These pastries were seen in a patisserie in Israel the other day by Israeli journalist, Josie Glausiusz. She described her disgust in an opinion piece in Ha’aretz, the leading newspaper in the country, after discovering them in her village of Modi’in. The icing reads in Hebrew: “Let the IDF mow them down!”

This is a clear reference to something Israeli officials said years ago, long before the current atrocities. It implied that Gaza needed periodic bombings to keep its captive population, half of which are children, in check.

Now most of Gaza has been leveled.

A similar sentiment was shared by another senior Israeli official who said: “The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger.”

Now that diet has been completely cut off. Gaza is being slowly starved to death.

As Israelis celebrated their so-called “Independence Day” with barbecues and sweets, tens of thousands of children were starving to death just a few kilometers away thanks to a merciless blockade by the Israeli government.

For over 60 days, Israel has blockaded all aid into the concentration camp that is Gaza. No food. No medicine. No fuel. An estimated 60,000 children are showing signs of malnutrition, with more than 10,000 diagnosed with severe malnutrition.

One has to wonder how any sane person could bake sugary treats that celebrate the abject misery and suffering of millions of people? Or how anyone could eat these eclairs without any sense of disgust or shame?

But then we take a step back and we see a culture that has been engineered to dehumanize an entire people. It’s how soldiers could ride bicycles of children or wear lingerie of women they had just violently displaced or murdered. It’s how they could have gender reveal parties or wedding proposals with a backdrop of bombs burning and tearing human flesh apart. It’s how they could justify carrying out a genocide.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently laid out his plans for a final solution before the entire world. The people of Gaza have a choice, be herded into squalid militarized camps before “voluntarily” leaving their homeland or die a slow and painful death. Another Likud politician, Moshe Sa’ada, echoed this on Israeli television: we are heading for a major event of vanquishment, annihilation and emigration from Gaza.”

In fact, there are hundreds of documents that show Israeli leaders and media openly planning, justifying or encouraging genocide before the International Court of Justice. But the course has been set and it appears that the global community will do nothing to stop it.

The pastries in that shop are emblematic of how deep this pathology goes. A reminder of how ordinary people can become monsters when they are driven by murderous leaders. How a culture built on colonialism. racist supremacy, paranoia and militarism can so easily strip away the humanity of those they oppress. And how an innocent treat can be turned into a thorn of sadistic cruelty.

Kenn Orphan, May 2025