Happy in their depravity

The terrible, exasperating thing about humans is how goodness and gentleness, and utter depravity and disregard for human life, can be contained within the same person, and in terrifyingly close proximity.

–Norman Mailer, The Executioner’s Song

Over 17 months, the world has witnessed a level of depravity from the Israeli Defense Force that seems impossible to surpass. Yet, with each passing month in Israel’s unfolding genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza, we are reminded that there is no limit to the depths of depravity into which they are prepared to sink.

The killing of aid workers, journalists, medical personnel, women and children by the IDF in Gaza is well documented. There is ample evidence for serious war crimes against Israel, yet they seem hell-bent on racking them up with a sense of vigor that has been compared, and rightly so, to Nazi-era war crimes in WW2. Of course, these comparisons have been labelled as antisemitic, but that desperate defense lost its propagandistic value a long time ago.

The latest Israeli atrocity involves the massacre of 15 Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), Palestinian Civil Defense and UNRWA. They were ambushed by the IDF, shot, killed and buried in a mass grave alongside their destroyed vehicles. There are even allegations that some of the men had their hands bound behind their backs before being executed.

Israel’s defense naturally relies on the frequently used yet absurd assertion that they were either Hamas “terrorists” or “human shields.” Unsurprisingly, they have yet to explain why they tried to cover up the massacre by burying the bodies.

Since October 2023, Israel has killed at least 408 aid workers in Gaza and 232 journalists, which is more than the U.S. Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the wars in Yugoslavia, and the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan combined. The civilian casualty figure is impossible to corroborate but is estimated to exceed 50 000.

That proportion of indiscriminate killing is unprecedented in modern times. Amazingly, opinion polls conducted in Israel last year indicated an appetite for the killing and destruction. However, that is waning as recent discontent and opposition to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu grows.

After Israel repeatedly violated the last brokered ceasefire deal, journalist Richard Sanders compiled a damning expose of Israeli society on YouTube, likening them to a psychopathic family. His ire extended to both Western Media and Western politicians, whose complicity became increasingly clear to the rest of the world as the genocide was live-streamed out of Gaza. Before October 2023, this same world had very little idea of the extent of the depravity inherent in Israeli society, such was the success of Zionist propaganda over 75 years since the creation of the state in 1948.

According to the recently released World Happiness Report, Israel remains among the Top 10 happiest countries. They, however, dropped three places from fifth in 2024 to eighth in 2025. Still, Israelis are apparently happier than the other 139 countries rated below them on the index. Ironically, Israel is rated as the fifth most hated country in the world behind North Korea, Russia, the United States and China. In fact, it has consistently remained the fifth most disliked country in the world for the past three years.

Why?

Israel is undoubtedly not hated because people elsewhere are somehow jealous about their happiness. The most hated countries, China, America, and Russia are relatively low on the happiness index at 68th, 24th, 66th, respectively. North Korea doesn’t appear on the happiness index, and unsurprisingly rate themselves 2nd behind China on their own index.

Israel is hated for very valid reasons, the main being its apartheid policies and inhumane treatment of the Palestinians. Their ambassadors and myriad spokespeople display their distastefulness with arrogant aplomb at every opportunity.

The question, however, remains. What are they so happy about?

Are they happy to treat other people like shit? Are they glad to steal other people’s homes and land? Are they happy to kill with impunity? Are they egotistically delighted to be so hated? Indeed, are they happy to be so depraved?