In an op-ed for the New York Daily News, B’nai B’rith International CEO Dan Mariaschin writes about the vile treachery of Hamas leaders whose own lives (and whose relatives’ lives) were previously saved by Israeli doctors, now directing the terrorist massacre of Israeli civilians.

Read the op-ed in the New York Daily News.

Or read the PDF version.

Men whose own lives, and whose relatives’ lives, were saved by Israeli doctors directed the terrorist massacre of Israeli civilians in the Hamas attack on Israel. To some, this might seem unfathomable. But it shouldn’t have been unexpected. This is zealous hatred, in its worst form.

Most of us are still numbed by the wanton killings and abductions in Israel over Shabbat and Shemini Atzeret. Hamas’ barbaric behavior — the brutal taking of life — including babies, Holocaust survivors and the disabled elderly — and the humiliation of hostages, the defilement of corpses, the celebratory parades in Gaza City with candy and sweets being offered to the murderers themselves, is beyond description — unless of course you make the analogy to Nazis who did the same thing, every day over the course of six years.

Think of this: More than 200 revelers in an orchard were shot in cold blood. Shootings in the forest? It was reminiscent of my mother’s family in Lithuania being shot in Pivonija Forest by Nazis and their local collaborators in 1941.

This stands in stark contrast to how Israel has treated its staunchest enemies, Hamas terrorists, who are no different than ISIS and Al Qaeda in their ruthlessness and desire to target and kill innocents.

Top leaders of Hamas and others in their circle have benefitted in a real way from Israeli medical expertise. Yahya Sinwar, who is currently the Hamas leader in Gaza, but in 2008 was an Israeli prisoner, had a brain tumor removed by Israeli doctors at an Israeli hospital, saving his life.

Over a period of seven years, the daughter of Ismail Haniyeh (a senior Hamas leader), his mother-in-law and one-year-old granddaughter all received medical care at hospitals in Tel Aviv. His niece was treated for cancer at Ichilov Hospital. In 2014, the sister of Hamas leader Moussa abu Marzouk was also treated in Israel for cancer.

Said Hamas leader Ahmed Yusuf of medical care in Israel, its avowed enemy: “If you are on the verge of death, and your enemy is the only one to treat you, of course you will resort to him.”

Israeli medical teams treat all who need care. Over the past decades, thousands of Palestinian children have benefitted from lifesaving surgery at Israeli hospitals. Israel opened its borders to Syrian refugees reminiscent of “the Good Fence” program on the Lebanese border which welcomed civilians fleeing PLO violence in the 1980s.

Despite the life-saving medical care provided by Israel for them and their families, Sinwar and Haniyeh have rained down murder, torture, kidnappings and general terror on Israeli civilians.

Haniyeh apparently watched the murder and mayhem from a swank room at a hotel in Qatar. Sinwar may be there, or he may be in Gaza where, now 15 years removed from his brain surgery carried out by Israeli doctors, he directed, with Iran’s guidance, the terror of Oct. 7.

During each of the Gaza wars, as the pressure mounted on Israel to restrain itself, we would always say to anyone who would listen: Would any country put up with the rocket barrages on unarmed civilians, fired randomly, but hoping to hit schools and kindergartens? On Oct. 7, the same question could be asked. But with the gravity and extent of the butchery, asking Israel to hold back and wait for another such paroxysm of carnage to be inflicted on its people should simply be out of the question.

Yet, these calls have already appeared, even as the terrorists were still shooting Israelis at point blank range. Some members of Congress, officials in many foreign ministries and TV pundits have chosen the easy way: they say, “both sides are to blame, so let’s issue calls for calm,” and — in the process — we’ll just push this tragedy of immense magnitude to the side of the road. It sounds callous, but if the past is prologue, it’s sure to happen.

Cruelty is not a strong enough word to describe the killers, and Sinwar, Haniyeh and all the others who brought this down on Israel — on the Jewish people — in a matter of a few hours. They are working relentlessly to make good on the objectives of the Hamas Charter, which calls for the elimination of Israel, by directing this pogrom.

It clearly mattered little that their lives and the lives of their relatives were saved in a country that has a big heart, a country which values and respects life, even the lives of its enemies. There is a lesson in this: Don’t expect killers, driven by rabid hatred, to do the same. That lesson was learned the hard way in devastating fashion, on Shabbat and Shemini Atzeret.