White flags are how we identify human shields!

-IDF

Do you ever have doubts about yourself, your political views, your opinions and knowledge? Do you ever think twice about what you’re writing, perhaps even writing a comment and then not submitting it, because you are not sure about it anymore? I do, all the time, and while this is deeply uncomfortable, I wish you some of this discomfort as well. I think it would do you good.

This conflict is far more complicated than just blaming it on one party alone. I can only advice you to strive for a more nuanced understanding of it, because if you keep maintaining a view this one-sided for long enough, you will unknowingly learn not just to ignore evidence to the contrary about this conflict, but any other topic that you already have a more or less firm opinion on. You do not want to become that kind of person.

A starving person can, at least in theory, surrender and recover, might have a small chance of learning the errors of their ways and making the best out of the rest of their lives. Someone who has been shot dead or killed otherwise is dead forever. No redemption in their character ark, just a sudden end to it all. That’s all theory though, entirely pointless theory. In practice, this won’t happen. Hamas would rather have every last man, woman and child who isn’t on their member list succumb to starvation before any of them have to even miss a meal. It’s a win-win for them: They can blame the suffering and deaths from starvation, just like from bombings, on Israel entirely and enough people around the world will eagerly accept this narrative, even though it takes two to tango.

Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but this entire conflict has to be one of very few in history where one side is actively trying to increase the suffering on their own side as a weapon of war and manipulation. I cannot think of many other wars where one side implements deliberate measures for more of their own people to die for the purposes of both domestic and foreign propaganda - and being so successful at doing the latter in particular, albeit with plenty of outside help. There really aren’t many equivalents I can think of. The Japanese Empire in WW2 and Khmer Rouge perhaps. The latter is perhaps the most apt comparison, even though what they were doing to their people was being treated as a secret, as they also had a strong support base among the academic far-left in the West, just like Hamas today, with these intelligent, highly educated idealists deliberately ignoring readily available evidence in favor of maintaining their ideologically-driven views.

There is October 7 denial out there that is completely indistinguishable from Holocaust denial in its mechanisms. The same conspiratorial thinking, the same inane and insane excuses, just with a predominately (but not exclusively) far-left twist instead of a far-right one. As someone who considers themselves fairly left of the center on most issues, it’s quite eye-opening to see just how vulnerable people I have a fair bit in common are to the same kind of manipulation, the same errors of judgment as outright fascists.

How on Earth do you fight such an enemy and how do you break this spell they have over so many people in the world? There’s a reason why I said that the quicker the war is over, the better. Both the Japanese and the Khmer Rouge were defeated through military action and in both cases, just like with Hamas, any delays in their demise would have resulted in an enormous amount of additional suffering, despite the fact that the methods used to remove them were anything but gentle. That is what Israel has been doing, but it’s important to keep in mind that they are neither the US nor Vietnam, that they can not afford to throw people into the meat grinder. They are more than willing to trade time, Palestinian concrete and also Palestinian lives for keeping their own soldiers safe. Despite the mostly toothless international backlash, this strategy is working, but it is not fast enough for today’s world with its collective median attention span of eight seconds. There is no urban combat equivalent to the breakneck-speed island hopping of WW2 to be found here.

I’m not really worried about the military outcome of this war. I think it’s only a matter of time - time which civilians in Gaza don’t have though. There is no intentional genocide happening here, but at some point, the number of civilian dead through both Hamas concerted efforts and sheer indifference on the side of the Israeli government will become impossible to ignore and impossible to excuse by the aforementioned valuing of their own side over the enemy. Maybe it’s time to take risks, but that is an almost impossible call to make in a country so small, among a people so small, everyone knows someone who is personally affected by this war. Netanyahu won’t make it, he’s too worried about is fruitless endeavor of saving his own skin - and the IDF, for as much as it is representative of almost the entirety of Israeli society, including people who oppose the ruling coalition, is still beholden to the civilian government and can not on its own decide to accelerate the speed of their assault. Not to mention, a faster war means more civilian deaths in the short term (even if it results in less suffering overall), creating more international outrage, which Israel can only afford up to a point.

Another hostage exchange ceasefire might give Palestinian civilians the breather they need, but I’m not holding my breath it’s happening and it would most certainly benefit Hamas more.

To sum this up, a slow war like we have it now is terrible, a faster war is also terrible, but potentially the less terrible alternative in the long run, yet impossible to sell to the public. I have no answer.