There are two quotes about war that I love to re-quote (on the principle of “tweet” and “re-tweet”) The funny one is from “Seinfeld,” a TV show from the 90s that I absolutely love. Elaine, one of the main characters, is sharing a cab ride with a Russian writer. In a desperate effort to impress him, she blabbers: “Do you know that “War and Peace” was not the original title Tolstoy had in mind? The working title was “War - What Is It Good For” The Russian writer just sputters and throws Elaine a contemptuous look.
The other quote is Trotsky’s quip: “You may not want war - but war wants you”
It is this quip that is so profoundly relevant to the current war in the Middle East. Israel does not want war. War incessantly wants Israel.
Let’s establish a few basics. The October 7, 2023, by the terror group Hamas was neither “an act of resistance” not “retaliation”. While it’s true that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter, no freedom fighter beheads babies, kills children in front of their parents and gang-rapes. Hijacking a plane or blowing up the enemy’s vital infrastructure is one thing. Pre-civilization style butchery is another.
October 7 was quite a declaration of war. Hamas leaders knew full well what the scale of Israeli response would be. In fact, they anticipated it with relish because they are the world champions of propaganda. They were rubbing their hands as the Israeli offensive began, and Gazan population served as Hamas’ cannon fodder and publicity money can’t buy (though their buddies in Quatar can afford to buy any publicity they want. Eureka! Overnight, the war was not about 1200 slaughtered Jews, thousands of rockets raining on Israel, over 100K displaced persons in the North of the country and 35-40 percent of the workforce under arms. Evil Israel was once again indulging its favorite hobby: perpetrating genocide on Palestinians. How convenient.
Half a million Germans perished in Allied bombing rates. Who was at fault? The US, Canada and the UK? No! Herr Hitler brough all the misery upon his people. How about Japan? Just under one million civilian casualties, not counting the 120K after at Hiroshima. In response to what? The total death toll at Pearl Harbor was just over 2400, most of them service members! I know my history quite well and I don’t recall anyone holding the western powers back, admonishing them to scale down their firepower and to supply the enemy with provisions WHILE THE WAR WAS STILL BEING FOUGHT. Israel does all these things: it restrains the IDF, killing its momentum in the process and it supplies Gazans with food and potable water. Why? Because the Gazans’ enemy is not Israel. It’s Hamas.
We have seen it all before. Certainly, my parents and grandparents have: blocking Jews from entering buildings, mobbing Jews, spitting at them on the subway and on the streets, intimidating them with physical violence. In other words not “Never Again” but “Again With Relish”
Israel owes nothing to Gaza. They have the military capability to turn the whole place into a smoldering parking lot in less than 24 hours. But NOOO! We Jews constantly worry. Naturally, we worry about our hostages, but we also seem to feel an undue amount of worry about our enemy. Rest assured the Palestinians harbor no such magnanimous feelings. “War wants Israel” but Israel is the ONLY country not allowed to defend itself the way it sees fit.
Imagine Mexico being completely overrun and under the thumb of bloodthirsty cartels. Then a couple of Mexican cartel battalions run, drive and paraglide into Texas, killing, maiming, raping and torturing forty thousand Americans (there are approx. forty times more Americans than Israelis, so that is the proportion) Then they turn around and take a few thousand hostages, leaving gallons of spilled American blood and raped and murdered American women behind. Be completely honest with yourself. Don’t delude yourself. Just tell me what you think the US government would do. I think we will agree that there wouldn’t be much left of the country of Mexico the following day and what WOULD be left would come under American military rule.
To sum up, just a quick history lesson: Hitler carved Czechoslovakia up before he occupied it. He annexed all the border region with German speaking populations. Populations that had been settled in Sudetenland for hundreds of years - not a made up ethnicity like “Palestinians” (until 1948, Jews were also Palestinians). Well, when Hitler lost the war, what did the Czech population do? It forcibly moved somewhere between one to two million Sudeten Germans remaining on Czech territory into Germany. Do you know what that’s called? Ethnic cleansing. Have you heard about it? I bet you haven’t. And yet it happened about 80 years ago. There are no Sudeten camps in Germany with their own little convenient UN agency.
You get the point. War is absolute hell. I was in one, though I never served in a combat unit. Most of my friends did. A fighter pilot, a tank driver, an artillery gunner. And another friend was killed in the Sinai. I also experienced a real occupation (not “occupy Wall Street”) I saw tanks in the streets, soldiers with a cigarette on the lower lip and an automatic rifle in hand sitting on the turret. You looked away PDQ…those guys’ fingers were itchy. So I KNOW war is hell. Hamas can put an end to the war in an instant. Return the hostages, lay down your arms - no war. But of course they want to do that because in Israel, the war wants IT but in Gaza, THEY want war
(I have disabled comments. I’m arrogant enough not to need anyone else’s opinion, unless you survived an occupation, speak a couple of languages and have served in the military. In that case you can email me. No one born and raised in the United States after 1970 has the knowledge and experience to opine on the topic, though many do, of course)
Shabat shalom and peace to all!