CNN Demands Sympathy for Fascist Murderers

CW: Genocide

In August of 1941, Heinrich Himmler, leader of the Nazi SS, traveled to Minsk. While there, he ordered the commander of Einsatzgruppen B to execute 100 prisoners, who were then lined up in front of an open grave and shot. Some victims, who had survived the first wave of bullets, writhed ontop of the fresh corpses in the grave before being shot again.

While Himmler was observing the executions, one of the victim's brains splattered him, leading him to turn white and heave out of disgust. Himmler had, reportedly, never seen a dead body before this moment. In a speech shortly after the massacre, he proclaimed sympathy for the perpetrators of the mass murder. Himmler acknowledged that this task was, in his view, grim and difficult, but necessary.

Though it may be apocryphal, this instance of Himmler and the Nazis being deeply affected by exterminating those they viewed as "subhuman" was a stepping stone to the gas chambers. Himmler later implemented Operation Reinhard the same year, establishing three death camps in Poland. Soon, the first camp to test extermination by gas was Chelmno. Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau followed afterwards.

In October of 1943, Himmler reassured his SS generals that their mass extermination was justified, no matter how horrific. "Most of you will know what it means when 100 corpses lie side by side, or 500 or 1,000..." Himmler said. "...to have seen this through and - with the exception of human weakness - to have remained decent, has made us hard and is a page of glory never mentioned and never to be mentioned."

The Nazi genocidal regime saw their extermination of "subhumans", primarily Jewish people, as a difficult but unavoidable component of their fascist project. The mental stress of the Nazi war criminals executing people en masse is an example of Perpetration-Induced Traumatic Stress (PITS). This traumatic stress, in particular, affects those who commit atrocities, rather than those who are victimized by it.

CNN felt the need to evoke sympathy for Israeli soldiers suffering from PITS.

In an article that includes "trauma and suicide" in the headline, CNN published a feature-long story highlighting the experiences of Israeli soldiers committing horrific atrocities.

It begins with the tale of an Israeli soldier who died by suicide and the lamentations of his family. "He got out of Gaza, but Gaza did not get out of him," his mother said. The first mention of the ongoing genocide perpetrated by Israel against Palestinians frames the killings as a result of "Israel's war in Gaza." It mentions most of the dead "are women and children," but not that Israel was the one that killed them. Immediately after, CNN recounts that "Hamas killed 1,200 people."

It's standard knowledge at this point that 42,000 is a complete underestimate of the death toll in Gaza. Calculations from July (with more than two months of killings since) estimate closer to 200,000 dead. Similarly, Israel also killed Israelis on Oct.7, meaning the 1,200 killed by Hamas is, at best, an inaccurate report.

These errors and framing decisions are already enough to discount the piece on journalistic grounds, but the entire point of its publication is to evoke sympathy for fascist murderers.

This is not an exaggeration. Nadeen Ebrahim and Mike Schwartz, the two journalists behind the piece, make it clear the kind of crimes the Israeli military is committing in Gaza. Guy Zaken, a friend of the soldier who died by suicide, is quoted as saying that he and other soldiers had "run over terrorists, dead and alive, in the hundreds" with a bulldozer.

It's incredibly unlikely that the hundreds that Zaken ran over were "terrorists." Israel has a history of murdering people by crushing them with bulldozers. Next, even if we take this at face value, for what reason would the method of execution for enemy combatants be a bulldozer crushing them to death? This fact is followed by an anecdote about how it's hard for Zaken to eat meat now. Crucially, following this, he also said "There is no such thing as citizens," in referring to Palestinians.

Mizrahi had repeatedly posted videos and photos of himself bulldozing homes in Gaza before his suicide. CNN's concern, however, is of his sister who is hurt by people calling him a murderer and "replying with unpleasant emojis" on social media posts.

"I know he had a good heart," she said of the man in the army committing genocide.

There is constant lip service paid to the suffering of Palestinians in the piece, but it's never attributed to intentional cruelty. In one instance they report the Israeli military maintains they are limiting civilian casualties, even though civilians "have been repeatedly killed in large numbers." Passive voice is used to describe those killed by Israel, while active voice to describe those killed by Hamas. Yes, even when a portion of those were also killed by Israel.

One of the ways Israeli soldiers struggling with PITS are soothed, we're told, is by the psychologist reminding them about October 7. Though, most likely, they're not informed of the Israeli military killing their own citizens.

Israeli military mental stress was also reported by Ha-Mokom, an Israeli Hebrew language magazine, shortly before the CNN story was published. The Cradle, additionally, published a story primarily drawing from this magazine. Though this article is also in service of providing sympathy for Israeli soldiers, it includes a paragraph about how they've been "demolishing residential buildings with explosives, sniping children, shelling hospitals and schools housing displaced people, and destroying Gaza's water and electrical infrastructure." At the very least, The Cradle included the realities of this extermination. But CNN has far more reach than The Cradle ever will.

As we've seen over the past year, Israel has committed crimes against humanity in Gaza and the West Bank. Anyone with an understanding of how genocide works knows that the people perpetrating extermination are not, by and large, unfeeling psychopaths. While, yes, the mere act of extermination draws those who would revel in its execution, a large proportion of these perpetrators suffer from the same mental affliction of anyone who has experienced traumatic events. CNN does not have an understanding of how genocide works. In lacking this understanding, they push the line that the mental health of those committing genocide is of the utmost concern.

This is genocide apologia. By highlighting Israeli murderers mental health, while including their belief that there are no innocent Palestinians, they are effectively arguing for the well-being of those committing genocide.

It's no different than Himmler proclaiming the Nazi mission, while harrowing and dreadful to enact, was justified every step of the way. An important difference, however, is that Himmler described their genocide as "never mentioned and never to be mentioned." CNN, instead, chooses to actively and publicly evoke sympathy for the perpetrators of the Palestinian genocide.