A clash of ideologies or a fight over land?

The war in the mid-East is more complicated than that

As Voltaire wrote hundreds of years ago “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities”. His prescient comment could readily apply to organized religion throughout history or climate change nonsense so popular today. In the mid-East we have a group of people who believe Judaism, another group that adhere to Islamic beliefs and a smattering of people who believe in Christianity. It is tautological to say they can’t all be right and similarly correct to say it is possible they are all wrong. Common sense points to the conclusion that no one should believe anything that requires them to start with a belief.

According to AlJazeera (not the most objective source, but not any more biased than American mainstream media) some 1,139 Israeli’s were murdered in the most vile way last October 7th, and since that time in the Israeli response an estimated 40,786 people have been killed and another 94,224 wounded of which some 17,000 of those killed were children. A fundamental tenet of Christianity is that all people are created equal. Throughout the Bible, the principle of equality is evident. Humans share a fundamental equality with one another, being created equally in God's image (Genesis 1:26-27, Proverbs 22:2, Job 31:15).

As Eric Arthur Blair (using the pen name George Orwell) wrote in his classic book Animal Farm “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others”. Clearly the Israeli’s and perhaps the American administration believe that as well, since the long-standing “negotiations” about a “cease fire” and a hostage release deal with a total of about 204 hostages taken by Hamas last year of which about 100 have been either killed or released. 135,000 casualties to prevent 204 hostages from harm seems to be clear evidence that not all “animals are equal” in the eyes of the protagonists.

I have a better understanding of arithmetic than of theology, but it seems to me that there is an imbalance between 1,139 murdered Israeli’s and 204 hostages and the approximately 135,000 casualties of the Israeli-Hamas war and the ~17,000 Arab children killed in the process of bombing, invading, and using tanks to demolish the homes of the Palestinians who have either willingly or under duress hosted the Hamas terrorists in their homes and lands.

One thing is certain, an inescapable conclusion. While Israel has the right and even the obligation to defend itself, it is doing itself no favors by demolishing homes and overseeing actions that have caused tens of thousands of casualties. The people whose lives have ended, been wounded or had their homes and lives disrupted - whether justified or unjustifiable - will not result in a Palestinian population that looks forward to a peaceful relationship with Israel. Terror begets terror. Surviving Palestinian children will grow up to become tomorrow’s anti-Israel terrorists and the leaders of Hamas, safely ensconced outside of the disputed territory and living large on the billions of dollars of “aid” that was provided and diverted to their personal use care less about what happens to the Palestinians still in Gaza or the “soldiers” of Hamas the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) seeks to eradicate.

Hamas wants to eliminate the state of Israel. United States leaders want to avoid annoying the Jewish voters who may vote for either party in an election year. American arms manufacturers want to keep shipping arms to the mid-East. Israeli leaders want to eliminate Hamas, an impossible task. Caught in the crossfire are hundreds of thousands of Arab children who are not “terrorists”, not “Hamas” and not old enough to have a voice in their future. They and the 1,139 Israelis murdered last October are the real victims of this war. The grown ups in Palestine have no one to blame but themselves for their fate, since they voted in Hamas in a bitterly contested election where some reports suggest Israeli interference determined the outcome. What goes around comes around.

American leaders perpetuate the conflict by bridling the Israelis with diplomatic requirements for their support that suit the American interests, providing “aid” to Palestine in ways that fund Hamas, providing money to Iran which supports its proxies like Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad in addition to Hamas. The pretense that they are “helping” has political value but has little benefit to those they pretend to help.

Palestinian children had no hand in this outcome. The protests cropping up throughout America, Canada and Europe that wave the Palestinian flag, call for the destruction of the state of Israel, and tend to support Hamas are misguided efforts that inflame rather than ease the conflict but compel American politicians to run from pillar to post vacillating between support for Israel and aid to Palestine while interfering in Israeli politics while keeping a flow of arms alive.

Maybe it is time to withdraw from the fray entirely, let Israel and Palestine work it out whatever the outcome, and accept the fact that this dispute is not America’s problem. The only diplomatic or military involvement that is necessary is a firm communication to Iran that there will be military action if Iran and its proxies continue to interfere in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Without American arms or money, the balance of power between Israel and Palestine will be less one-sided and the parties will fight it out and eventually come to terms that suit them even if they don’t suit United States.

I have no doubt that my take will be an unpopular view. We laud Israel for its democracy, yet criticize Israel for electing Benjamin Netanyahu. We forget the wise words of H.L Mencken regarding U.S. democracy that can just as easily be used to describe the State of Israel: