tragedy, however, has unfolded in the name of this very people—this time carried out by Netanyahu’s extremist faction—through genocide and the massacre of women and children in Gaza, using justifications eerily similar to those of Pharaoh.

If Pharaoh’s rationale for slaughtering the Children of Israel during the time of Moses was unjust, then the reasoning behind Netanyahu and Ben Gvir’s actions—seeking to maintain their rule over Israel through the killing of innocent women and children in Gaza—is equally indefensible. Just as history might have taken a different course had Pharaoh recognized the rights of the Israelite nation, so too could the cycle of mass killings have been prevented if justice and the rights of all peoples were upheld.

The key distinction between these two historical periods lies in one crucial aspect: Some secular individuals may question the historical authenticity of Pharaoh’s crimes. However, in the case of the mass killings in Gaza, the images and footage captured by cameras and mobile phones leave no room for denial or concealment.

Thus, the path to establishing and sustaining peace in the world lies solely in upholding justice and ensuring the rights of all nations and peoples. The true lesson of these events is that we must not allow, as in Pharaoh’s ruthless massacres, a group driven by the pursuit of power within their own people to use such ambitions as a pretext for committing mass atrocities against other nations and communities.

From the depths of our hearts, we must all sincerely pray for a better world—one in which the righteous among these people once again become the true decision-makers of their own history and the future of their children.

In the end, only one important question remains for the scholars and true followers of the Jewish faith: Which of the two has inflicted a more fundamental and devastating blow to the image of this pure religion in the eyes of the world—the ancient Pharaoh with his massacre of the people of Moses, or Netanyahu with the mass killing of women and children in Gaza?
Which one, truly?