Late last week, the world witnessed the spectacle of the terrorists of Gaza parading the dead, murdered bodies of the Bibas family through the streets. And in a shocking display of the evil that permeates Gaza, so-called innocent civilians came out in numbers to cheer the murders. The coffins were paraded through the streets like trophies to cheering Gazan crowds, many of whom were children. Shiri Bibas, the murdered mother, was 32 years old when she was abducted from her home on Oct. 7, 2023. The murdered children were four years old (Ariel) and nine months old (Kfir). To the uneducated morons on college campuses and on the internet, let me repeat that. The murdered hostages were four years old and nine months old. And they were kidnapped and killed for the sole reason that they were Jewish and Israeli. According to Israeli forensic and intelligence reports, the Hamas kidnappers murdered these children in November 2023 with their bare hands by strangulating and then mutilating the bodies.

The coffins of the murdered children were locked and the murderers delivered the coffins without the means to open the coffins just to add a little more torture for the family. When the coffins of these babies were opened back in Israel, the coroner found Hamas propaganda literature littered in the coffin with the dead bodies. The coffin supposedly holding Shiri had a sign saying she was “arrested on October 7.” It turned out the coffin Hamas initially sent didn’t actually hold Shiri’s body but instead another unidentified body that didn’t belong to any of the hostages. The individuals and groups committing these acts are subhuman. As are the people supporting or justifying these vile acts of terrorism.

Videos circulating online are heart-wrenching and incredibly disturbing. It is horrifying enough to think of the terror these two children and their mother went through being kidnapped from their home with the terrorists murdering their friends and family. It is beyond comprehension to learn that the babies were murdered in cold blood by their captors by strangulation and beating. Even darker are the videos of thousands of Gazans cheering and celebrating the murder of these children. Dancing and singing about the death of Jewish babies. Handing out candy like it’s some carnival. Filming and taking selfies as the parade of a dead baby’s coffin goes by. They celebrate death and teach their children to do the same. There are scores of Gazan children lining the streets cheering the murder of other children. It is an unimaginable evil.

Back home, you would think that everyone would be horrified. But there is a deafening silence from a few folks who usually have something to say about everything. I am speaking of our representatives in Congress. Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks have said absolutely nothing. Lots of rage about the federal workforce being laid off but zip on the murder of babies. Van Hollen is a frequenter of Twitter, now X, where he can be found spouting off his indignation at all things Donald Trump. On these horrific murders and the parading of children’s coffins through the streets, not one word. Alsobrooks the same. Not a peep. Nor from Reps. Jaime Raskin, Johnny Olszewski or Kweisi Mfume. Not one single word about a murdered four-year-old. Not even a “thoughts and prayers” for the family of the murdered nine-month-old. Nothing. Nada. Silence. Even the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia called the parading of murdered children a “disgrace to Islam.”

I know every one of these lawmakers and served with them in some capacity during my time in the General Assembly. I never would have thought that I would be writing an op-ed like this. We deserve so much better. Oct. 7, 2023, saw the brutal murder, massacre, rape, torture and kidnapping of over 1,200 Israeli citizens who were doing nothing more than dancing at a festival and sleeping in their beds. Hundreds were kidnapped, including many Americans. And there was silence from too many of our representatives. Just a bunch of whataboutisms, the spreading of lies, virtue signaling and pandering to the far fringes of their political party. Absolutely pathetic.

Members of the Maryland congressional delegation bemoaned the loss of life in Israel and Gaza but somehow failed to mention that the sole reason for that loss of life was Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the terror atrocities of Oct. 7 committed by terror groups and Gazan citizens. Van Hollen and others scream for a two-state solution but refuse to answer the most basic questions, such as who would run that state, would it simply be a new state devoted to more terrorism and war, and how can Israel guarantee security for its people? They criticize Israel at every turn but offer no solutions for the return of hostages or real peace for Israel. And as hostages, both dead and alive, have been paraded through the streets of Gaza like terrorist trophies, these representatives have said nothing.

Ever since that horrifying October day, it has been a shameful disgrace to be represented in Congress by such cowards. Where is the outrage for the murdered souls of these babies? Where are the expressions of disgust as civilians line the streets cheering the cold-blooded killing of a four-year-old and nine-month-old? Where are the statements of support for a Jewish community in pain and in mourning? Where are the unequivocal condemnations of the terrorists and the citizens of Gaza who lust for nothing more than blood and the death of Jews? The answer is pretty clear as to what many of our representatives are saying and doing. Absolutely nothing. And that truly is an outrage.

Bobby Zirkin (zirkin2002@yahoo.com) is an attorney and former Democratic Maryland state senator and delegate representing Baltimore County.