On October 7, Hamas attacked Israel from their base in Gaza, killing some 1400 people, the overwhelming majority of which were civilians. In response, Israel declared war and vowed to completely destroy Hamas once and for all. Since Hamas is supported overtly by Iran - and covertly by other Arab states- it's entirely possible this becomes a much larger conflict.
As usual, the violence brought out the extremist loons on both sides of the political aisle. The Palestinians have long been a cause celeb for the far-left, so it was no surprise to see many try to justify the Hamas attack. Harvard student groups penned a letter that said the blame fell “entirely” on Israel itself, while a Columbia University professor characterized the slaughter of civilians as a "stunning victory" for Hamas. The Centre for Constitutional Rights wrote that “under international law, Palestinian resistance fighters can lawfully carry out attacks on military targets”, which sounds fine except for the tiny detail that it has nothing to do with what actually occurred on 10/7.
The deliberate murder of civilians can’t ever be justified. The Hamas terrorists set a new low in wanton cruelty and savagery. There were reports of babies being beheaded and people burned alive. To cite just one documented incident, a Thai man, who was in Israel on a temporary work permit, was wounded in the attack. Several Hamas men, after some debate about what to do with the man, decided to hack him to death with a garden hoe, just for fun. Anyone that attempts to excuse this brutality is simply stupid and depraved.
Occasionally, the worldwide far-right forgets its rabid anti-Semitism long enough to cheer on the killing of Muslims. Christian fundamentalists support Israel not out of any real sympathy, but simply because the biblical End Times prophecy states that Christ will return to his homeland when Armageddon begins. (Don’t tell the Jews they all get killed if they don’t convert to Christianity in this pathetic fantasy. We’ll keep that part quiet.) But the far bigger issue is the far-right in Israel itself, as the Hamas attack brought out the vicious extremists there, too. Here is the former head of the Israeli Security Council: “Gaza will become a place where no human being can exist.”Or this from an Israeli general: "the military must create an unprecedented humanitarian disaster in Gaza.” Basically, these statements are advocating genocide.
The current Israeli government is led by a corrupt right-wing yahoo, Benjamin Netanyahu, who will do absolutely anything that benefits him politically. (Memo to the world: Stop voting for people like this.) A different government might proceed in a more cautious manner, whereas Netanyahu is unlikely to care how many Palestinian civilians die. Netanyahu has ardently worked against peaceful solutions to the Palestinian conflict. He has encouraged the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, which is nothing less than an attempt to annex the only land that could potentially become a real homeland to the Palestinians. More disturbingly, it has come out that his government propped up Hamas so that the Palestinians in Gaza would remain divided from those in the West Bank- which is governed by a more friendly regime, the Palestinian Authority - thus lessening the momentum for a Palestinian homeland. In sum, every manipulative and hardline position Netanyahu has taken has been revealed by the Hamas bloodbath to have been a complete failure, including the military strategy of responding to every attack by inflicting 10 times the causalities on the Palestinians. Netanyahu claims this retaliation acts as a deterrent, but the events of 10/7 show exactly how well this has worked.
Let’s be clear that of the two parties in this war, Hamas is much worse. They don't care about their own civilian casualties; in fact, they callously use their own population as shields from Israeli attacks. There have even been reports that Hamas has prevented people from fleeing Gaza. They want civilians to die, because it radicalizes the survivors and can be used as propaganda against Israel - this is what fanatics do. Gaza is home to 2 million Palestinians, and it is completely fenced off from Israel and Egypt. Some have likened it to an open air prison. Living conditions are harsh and there is very little economic opportunity. In short, it is a perfect incubator for hate and violence. The just treatment of the Palestinians is the first step in a path to stopping the endless killing.
Israel has been under attack for its entire existence. It is surrounded by enemies. It has tried to negotiate with the Palestinians in the past, with little success. It certainly has the moral right to defend itself, and there isn’t a government on earth that would just sit and do nothing after the murderous spree that Hamas perpetuated. But that doesn’t mean that the Netanyahu regime can do whatever it wants. After three weeks of bombing, one-third of Gaza is already damaged, and thousands of people are dead – many of them children. And this is just the beginning, as Netanyahu has promised a ground invasion, which is all but certain to create many more casualties. The international community, and in particular Israel's allies like the US, need to use their influence and power to contain Netanyahu's thirst for vengeance. Without restraint, this situation is guaranteed to become much worse.
Let me repeat myself: Extremists are always wrong, and violent extremists are merely sadists hiding behind some cause that they think gives them moral justification for their depravity. If Israel invades Gaza, they will kill many Hamas fighters. They will also kill many civilians and create a refugee crisis that the rest of the world will have to clean up. For every Hamas man they kill, another will take his place. For the last 75 years, the Jewish-Palestinian problem has been stuck in an endless loop of violence and retaliation. This cycle is very good at achieving one thing on both sides: radicalizing more people into accepting violence as the only solution. At the end of this war, many will be dead but nothing will really have changed. As Mahatma Gandhi said, an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
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