The war in Gaza- Killing is easy; peace is hard
Israel once held the moral high ground in the aftermath of October 7; it has long since ceded that position in its bloodlust and desire to destroy Hamas
I was as horrified as any other decent human being over the October 7 massacre. It was a senseless slaughter that served no purpose and advanced no agenda…unless you consider the butcherin of innocent civilians to be a valid political statement.
I do not. And I don’t think I’m alone in that sentiment.
In the aftermath of October 7, I understood the inevitability of an Israeli response and that it would be swift, angry, and resolute. What I didn’t count on was the brutality- nay, the savagery- with which the Israeli military has decimated virtually every habitable square inch of the Gaza Strip, the most densely populated (and poverty-stricken) real estate on Earth.
While I’m primarily a pacifist, I knew that Israel and its people demanded the right to respond to the senseless tragedy that had been visited upon them. I couldn’t have imagined that five-plus months later, that response would be ongoing and that more than 30,000 Palestinians would be dead. Included in that number are hundreds, perhaps thousands of children, something Israel can under no conceivable circumstance justify or rationalize.
In the immediate aftermath of October 7, there was no question whatsoever that Israel occupied the moral high ground. What stuns me is the speed and the cynical manner in which they ceded ownership of it. They could have focused on a response that was proportional, focused on Hamas, and careful to avoid civilian casualties.
Israel did none of those things.
Of course, given as densely populated as Gaza is and the way that Hamas infiltrates itself into the civilian population- occupying schools, hospitals, etc.- expecting perfection from Israel was not reasonable. That said, it doesn’t appear the Jewish state even made the slightest effort to avoid civilian casualties. They went after Hamas, and if civilians happened to be in the way…well, war is Hell, right? Collateral damage and all that….
I’m strongly pro-Israel. I’ve long believed in the Jewish state’s right to exist and defend itself when threatened. Since its inception, Israel has isolated on the international stage, surrounded by Arab countries committed to driving the Jews into the sea, and the United Nations, historically skewed against Israel’s interests. If not for the United States, Israel would be almost completely isolated and alone.
Even so, I can’t ignore what Israel has become since October 7. Nor can I ignore what Israel’s military has done to Gaza- both to its people and its infrastructure. What’s happening there can only fairly and accurately be described with one word- genocide.
As much as I hate to use an emotionally-laden word like genocide, with more than 30,000 dead Palestinians, including large numbers of civilians and children, what other word fits?
I may be pro-Israel, but I’m also pro-humanity and pro-peace. I’m not about to hop onto the side of those who are stridently demanding a ceasefire now, because I think too many of those folks blame Israel and wish to demonize the Jewish state while forgetting what set off this tragedy in the first place.
Israel didn’t start this fight, but they are aiming to finish it. The problem is that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to obliterate Hamas, which, while a laudable goal, also means obliterating Gaza. And even then there’s no guarantee that Hamas will have been destroyed to its roots.
Regardless, there needs to be a ceasefire. If Israel must stop the shooting unilaterally, so be it. That doesn’t mean they have to give up ground for now. Just stop shooting and give the people of Gaza a chance to breathe.
Ultimately, there are many Hamas leaders and fighters that need to be captured and tried for war crimes. But so does Prime Minister Netanyahu for having the blood of thousands of civilians on his hands as well as the destruction of so much of Gaza’s infrastructure.
Netanyahu did not need to conduct a war that obliterated 30,000 Palestinians, most of them innocent civilians. That he chose to speaks to his utter indifference for the lives of those who, for the most part, posed no threat to Israel.
It may well be years before Gaza is operating at anything close to normal…and it’s always been desperately poor under the best of circumstances. The war in Gaza has taken people, many of whom were on the edge of abject poverty to begin with, and plunged them into something I’m not even sure has a word to describe it. Combine that with widespread death and destruction, and the suffering and sorrow has to be unlike anything anyone in this country has seen before.
And we should all be eternally grateful for that. Hug your kids tonight; many Palestinian parents no longer have that luxury available to them.
Yes, Israel had a right to hit back at Hamas. It’s done that. What it’s doing now is chasing down Hamas at the unconscionable and unjustifiable cost of innocent civilians, particularly children. An entire generation of Palestinian children are facing the prospect of growing up without parents and perhaps without grandparents. Who will raise them? Who will they go to for advice and comfort? Who will celebrate their accomplishments or dry their tears?
Israel now risks a new generation of Palestinians taking the place of the Hamas fighters they’ve killed. Ultimately, Israeli soldiers may find themselves facing fighters radicalized by actions taken by other Israelis in the wake of October 7.
No one should blame Israel for wanting to hit back and remove a horrible cancer that struck out so randomly and indiscriminately, killing anyone that happened into its path. No rational person could justify not trying to eliminate that, especially when it lives just over the border and poses a deadly threat every day.
Israel did hit back, and for a while it still held the moral high ground. But then Prime Minister Netanyahu decided Hamas must be eliminated no matter the cost. It’s that “no matter the cost” that has forced the Jewish state from its position atop the moral high ground. Not that Hamas or the Palestinians hold it. Far from it. In this war there’s no longer any high ground, moral or otherwise. Both sides have blood on their hands.
Everyone, that is, save for the innocent civilians caught in the crossfire with nowhere to go. Israel told them Rafah would be a safe zone, and then shortly after began hitting Rafah with missiles. Israel’s now contemplating invading Rafah, a city on the Egyptian border where more than two million Gazan refugees have fled to and now have nowhere else to go.
It’s time for the US to step in and declare “ENOUGH.” We should do this, if for no other reason than many of the weapons systems employed by Israel are made in America. Israel is by far the biggest recipient of US foreign and military aid. It’s time we used that leverage to “convince” Israel to stop the carnage.
Israel, in the persona of Benjamin Netanyahu, has lost its moral center. Somehow, some way, a country needs to step in and put a stop to the genocide that continues daily. If America won’t do it, then who?
Once Israel stops shooting, then the work can begin to find those Hamas fighters who can be tried for war crimes. And the work needs to begin to put Gaza back together. Gaza will need everything rebuilt- hospitals, schools, water and sewage treatment plants, roads, bridges- the list is at this point virtually endless. But the people of Gaza need to understand that the world isn’t just about killing them; they need to understand that we can also lend a helping and caring hand when circumstances call for it.
And if the current circumstances in Gaza don’t scream for compassion and caring, I don’t know what would.
I’ll end this with a quote from the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who during the signing of a historic framework for peace with PLO chairman Yasser Arafat said,
“We who have fought against you, the Palestinians, we say to you today in a loud and a clear voice: Enough of blood and tears. Enough!”
Indeed. Enough of blood and tears.
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