The Witness Chronicles, May 27, 2024
Atrocities in Rafah?
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What Death Ratio is Acceptable in Gaza and Rafah?
Is it ok to kill 30 or 40 civilians to kill two Hamas terrorists?
Somehow the Israeli Defense Forces under the Netanyahu government have made this deadly calculation, despite the horror of the rest of the world and many Israelis. The numbers above are the recent attack this weekend on a tent encampment in Rafah, and that government has heralded this as a success.
For the rest of the civilized world this is an atrocity, one of many, some confirmed, others rumors like the pit full of bodies and the far right death squads in the West Bank, rumors with facts and witnesses behind them and often, video.
And are these atrocities ok if authorities deny them without proof as though denial was enough? Will there ever be a reckoning?
The October Seventh terrorist attack was an atrocity held in open sight of the world, a publicity stunt of horrific proportions carried out by Hamas to remind the world what true horror is. It had to be responded to but it now appears there was no strategy behind that response except pure hate and revenge.
The reality is that total destruction of a virus like Hamas is impossible, but like any virus, building immunity from within until the virus is ineffective is the only way to stop its effectiveness. In the case of Palestine, this can only mean offering the people a better, healthier alternative like a true state of their own, conditioned on ending support of Hamas and hatred of Jews.
There’s nothing easy about that but it is the only solution and Netanyahu has flatly rejected it, instead deciding to risk his entire country’s respect and admiration in the family of nations, in part for his own personal interest in retaining power and avoiding prosecution for corruption.
Now he can add War Criminal to those charges, and possibly, treason for not seeing the October Seventh attack coming. Or even intentionally ignoring it, something I would have never believed possible, except in the light of the last few months of unrelenting death and cruelty. Includinh what may be forced starvation even as the world begs him to let supplies in.
I suppose the argument is that this is war and anything goes to achieve victory, but what if victory is not the goal? What if unending conflict is the only path a leader sees to remaining in power?
We see it in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We see it in China’s Xi constantly threatening to invade Taiwan while his economy is in flames, simply because he has an obsession and belief in a history that never was.
Conflict without logic or a foreseeable end is a means of holding power and staving off responsibility for one’s actions, an unbreakable cycle of death and destruction. In a Gaza without an end game, a two state solution, that cycle will not be broken until the entire Palestinian people are broken or destroyed.
Is there an acceptable ratio of death to revenge here? Is someone running the numbers and is there a point where the cost is too high? At this point it seems the answer is no. Things will stay that way unless the Israeli people rise up and end this by removing this government now.
The question we should never have had to ask is will they? Is there the will and human decency to do that? As a long time admirer of Israel I never thought the day would come when that admiration turned to revulsion, but it has come and it shames all of humanity.
Please be respectful in your comments, I am an observer not a journalist.
~ I write The Grasshopper, a letter for creatives, The Witness Chronicles, a place for my articles on politics and climate, and The Remarkable, a recovery letter, about my addiction and reentry experience. All are weekly and free, however this is how I live and I strongly believe all writers and creatives should get paid, if we provide value. Your support with a paid subscription helps make that happen.
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