Listen all! This is the truth of it. Fighting leads to killing, and killing gets to warring. And that was damn near the death of us all. Look at us now! Busted up, and everyone talking about hard rain! But we’ve learned, by the dust of them all… Bartertown learned. Now, when men get to fighting, it happens here! And it finishes here! Two men enter; one man leaves.
Dr Dealgood — “Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome”
Ten days ago.
It seems almost a lifetime with all of the horrific news we’ve seen in the intervening days since hundreds of Hamas terrorists stormed across the hard border separating the Gaza Strip and Israel under the cover of thousands of rockets fired indiscriminately into Israel and engaged in killings and atrocities the likes of which we’ve not seen in a very long time in the region.
As the dust settled from the attacks, over a thousand Israelis were dead along with many of the terrorists who invaded the kibbutzim near the border and over a hundred hostages were forcibly taken back into the Gaza Strip to serve as human shields.
Was this truly a surprise attack?
There are conflicting reports of whether there was any warning or intelligence that would have predicted this massive attack with some calling these horrific events “Israel’s 9/11”.
If those analysts are honest with themselves, they’d come to the conclusion is that the only surprise is that it took this long for Hamas to attempt a mass attack and break out of their own prison that they’ve ruled ever since Ariel Sharon withdrew all of the Israelis and the IDF from the Gaza Strip in August 2005.
The moving of all Israelis to positions in Israel behind the walls and the secured checkpoints was a deeply controversial decision at the time. I remember it well because on the few occasions I’d have to talk about geopolitical issues with friends, I was very much in the minority pointing out Ariel Sharon’s clever strategy knowing that Hamas would effectively take over what passes for a local “government” in Gaza once they settled their scores with Fatah (the successor to Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organisation) and expelled them from Gaza to the West Bank.
Over the next few years, the checkpoints were systematically closed and locked down with the exception of the Erez crossing in the north of Gaza toward Ashkelon and the Rafah crossing to the south toward Egypt and the Sinai. The IDF Navy ensured nothing came in or out of the exclusion area off the coast.
I remember the celebrations by Hamas when the last of Fatah had been exiled out of Gaza within a year or so of the Israelis leaving. It was kind of hard to not see the guys shooting AK-47s into the air as well as the signs wishing death upon Israel and the United States.
I’m sure it eventually occurred to the leaders of Hamas that Ariel Sharon had effectively handed them the keys to their own gulag and Sharon had effectively walled off the more virulent of the Palestinian extremists with very strict border controls at Erez (and not surprisingly, also at Rafah because the Egyptians are no more fond of Hamas and Islamic Jihad and their brutality than the vast majority of Palestinians living in Gaza).
There was even a morbid joke about the situation at the time noting that for all of the hand-wringing in the international community about bringing about a Two State solution for a Palestinian state, they already had one with Hamas locked up in Gaza and Fatah walled off in the West Bank.
Ever since, Hamas has been completely contained and sidelined in Gaza and Israel has maintained a very strict control over who comes and who and what goes into the Strip. And other than a few rockets fired toward Israel every now or skirmishes at the crossings, there’s really been very few opportunities for Hamas to cause mischief and terror amongst the Israelis.
Until now.
And the taking of hostages during this latest series of attacks against Israel makes it very clear that even though Hamas certainly celebrated seeing the Israelis leave in 2005, some of the more more strategic thinking amongst them realised that the disengagement policy had one huge drawback for Hamas.
If they ever did more than fire the occasional rocket, the IDF would have a free-fire zone with no friendlies in Gaza to respond with overwhelming force and very little to restrain them from leveling every building in the Strip should they choose to do so.
The IDF would go from Iron Dome to Thunderdome just like that and I can guarantee who would be the one left standing to leave Thunderdome once the IDF was done.
There can be only one conclusion…
In many situations, I try to avoid going for the “hot take” in favour of a reasoned conclusion based on researching the facts as I can establish them from trusted media sources (think Reuters, AP/UPI, and the like).
That it’s taken ten days for me to finally get to the point where I can write about my feelings on these events might well lead you to believe that I’ve followed that policy in this instance.
And you’d be wrong.
My position became crystal clear fairly quickly.
