Something needs to be said about the obvious lie that is Israel’s premise, or formal reason for this genocidal campaign, that is “making sure that October 7th does not happen again”.
On a simple military level, if Israel wanted to make sure October 7th does not happen again, it could place 10,000, 20,000, or 30,000 soldiers on its border with the Gaza Strip, and make that kind of attack happening again impossible.
In that case, Israel could take Hamas leaders to an international court and charge them with war crimes. It could alson lead in good faith with the international community and the Arab world to initiate a deep reform in the way the Gaza strip is governed.
Had Israel chosen to do that, it would also have to, without question, be willing to discuss Palestinian independence and statehood; but this, too, should have been addressed humanly, and justly, generations ago. And it is inevitable.
If Israel had chosen to use October 7th as a means to push for reform in Palestinians resistance and governance, it would definitely have a case that may not be fully justified in the eyes of devout Palestinian freedom fighters, but it would make enough sense to gain traction with many people in Palestine, in the Middle East and internationally.
But Israel chose instead a path of vindictiveness and annihilation; to drown blood in much more blood, misery in a hundredfold misery. Choosing this path, Israel lost the last of the hearts and minds that were still even partially open to hear it.
It displays cruelty beyond measure. It makes any discussion on the supposed barbarism of Hamas a joke. If killing innocent people, children especially, is an obscene crime, which it is, then it is an obscene crime in all circumstances, and not just when convenient for US allies, who now will never shake off the image of heartless, moral-free colonizers.
And if Israel had chosen a more humane, pragmatic, wise, way of making sure October 7th never happens again, by now all of its abductees would have been home with their families, and Israeli society, too, would have started healing, instead of losing more young men and risking an utterly devastating regional war.
And it would not be this hated globally, and not charged with genocide, and in no need to use a humongous lobby to censor and silence critics, and destroy its image further.
This was never about “making sure October 7th never happens again”. This was, and is, about wounded egos and a pathetic and destructive show of dominance – especially despicable where defenseless, occupied civilians are concerned, and where children and babies die in their thousands. Israel’s choice does not make it safer or better in any way. It is a stupid, sadistic, and infantile approach to life, based on perceived grandeur, not on actual care for anyone, Arab or Jew, Palestinian or Israeli.
And one last thought: if you love someone, you don’t entangle their image in perpetuity in genocide. This Israeli regime must be hating Jews as well, for doing that.