More cogitation on the heinous war.

I was going to write a post about something else, but the world events are too distressing.

Why are there people so willing to traffic in hate?

We’ve been having the Russian-Ukraine war which seems to have settled into an ongoing noise where it sits in the background because neither side is winning. At least, it appears Russia is not winning but I sure would like Ukraine to be able to make some more progress.

Anyway, that news seems to have melded into the background. It almost seems like the Ukrainians have settled into their everyday life living with war in the background: occasional air sirens and some bombs crashing into their towns/cities. It’s an unsettling idea to think that becomes the everyday life.

I know longer hear or read about the Russian atrocities.

I guess it’s because we have a new war in town: the Israel-Hamas war kicked off by Hamas vicious, animalistic attack on civilians last Saturday. The stories of the attacks are heartrending: the brutality, the viciousness, the wantonness of it all. The elderly, women, children and babies were all killed. There were some stories of beheading of babies…babies!… but those stories have not been confirmed. At least, I don’t think so.

The Hamas were just murdering people, seemingly for the sake of it, not for a wartime endeavor.

The last time I wrote, I was wondering what was the point of the attack. It did not appear to be designed to help the Palestinians achieve freedom or statehood. Rather, the attack seemed to serve to slake some murderous thirst for killings. As far as I know, there have been no demands for negotiations, ransom, or whatever. They killed and then left?

The viciousness of it did seem designed to provoke an outrage amongst the Israelis and maybe the world. If that was the point, they surely succeeded. At first, the Israelis were in a state of shock and possibly disbelief and it was a couple of hours before they responded.

They have responded with heavy, heavy shelling of the Gaza Strip. Remember, the Gaza Strip is supposedly the size of Washington D.C. with a population stated as 2.2 million (Washington D.C. has around 705K). Gaza Strip has been described as the densest strip of land in the world, as well as the poorest in the world, and is like an open-air prison with blockades on all sides of the country. In other words, it is a hell hole.

My understanding is the Israelis are trying to decapitate the Hamas leadership and infrastructure so that they can never do such attack again. I think the entire country is united on that.

The issue is the Hamas are using the Palestinians as human shields, which means when the Israelis bomb suspected Hamas infrastructure, they are also bombing civilian infrastructures. The Hamas have embedded themselves in underground tunnels under the civilian hospitals and apartments. That is how I understand it right now.

The images of the aftermaths of the bombing of the infrastructure remind me of the images of the Libyan town whose dam broke and sent approximately 25% of the town out to sea. That’s what those bombed out buildings in Gaza City remind me of. Just mass devastation. And you know there were people in those buildings, just like that Florida condo that collapsed 2 years (?) ago. The Israelis have been giving the people warning that they should leave their building because it was going to be bombed and they were given 5 to 10 minutes to save themselves. In high rises, I don’t think 5 to 10 minutes is enough time.

Now, Israel is getting ready to do ground invasion to do door to door search for hostages and Hamas. What they have done is give the northern part of the Gaza Strip 24 hours to evacuate to the south to save themselves before the Israelis begin their ground battle. UN and everyone else say it is impossible to evacuate 1.1 million people in 24 hours. There are some people, such as those in hospitals, who won’t be able to evacuate.

The only way to get at the Hamas is through hard urban battles to find them, but this whole situation is very distressing. The average Palestinians are going to be adversely affected and they been hurting for decades. There is no good solution because I do agree the Hamas need to be routed out.

The inhumanity of the Hamas’ attack dictates that they be routed. I just wish there was a way to do that without hurting the Palestinians. The only small, very small, consolation is that the Israelis are trying to minimize the harm by giving them 24 hours warning and it is suspected – hoped? – that the deadline may slip a little to give them more time.

Now I’m just waiting to hear that the ground movement has begun. As of this time, I don’t think the urban battle has begun yet.

So, here’s my worry when I asked what was the point of the Hamas attacks. It didn’t seem that just killing innocent civilians in a brutal, animalistic way would achieve lasting freedoms for the Palestinians. I thought it was more likely to rouse the Israelis into unthinking rage and plan an all-out attack, which is what is going to happen, based on the number of ground troops being amassed. I fear that in being provoked into an emotional revenge attack, the Israelis would not be planning or thinking as sharply under a red fog.

Well, I finally found an article where someone wrote about the possible reason for such a heinous attack that at first glance appears to serve no purpose other than slaking murderous thirst. The Atlantic has an article out with a theory that the Israelis is walking into a trap. This article provides a very clear history of the dispute and the possible thinking behind the Hamas’ attack.

Yes, it feels like a trap.

Some other this and that: Cory Booker said a possible reason for the heinous attack was to derail the normalization talks between Israel and part of the Arab world, such as Saudia Arabia, UAE, etc. This normalization would not be to Hamas’, Hezbollah’s, and Iran’s advantage as the rest of the Arab world would be aligned against them. I think Saudia Arabia and Iran are enemies as they strive to be the top dog of the Muslim community.

Another this and that is the division within the left community as some celebrate the Hamas’ attacks and others decry it. I already mentioned this, but this surprise support of the attack is roiling the universities and the youths. I understand having empathy for the Palestinians because yes, they have been maltreated by the Israelis, but we cannot celebrate the attack or say the Israelis deserve such heinous attack. We have to set some morals and standards. Of course, we also have to apply moral standards to both the Israelis and the Hamas as the Israelis go about venting their revenge on the Hamas. They need to strive to do it in a way that does not harm the Palestinians.

That is going to be tough.

This situation appears to be a losing situation for everybody. I just want the Hamas to be the sole loser but unfortunately, I don’t think life will happen that way.