Being able to communicate the complexity of it completely and as best as I can is what has taken this long.
Full stop.
When the nature of the unprovoked attacks upon civilians became clear and the atrocities that were visited upon the people attending the music festival and the arguably worse atrocities committed against the people residing at Kfar Aza including the brutal murder and beheading of the victims of the Hamas terrorists, Hamas lost what minuscule claim they had to being anything approaching humane.
In so doing, they’ve done such irreparable harm to the Palestinian cause that it will likely set back any reckoning of peace in that region by a generation or more.
To be sure, I’m pessimistic of peace happening in the Middle East but not because the Israelis and the Palestinians are incapable of living next to each other peacefully. They’ve done so plenty of times between intifadas but I firmly believe that until Jerusalem is an international city owned by no one and open to all who wish to come (likely administered by the UN with a peacekeeping force), I just don’t see a viable lasting peace.
As you can imagine, I don’t see Israel or the others who would claim Jerusalem as their capital ever agreeing to those terms unless they truly have no other option.
Anyway, the usual wages of terror and murder are death and I’ve no doubt that Hamas will be repaid in full and then some for their crimes against the people of Israel.
Hamas and their benefactors supporting the cause of terrorism from Tehran certainly won’t be missed.
The harsh reality that Hamas and others like them need to understand and accept is that the State of Israel isn’t going anywhere anytime soon as long as the United States ensures that Israel will have whatever support they need to ensure their survival.
Between President Biden effectively telling Hamas that he’s perfectly fine for terrorists responsible for all of these atrocities to end up on the ninth ring of Hell and that right quickly (how else would you interpret “for those who might try to take advantage of the current situation…DON’T!”?) as well as ordering one carrier group closer to Gaza with a second carrier group on its way to the Mediterranean, it is clear as crystal that the State of Israel is here to stay.
Israel was founded after a horrific pogrom perpetrated against Jews and other groups that the Third Reich found objectionable (including Magyar gypsies amongst other Hungarians that are a big part of my ethnic identity) that was unprecedented in human history in its brutality and evil.
Never again.
The Holocaust can not be allowed to ever happen again.
It *WILL* never be allowed to happen again.
So why all the heartache?
In a nutshell, it’s because of what I’ve already seen and knowing that what is to come will be far, far worse and this conflict will be with us for quite a while.
It’s one thing for the “leaders” in time of war and strife to come meet each other and settle the conflict between just them.
That’s the beauty of the Thunderdome system of justice.
It just never happens in reality and the leaders and instigators of conflict rarely if ever see the collateral damage and massive wave of death that their orders bring into this world.
It’s always the innocents who have no way to escape who are caught in between the factions who have got to fighting and then moved on to warring.
The one that do the vast majority of the dying are the who want nothing more than to live their life in peace. To live and work, to play, to enjoy the company of good friends and neighbours, to believe as they wish, and live with their family in an environment that is safe that has a good future for their children and their children.
Already, the light of so many innocent human beings is being extinguished that did not need to be.
And many more innocents on all sides of this conflict will die before it’s done.
It’s inevitable when you’re dealing with urban warfare in one of the most densely populated areas on the planet.
After the combatants have either died or moved their fight to the next battlefield, it’s the innocents who died there who will remain for those survivors who come after them to try to give them some measure of dignity in death that life did not afford them.
It won’t matter to the Hamas terrorists who ordered and carried out the invasion of Israel.
Their decisions set these events into motion and what comes after is for them to atone for when it is their time to answer for their misdeeds in this life or the one to come.
If they truly believe in Islam as they profess loudly to the world, then I don’t know how in the world they can possibly justify the murder and desecration of innocent people regardless of their faith.
No reputable imam has ever subscribed to their twisted view of the Qu’ran and indeed many have decried terrorism and killing as acts that are hateful to the eyes of Allah.
What passes for their hearts is hardened against considering the possibility that those they consider their enemy are also human beings who have just as much a right to live in peace as they would demand for themselves.
They have betrayed the most basic tenets of their faith. They have committed mass murder and other acts hateful to Allah. They have betrayed their own people in Gaza who are dying by the thousands…people who trusted them and that they were supposed to protect when they were chosen to govern Gaza once the Israelis left.
