EDITORIAL

The amount of propaganda being spread in this war is appalling. That people choose to believe it without confirmation just because it happens to agree with their own biases… arguably that’s worse.

There exists an anti-American propaganda account on TwiX today that generates millions of hits by celebrating military atrocities committed by Russia, acts of terrorism by Hamas and Hezbollah, and civilian casualties of war. On it, corpse porn is reposted every fifteen minutes in order to generate profitable ad-share, subscriptions, and donations. It is too big to be toppled by the Community Notes mechanism.

Mind you, it’s unreasonable to blame the platform. Virtually every other social media organization permits the same thing in the name of free speech.

This war has more than its share of active partisans, other organizations taking the opportunity for a few shots at Israel now they have the chance. That’s not exactly laudable, but at least it’s comprehensible even by those who won’t try to justify it. Israel’s rule can’t be said to be just and equitable, and they have certainly made enemies.

However, what I find abhorrent is the vast number of people who watch this war as entertainment, who either cheer for every death or howl for revenge as though this was some sort of bloody sport televised for their especial entertainment. The terrorist revels in causing death, but at least he is honest enough to assert his complicity.

There are those who applaud the Hamas attack of 07 October. They called Gaza a prison camp, a modern apartheid state, a walled ghetto with no exit.

It’s worthy of mention that one border of the Gaza Strip is with Egypt. It’s seven miles long, has a gate that Egypt even now refuses to open, and has free and clear tunnel commerce that has supplied Hamas with rockets, fuel, and supplies for decades. If anyone cared enough to install it, there could easily have been power and clean water piped in through that network. Hamas, alas, only cares for the people of Gaza in their potential as recruits, human shields, and headlines.

It is easily arguable that Israel’s rule over Gaza was unjust, but anyone with any interest in recent history must acknowledge that they pulled out twenty years ago, allowed guest workers and cross-border commerce, and sent free fuel, water, and food. They’ve been issuing internationally recognized biometric passports since March of this year and have a border with an allied nation. That makes what some call a “concentration camp” something I name a de-facto “independent nation”.

It’s not easy to justify war in any event and this one I certainly wouldn’t try. Having said that, Hamas broke a stable and prosperous peace, one where the conditions within Gaza were better than those inside most of Cairo. And when I say “broke”, I want to be clear: They did so deliberately in a manner that was as abhorrent as anything I’ve ever heard about in all the history of human warfare, including Nagasaki. There are no courts with the power to deal with that sort of crime.

Did Israel provoke it?

NOTHING can provoke that. NOTHING can justify it.

Is what’s now happening genocide? Arguably, though if so it’s perhaps the fourth most civilized one I’ve ever seen. Was the Hamas attack an act of genocide? Definitely.

I want this war to end. No one sane could want it to go on. There must come a time when people on both sides of the border stop calling for bloody revenge in the name of justice.

Hamas is clearly not ready to. Regardless of Israel’s actions right now, the war will continue tomorrow, and it would be absurd to ask them not to prosecute it.

Knowing what I now know, and which will soon become apparent to everyone watching, I would ask for a humanitarian corridor to be created out of Gaza City, one to permit civilians to leave. I would argue that real estate is not worth someone’s life. The fears of the residents that their property is about to become forfeit are sound to the point of true prophecy, and there exists no military force on the face of the planet with the power to prevent that.

In the face of this, I would save what I could, which is human life.

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