Israel just accomplished something that no one else is willing or able to do: Israel went into the heart of Gaza's nest of terrorist compounds in Rafah, and rescued two of the hostages who have been held captive since Hamas' October 7, 2023 mass casualty attack in Israel. Former hostages Fernando Simon Marman and Louis Har are alive and free today because Israel did not surrender, did not give in to cruel international pressure, and instead stayed laser-focused on the dangerous but necessary task of rescuing hostages and destroying Hamas. I fervently hope that we will see many more videos like this of Israeli soldiers bravely rescuing hostages.
It is deplorable and disgusting that Israel's brave and heroic rescue mission is labeled as "deadly" by biased media outlets; these same biased media outlets also devote a lot of attention to what they term a "humanitarian crisis" in Gaza. Few people are brave enough to speak the truth: what Hamas did and continues to do is "deadly," and the only humanitarian crisis in Gaza is that Hamas is holding over 100 hostages. Everything that is happening in Gaza is a direct consequence of Hamas' deadly actions.
Israel is saving lives by rescuing hostages and dismantling Hamas. Hamas is responsible for every death in Gaza, and Hamas could end the war by surrendering unconditionally and releasing all hostages unconditionally. Gazans voted Hamas into power, Gazans cheered (and participated) on October 7, and now Gazans are paying the price for their decisions and their actions. As the saying goes, "Play stupid games, win stupid prizes." Or, to put it more bluntly, "F-around and find out." The Gazans played their stupid games, and now they are receiving their "prizes" for killing at least 1200 people and kidnapping hundreds of others. Israel and the world community provided billions of dollars to Gaza to build a paradise, but the Gazans chose to build a hell--and after they chose to export that hell to Israel they should not be surprised or outraged by Israel's justified response.
People who speak about "proportionality" do not understand international law; in a war of self-defense, a country may legally use the necessary force to eliminate the threat. Hamas decided to use Gazans as human shields, and Israel may legally use whatever force is necessary to destroy Hamas' command centers, bases, and tunnels as long as Israel is not deliberately attacking civilian targets.
Israel must stay strong, and her supporters must stay strong as well. President Biden pretended to support Israel for a hot minute before looking at his cratering poll numbers and deciding to pander to the self-proclaimed "progressives." He cannot be trusted, and that is sadly true of the leaders of many other countries as well. It is better to be a living Jew who is criticized than a dead Jew who is mourned.
The international organizations that are supposed to protect the innocent are instead demonizing Israel. The United Nations is worse than useless; it has become an instrument of evil, and should be disbanded as soon as possible. The so-called Palestinians are the only group in the world that has an entire UN organization devoted exclusively to their particular concerns: the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). UNRWA collaborated with Hamas before, during, and after Hamas' October 7, 2023 mass casualty attack in Israel; it is long overdue that UNRWA be shut down, and now that the full truth has been revealed about UNRWA's participation in war crimes the UNRWA officials who worked with Hamas should be prosecuted for their crimes against humanity. This is unfortunately not the first time that UNRWA collaborated with Hamas to attack Israel, but it must be the last time.
President Biden and others are pressuring Israel to accede to the creation of an Arab state in Gaza, but there must never be two states west of the Jordan River. Israel belongs to the Jewish people, and there is already an Arab state in the former Palestine Mandate territory: Jordan. Arab civilians from Gaza should relocate to Jordan as soon as possible, to secure their safety and as part of a long overdue permanent solution to decades of strife and war. This is no different than the population transfers that happened as a result of World War II, the wars in the Indian subcontinent, and just about every other war in human history.
It should be noted and emphasized that the Arab/Muslim world and the international community as a whole prefers that Gazans die while serving as Hamas' human shields as opposed to peacefully relocating Gazans to Jordan (or to other Arab/Muslim countries). Israel has encouraged Gazans to flee the war zone, and Israel has provided safe passage to Gazans to do so; it is Hamas and Hamas' supporters in the international community that have forced Gazans to remain in Gaza as human shields. That decision is regrettable, but it is not Israel's fault, nor is it Israel's responsibility.
The blatant Anti-Israel/Pro-Palestine viewpoint is absurdly toxic for what should be very obvious reasons but another side of this issue that is also very toxic is the “both sides are killing civilians, both sides are wrong” take. That’s a cop-out response from people who are afraid to take an actual stance on the issue and/or are woefully ill-informed on the reality of the situation. There is a universe of difference between actively targeting civilians while also using them as human shields and civilians who are regrettably killed through collateral damage. There’s a reason why first-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter have completely different sentences. I’m certainly not accusing Israel of committing involuntary manslaughter but just giving an example of how not all killings have the same severity. Intent should always be considered in any type of conflict and many people seem to struggle with this concept.
ReplyDeleteMichael:
ReplyDeleteI agree with your general point, but would add that some people are struggling to understand the concept while other people are deliberately misrepresenting the concept.
It just boils down to anti-semitism. Jews hatred will continue to happen in most circles, especially in the Arab world. And when it's not actually anti-semitism in the world, it's often still unfair bias against Jews/Israel. Nobody knows for sure what will actually happen in the Israel/Hamas war and other groups are deciding to fight against Israel, too. But, hopefully Israel will continue until Hamas is completely gone and/or they are arrested/sentenced for their crimes. There's so much resistance from many groups/governments in the world for Israel to stop fighting. It's probably hard mentally and psychologically for Israel to continue when everyone is telling them to stop.
ReplyDelete