Hamas attacked Israel and wantonly killed and kidnapped people they encountered.
At first Israelis were shocked. It was so sudden.
Then they were horrified, as they learned what took place. It was so cruel.
Then they got angry and wanted payback.
I describe a widespread reaction among Israelis, Americans, opinion people in the news, people commenting on social media. I feel it myself. We are shocked by the brutality.
It is probably too soon to talk about our common humanity. Angry people don't want to hear it. "Common humanity" sounds weak, idealistic, fuzzy-headed, and empathetic to evil-doers. Those come across as words from sentimental fools who survive because of the courage and protection of realistic, hard-headed people who understand violence, and are willing to use it. It is too soon, too, to talk about long term goals or effective strategy. A strategy is already in place: It is to inflict punishment.
People have said to me, "Don't talk to me about moral equivalence. The Palestinians are evil. Period. End of story. They brought whatever happens on themselves." Of course GOP candidates were piling on with this message, but even low-drama, soft-spoken Biden was unequivocal saying that they are "evil, pure unadulterated evil." This is something both Democrats and Republicans can say. Indeed, must say. The public mood demands it.
Israel is a troubled democracy, what with Netanyahu challenging the independence of the judiciary, but in every democracy the people's will must be reckoned with. The Israeli Defense Minister meets the public mood. He called Hamas "animals," and is treating the people of Gaza like animals. They are trapped in a slaughterhouse. Videos of buildings exploding and crumbling are a google click away. Whole blocks are turned to rubble.
It is too soon for a person in public life to fuss about that. Too many people like seeing the payback. We hear stories of babies being beheaded. Of a girl swung by her ankles and her head slammed against a wall. Brutes! They must learn a lesson and pay a price. This is war.
I understand and expect the desire for revenge, but I feel something different.
I worry about who was in the buildings that exploded and fell. Were all the people in it evil, deserving of being crushed, trapped, suffocated in the rubble? Were there young children in there? Babies? Did they choose Hamas? Murder up close, with a blade, to make a political point, is terror. It is sowrong. But an artillery shell fired five miles is an act of calculation and craft, designed to eliminate a target. We see the crushed building, the smoke and dust, not the crushed head. It, too, is terror.
Like the Israeli victims at the music festival, the people in the rubble were accidents, people in the wrong place at the wrong time, killed on purpose to make a political point. Possibly the people killed and kidnapped by Hamas supported Netanyahu. Others not. Who knows their politics? They were Israeli, and that was enough for Hamas. The people in the rubble had no meaningful political agency, but they were ruled over by Hamas. That was enough.
In time people will sit in quiet spaces to consider long term goals and effective strategy. Israelis and Americans will wonder why a thousand people went on a likely suicide mission to kill Israelis at a music festival. What motivated them? Could they possibly have considered themselves patriots, like so many of those who broke through the doors and windows of the Capitol? I have urged Democrats to consider what motivates people in the Trump orbit. Something is going on. Disagree and disapprove of them, sure, but try to understand them.
I hope the people do the same with the Hamas attack.
I have asked questions. I will suggest an answer and make a prediction. The Israeli response will feel good and appropriate in the short run, but it won't age well. It won't lead to peace. More Israelis will die because of it. Tit for tat for tit for tat for tat. . . .
I heard a joke yesterday from a college classmate. A man bemoaned the centuries of religious strife in the Holy Land. He asked God, "when will this end?"
God shook his head in dismay and said, "not in my lifetime."
Much of what is said in this opinion piece is accurate and will play out as described in the near future. What has been missing in the 75 year Israeli against very one else struggle is neither side has leaders who want peace. They want statehood, religiously pure states, or riches, but not peace. A former boss once told me that there are 100 reasons to say no to any idea or project and there is only one reason to say yes - the boss wants it. That is the trouble in the middle east. No boss wants peace and as as we all know, when the elephants dance, the ants get crushed.
Ty. The innocents are murdered by the tyrants of war. I pause to comfort my Jewish friends, some who have missing family, while also reaching out to friends with relatives living under war conditions in Gaza, without bomb shelters.
The attackers have been both & all sides, with little mercy for babies, children, the women, elders & men for decades & decades. It is a time of deep sorrowing that continues into eternity, it seems. The latest attack was so wrong & horrifying. I wonder how the border fence was breached & the invasion happened so suddenly upon the country with the iron dome. Were there secrets leaked? There will payback continuing into eternity rather than peace in Jerusalem. This is a failure of the warmongering leaders of those countries & it is upon their heads the blame must lie. Meanwhile, as in this country, there are insurgents who give no thought to rules of law or human decency. We have leaders who are bought & don't lead or negotiate...kinda like terrorists.