So many innocent lives wasted and for what?
We will all have been diminished as a result and it is for them that my heart breaks every time I turn on the live coverage of the events in Gaza or see more news stories of the atrocities.
Where do we go from here?
This is where it gets quite tricky.
The presence of hostages taken by Hamas in Gaza complicates the expected overwhelming military ground invasion after many days of missile attacks against known Hamas targets by the IDF.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has made it very clear that he views the current situation as nothing less than a state of war and that whilst efforts to have the hostages returned safely is a high priority of his emergency unity government, he’s said as much that their presence in Gaza won’t necessarily stop the IDF from performing the mission of rooting out and destroying Hamas (and though they weren’t explicitly named, I suspect the terrorists of Islamic Jihad will also have some very bad days in their near future).
For the people who have been taken hostage who have lived with the threat of rockets and terrorism for so many years, I have to imagine that they’ve resigned themselves to the understanding that if safeguarding the Israeli people and the State of Israel by destroying Hamas’ capabilities to project terror and murder requires their sacrifice, they will consider that a price worth paying to protect the many.
I can only hope their bravery and faith after being subjected to such evil treatment by their assailants/captors will be of some solace to the families.
Everything the Netanyahu government has said up to this point makes it very clear that the Israeli response to these brutal attacks will be done only when the last terrorist in Gaza draws their final breath.
I wish I could be surprised.
The implementation of a total siege including humanitarian essentials to life such as water, food, medicines/medical supplies, and fuel for the hospital generators was more than a little troubling.
The order for over a million people in the northern part of Gaza to evacuate toward Khan Younis (which is already packed with people seeking shelter) when the Rafah crossing remains closed is even more so.
That’s coming awfully close to the textbook definition of “collective punishment” targeting civilians and non-combatants which is expressly prohibited by various international laws and conventions of which Israel is a signatory.
Hopefully the war cabinet in Israel will allow their better angels to speak to their hearts to allow a humanitarian corridor to allow those people who wish to leave Gaza the time and ability to do so before the tanks start rolling in for what can only be presumed will be a massive and protracted ground invasion.
The past few days have been a humanitarian crisis that is only going to get far worse with time.
I understand the obstacles and political pressures upon the government are great but with effort they can be overcome because the last thing Israel needs is to lose the moral high ground of being the ones who were brutally attacked and are responding with a proportional and legal response supported by international law.
Anything that appears to be collective punishment and a total blockade will quickly erode international support for Israel’s cause and just fight against the terrorists of Hamas and will only perpetuate the cycle of radicalising more Palestinians to engage in terrorism.
I realise that making sure the terrorists don’t slip through the crossing with the expected flood of refugees should Egypt ever open Rafah is no easy task. War used to be so much easier in terms of identifying the enemy when they wore uniforms but that’s not how asymmetrical urban warfare against a non-state actor works these days.
I realise that selling Egypt on the idea of having another million or two Palestinian refugees they do not want flooding into the Sinai through Rafah is going to require a lot of fast talking and a sizeable pile of cash.
There is still time though it’s dwindling fast to set up humanitarian aid corridors and safe areas (well, as safe as can be with one antagonist who is surely desperately trying to find anyway to avoid the fate that is coming for them and having already broken several international conventions with their murders and hostage taking will have no problem breaking a few more).
Hopefully the vast majority of innocent citizens of Gaza can be allowed to leave before the real nasty door-to-door fighting begins with the ground invasion so that the needless loss of life of non-combatants can be kept to the absolute minimum.
Time is running out.
May both sides make wise choices with the time that is left.
A final thought from the Talmud…
Who is mightiest of all?
One who can turn an enemy into a friend.
Avot D’Rabbi Natan 23
It may well take generations to find those who will walk in Shmuel HaKatan’s footsteps but I do dream that they will be found amongst the Israelis and the Arabs to reach out one to the other in peace.
I may not live to see this but that does not mean that I cannot have at least a very small amount of hope that peace will come to pass even with the great obstacles of many years of hatred and distrust.
May that day where the ancient hatreds are forgiven and forgotten so that the peoples of the land may trust one another and live in peace come swiftly.
It can’t come fast enough!