I don't know. What the hell would you do with Israel?
Would you finally give up on them and refuse support? Really? How could you do that and not deny the Holocaust and its effects? Or have time and tide pushed us beyond it?
Is there someplace in-between where you could take a stand? You know, kind of a situation-by-situation position? Could you map out some kind of rhetoric which would clarify that?
How about: If Israel were threatened to the core of its very existence. Okay, let's go there.
You mean, then, that October 7th did not represent that? You could only say that in retrospect, now couldn't you? Because October 7th itself was a vicious, murderous, completely destructive attempt by Hamas to--I guess--take out Israel once and for all, as ridiculous a goal as that was and is.
Or, maybe Hamas received what it believed to be a signal from Hezbollah or Iran itself that the time was ripe to strike, that they would garner military and logistical support to bring Israel to its knees. Did that ever have a chance without an actual declaration of war?
Regardless, there's no doubt Israel was under threat. You mean, American support was not appropriate? That Israel should have been left alone to figure out what to do?
Okay, it was, pretty much. And it responded by invading Gaza and leaving it to ruin, subjecting its denizens to total destruction and starvation that it has done little to address. American military hardware has already been established there long ago. No doubt it played a major role in the counter destruction that as ensued.
You mean Israel had no right to do that? Really? Then what was it supposed to do? Wave the white flag and negotiate? Uh-huh. His people would have gone for that about as far as they could have thrown Benjamin Netanyahu, whose popularity was at a very low point when all of this began.
Finally, though, President Biden has had enough. He can't watch all this and take responsibility any longer. So he's cut off American bombs meant to devastate Rafah.
Well, that's nice. He wants to mollify pro-Palestinian activists and make the campus tents go away. Except for two things: It's a little late in the game, with Gaza already in ruins; and I highly doubt that withdrawing these bombs will do nothing more than delay the inevitable, and total, destruction of Rafah. Israel will stop devastating Hamas until it is sure Hamas is rendered helpless about as much as it will stop snowing atop Mount Everest.
But it won't work. It. Will. Not. Work. If there are just a few Hamas fighters left, a few who fled and found refuge somewhere else, who might have disappeared amongst the thousands of refugees, they will re-form and recommit themselves with even greater zeal. Wouldn't you? If neo-Nazis have managed to reconnoiter and begin a new surge--and they have, name the country--what's to stop the sons and daughters of present-day Hamas fighters from doing the same?
Israel must know this. Yet, the devastation continues.
If it takes another ten or twenty years, another generation for Hamas to recover, so what? It took 30 years for Ho Chi Minh and his cohorts to rid Vietnam of foreign domination, which includes, of course, some 58,000 Americans. To true revolutionaries, time is irrelevant.
I see where the U.N. has voted for Palestinian independence. Vastly outnumbered, the U.S. and Israel voted no. So much for the two-state solution. So much for any solution, besides utter destruction.
I suppose we have another plan for the situation. Let's see it. I want to see anything that makes any sense at this point.
Because I can't think of anything. While writing essays, one gets to a point at which it's time to quit, to remove oneself so that things don't drag on. When I considered that, I thought it apropos because nobody knows how or when to withdraw from the Israel-Palestine situation, either. Nobody knows when or if it will come to a place where things will finally settle.
Think I'd come up with something unique and brilliant so we can move on? Sorry. Neither have some pretty smart, crafty, politically wise people. Henry Kissinger couldn't. Or Jimmy Carter, though we all thought he had. Nor Anwar Sadat, murdered for his diplomatic courage. Nor Bill Clinton. Nor Yitzak Rabin, who met a fate similar to Sadat's.
So I might as well stop now. Just as it has been since 1948, someone will pick up the banner and keep fighting. All they need is an excuse. The more they fight, the more excuses are ready-made.
Be well. Be careful. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.
Mister Mark
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