My fellow Americans.
The storm is here.
It’s not about religion.
Not yet.
What we see now can be described without bringing religion into the equation.
An eye for an eye is justice.
30 eyes for an eye is evil.
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/day-155–30-960-martyrs–72-524-injured-in-gaza
Justice makes the guilty pay.
Evil makes the innocent pay.
About 1,000 Israeli civilians were affected by the October 7th attacks.
767 civilians died.
247 civilians were taken captive.
1014.
276 IDF soldiers were killed.
1,609 Palestinian soldiers (Hamas) were killed.
If we call the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas “terrorism” (and it was), then what do we call the Israeli response?
A disproportionate riposte?
Of the 767 Israeli civilian casualties, 36 were children.
Of the 30,960 people killed in Gaza so far (most killed by indiscriminate bombing), it is estimated that 78% percent of those were women and children.
This makes sense insofar as about half (47%) of the residents of Gaza are under the age of 18 (which is to say, they are children).
https://www.npr.org/2023/10/19/1206479861/israel-gaza-hamas-children-population-war-palestinians
In a largely indiscriminate bombing campaign of densely-packed urban areas (such as the campaign which Israel has undertaken), we would expect about 15,000 children to be among the 30,000 who have so far been killed.
Of the other 15,000 who have so far been killed, we would expect about half of those to be women.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL.FE.ZS?locations=PS
That leaves an additional 7,500 deaths.
How many of those men were Hamas soldiers?
Now we will talk religion.
Was Rubin “Hurricane” Carter a Muslim?
What would it matter if he were?
And what would it matter if he were not?
It has been said that Carter became a “black Muslim” (Nation of Islam) in the 1960s.
He has been described as being an “outspoken Muslim” around this same time period.
It appears, however, that Carter “embraced Islam” while he was in the 101st Airborne in the 1950s and even “changed his name for awhile” to reflect his newfound religion.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/carter-rubin-1937
So what?
Injustice is injustice.
But how do you endure being in a prison?
And what if you were serving a sentence for the “crime” of being black?
Or for the “crime” of being Muslim?
Or for the “crime” of being in the wrong place at the wrong time??
That is not justice.
Let us examine the Warsaw Ghetto for a moment.
Established in November 1940.
The largest of the Nazi ghettos.
430,000 people were imprisoned there.
An open-air prison.
Sounds nice, right?
Wrong.
Why wrong?
Because it was hell.
And these 430,000 people also happened to be Jewish.
Which is why they were being horrifically discriminated against.
Why was it hell?
“Meager food rations”.
Hey, that sounds like a place I know.
https://metro.co.uk/2024/03/09/israelis-try-block-gaza-aid-trucks-hold-dance-parties-20432243/
Never again, right?
When you dehumanize people (reduce them to “Jew” or “Muslim” or “black” or whatever), ANYTHING can be done to them.
And anything WILL be done to them.
History proves that.
REPEATEDLY.
If people are not considered fully human–if they are considered somehow “inferior”, then the end very quickly starts “justifying” the means.
Another characteristic of the Warsaw Ghetto was “limited…medical supplies”.
Hey, that ALSO sounds like a place I know.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/3/8/healthcare-in-gaza-is-in-a-state-of-acute-trauma
You might be saying to yourself, “Well, the Warsaw Ghetto (at its ‘height’) had 460,000 people in an area of 1.3 square miles. Gaza is 141 square miles.”
True.
BUT…
Rafah is 25 square miles.
And how many people have been HERDED there as a result of Israeli boming???
1.4 million.
The point is this: you cannot repudiate the Warsaw Ghetto while embracing the population-wide torture of Gaza.
In any case, what is Israel trying to accomplish in Gaza?
Are they trying to “wipe out” Hamas?
Because if Hamas are “terrorists” (they are), and terrorism is fueled perceived injustice, then the actions of Israel in Gaza since October 7th WILL FUEL GENERATIONS OF TERRORISTS.
Did the 15,000 dead Palestinian children in Gaza vote for Hamas?
How long has it been since the last election in Gaza?
18 years?
Are you telling me that Israel has killed 15,000 kids (so far) who never were even alive to observe an election???
https://aceproject.org/epic-en/CDCountry?set_language=en&topic=VR&country=PS
And what about the 40% of Gazan women (and men) who did not vote for Hamas in 2006?
Did they deserve to be killed BECAUSE OF WHO THEY FUCKING VOTED FOR?!?
40% (37.5% of seats/districts) of Gaza voted against Hamas in 2006.
So the EXCEEDINGLY-MONSTROUS (one might go so far as to say NAZI in its cruelty) opinion that “Gazans are getting what they voted for” does not hold true.
There has not been an election in Gaza in 18 years.
Even so, you don’t “liberate” people through the involuntary separation of soul from body.
There was a righteous way to handle the aftermath of October 7th.
The righteous way would have inflicted heavy casualties on the IDF.
And the world would have RESPECTED Israel for taking the RIGHTEOUS path.
A ground invasion.
Street by street.
Take your time.
Your goal is to wipe out Hamas, right?
Then wipe them out.
Like men.
Not like kids playing a video game.
Be men.
Enter Gaza.
Find Hamas.
Arrest Hamas (particularly the leadership).
EARN the respect of, not only the world but, Gazans.
Take out the bad actors.
Through law and order.
Street by street.
NOT by aerial bombardment of areas containing women and children.
But Israel did not take the righteous path.
Israel shows that terrorism (even though it is wrong) works.
Israel lost its cool.
And took 30 eyes for every eye (so far).
Israel has killed 30,000 people in Gaza to avenge the deaths of 1,143 dead Israelis.
Or, put another way, Israel has killed 30,000 people in Gaza in an effort to save 247 captives.
And yet another way, Israel has killed approximately 22,500 women and children in Gaza in the pursuit of “wiping out Hamas” (while killing, at most, 7,500 adult male Hamas soldiers).
And if voting demographics can be extrapolated onto those 7,500 dead adult males in Gaza, about 3,000 of those didn’t even vote for Hamas (and were, therefore, likely not Hamas “militants”).
At most, 9,000 Hamas voters have been killed by Israel.
15,000 who were not even born when the last election occurred have been killed in the process.
And 6,000 Fatah/independent (non-Hamas) voters have been killed.
21,000 people killed via “collateral damage” for the purpose of perhaps killing 9,000 Hamas voters.
Israel is not doing itself any favors with this operation.
–PD
paulydeathwish 