These days, what with the Hamas-Israel War happening, I find myself between a rock and a hard place. I want to show compassion for the suffering that Arabs in Israel have endured, but I also want to support the Jewish state. On the one hand, HAMAS, the terrorist group, committed a heinous act of war against Israeli citizens this past 7 October. One thousand four hundred unarmed Israeli citizens, men, women and children were murdered wholesale. Children were decapitated. Women and girls were raped. Over two hundred were taken hostage and spirited away to Gaza. There, we presume, they fact torture and rape.
Israel responded using their far superior air and military forces. They began with air strikes against Gaza, quite possibly the most densely populated place on our planet. Collateral damage is an obvious result. Eight thousand five hundred twenty five “Palestinians” have died. We can safely assume that at least half of this number were children. This is true even though the IDF is very surgical with it’s operations, and they go to great lengths to try to avoid killing children or other civilians. The IDF routinely makes phone calls to civilians in the war zone, and air drops fliers warning them to take cover or to evacuate.
The difference between the two warring parties is that Israel bends over backwards to save civilians, and HAMAS targets them, and even uses women and children as human shields. They also set up their strike basses in schools, Mosques and hospitals.
In other words, HAMAS does not play fair. Israel does. Israel always has.
I’m a dad. I grieve every time a child is hurt. Children should not be caught in the cross fires of any military conflict. They deserve (no matter who their parents are) to live out their childhood in peace. For that matter, we all deserve to live out our lives in peace.
So I find myself between the rock and the hard place.
On the one hand, I sympathize with Arab children and their parents, the victims of Israel’s defense, as well as the Jewish victims of HAMAS. Both sides deserve our compassion.
On the other hand I don’t honestly know what else Israel can do. This is a grim situation which will not get better with the passage of time.
The one thing I do know is that heinous lies have been told and spread about Israel. Lies like Israel has been committing genocide against the Arabs for the past seventy five years. That Israel is engaged in ethnic cleansing. That Israel is an Apartheid state. That Israel stole the land from the Arabs. That Zionism is a colonialist endeavor. I have addressed these elsewhere on this blog, so i won’t use up ink to do so again. But this is all propaganda. Lies told to elicit an emotional response. In some cases the actual definition of words has been changed or flipped on their ear in order to bludgeon the Jewish state with words.
Israel’s greatest sin? The possession of superior fire power. Because of this, in the end Israel will be triumphant and Palestine will be left in the dustbin. This is a shame, because there is no logical reason why the two sides cannot live side by side as neighbors and friends. The fact is that Jewish and Arabic people would prefer this.
There are of course radicals and zealots on both sides, both spewing their propaganda. “War is Peace.” ‘Love is Hate.” “Lies are the Truth.”
I wish both sides would just shut the fuck up.
For more of my insights regarding Israel and “Palestine,” click HERE.
