I’m not going to impress you with statistics about the dead, captured and injured in Israel. Nor will I give you similar statistics for Gaza.
Mimicking Thomas Friedman
But I will repeat what New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman said today that the Hamas attack on Israel on Saturday was no surprise. No one knew exactly when, of course, but the attack surely was in the offing. Why Israeli intelligence was caught unaware is the big question.
This wasn’t Israel’s 9/11, Friedman told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria. No one expected terrorists in 2001 would turn passenger planes into bombs. The Hamas missile attack, he said, was inevitable.
The Jewish homeland question
As you can read in many places, the quest for a Jewish homeland in the Middle East wasn’t just invented after the Holocaust. It had been in the offing since the early years of the 20th century.
But the Allies acted
After World War II and the discovery of the brutal Holocaust that cost 6 milliion Jews their lives, the Allies acted. They partitioned, then-British-owned Palestine into the Jewish state of Israel. The rest of old Palestine was to be for the non-Jewish Arabs.
Forcing people from their homes
But it’s never easy forcing people from their homes and their homeland. The Palestinians living in the new state of Israel didn’t want to leave. They for the most part were forced out. I’m speaking in simplistic terms here.
Neighbors quarreling
The neighbors, though, couldn’t get along. There have been constant border skirmishes, not just between Israel and Palestine, but also with other Arab neighbors, particularly Egypt. Many diplomats, including U.S. presidents, leaders in the Middle East and those in the United Nations have tried to broker peace without lasting success.
Just who is Hamas?
Hamas has been identified by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization. But we also need to recognize it as one of the ruling political parties in Gaza.
What Hamas did Saturday by blasting rockets into civilian apartment buildings was insufferable. They also reportedly went door to door shooting entire families to death as they came outside. If they didn’t come out, they burned their homes until the families fled outside due to smoke, then shot them all on the spot. They shot at least 230 Jewish revelers at an end-of-High-Holy-days concert and dance. No one was spared. Not the elderly, not children.
So what is Israel doing?
It has summoned all members of its national guard. And all Israeli soldiers are on active duty. They have peppered Gaza with missiles of their own. Realize, 2 million civilians live in those regions. They are just as innocent as the Israelis who have been needlessly slaughtered.
What is the U.S. doing?
And the United State, in a show of solidarity with its long-time ally Israel, is sending battleships and weapons. Are we helping the problem or escalating warfare?
The 2024 presidential race
Already, the GOP candidates for president in 2024 have jumped on the Israeli attack as somehow fomented by President Biden. They claim his releasing $6 billion in Iranian assets during a recent prisoner exchange has led Iran to fund the Hamas attack.
Guess what? No funds have yet been released. And somehow some way, the United States claims it will only allow the release of funds for humanitarian purposes. That would not include the slaughter of Israeli civilians.
Zakaria’s Palestinian guest
What Zakaria’s Palestinian guest said on the show this morning really struck home for me. Palestinian National Initiative leader Mustafa Barghouti decried what happened. But he said the Hamas attack on Israel was a response to the Israeli occupation of Palestine. He said Palestinians, just like Ukranians, are fighting for their freedom.