You aren’t alone.
There is no shortage of social media heroes sharing hot takes based on nothing but the headlines coming out of Gaza. The cacophony is frustrating and counterproductive. I suspect that, like me, most informed people just don’t want to add to the noise. But here are some thoughts from a goy’s perspective:
On October 7th, Hamas escalated a war of attrition with Israel by entering that nation state and massacring women, babies, children and anyone in their path. The violence was recorded and savage. What it is not, is disputed by any honest person.
Hamas seeks only the destruction of all Jewish life, as stated in their charter and proven by their actions. However, they have not a single warplane, tank, battleship or helicopter. They are currently incapable of achieving their goal through strength of arms. In fact none of Israel’s neighbors could … and they’ve all tried. So why would Hamas, the government of record in Gaza, escalate a conflict without any means of protecting its population from the response?
We know the answer. They hide in tunnels while their citizens bear the brunt of Israeli retribution because they know they can use those deaths to enflame anti-semitism around the world and fracture Western politics. They need Palestinians to die in huge numbers to turn the world against Israel and the Jewish diaspora. This will also unite America’s enemies (Russia, China, Iran, et al.), who are bracing for a global conflict that will usher in a new world order under their umbrella.
Hamas represents an ugly part of human existence and they must be destroyed entirely. All freedom loving nations should be united in that. While it falls to Israel to snuff them out they should have the support of the civilized world in this quest.
However, the civilized world also owe the Palestinian people a great debt. The global community have watched for decades as generations of young Palestinian men are born in squalor, have no education and are left with an endless supply of rifles and rockets but no jobs.
That investment cannot happen as long as Hamas exists. But the cost of excising them must matter. Palestinian civilians must be spared even if only because Israel doesn’t want to fight another generation of hardened killers ten years from today.
The Israeli government must restore law and order in the West Bank and bring renegade settler violence to heel right away. There can be no claims of morality as long one class of people are free to kill and displace another with impunity. Israel cannot continue to bomb women and children en masse and hope to change the environment in which the diaspora must live. Fair or not, this puts Jews worldwide in more danger. We are in a war of perception and misinformation. To act as if that front isn’t equally vital is to give our enemies the battlefield.
Prior to Oct. 7th the scale might have been manageable, negotiations toward a solution possible. But on that date Hamas proved that they meant it when they said they mean to kill all Jews. A people whose enemies want only their death have no choice but to kill that enemy while they have the military advantage. Anything else would be a failure to protect their children. Today, Israel is proving that the words “never again” were not idle but it must also prepare for tomorrow. And we in the world must act to protect our Jewish allies and friends, even if all we can do is be more careful in our use of language.